Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences at Michigan Tech

Links About the Area

Michigan Tech is located in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula along the south shore of Lake Superior in a region of lakes, rocky coastlines,and unique geology. The peninsula is part of a 1.1 billion-year-old failed continental rift with a thick sequence of flood basalts and rift sediments and the locus of a billion-dollar native copper ore district.

The development of that mining district eventually led to the creation of the Michigan Mining School more than 100 years ago, and this department is the direct descendent of that original school. The area, which is an international focal point for many mineral collectors and geology field trips, is ideal for a wide variety of geologic studies.

In addition, it is a delightful place to live and work with numerous outdoor recreational possibilities. Lake Superior gives us a maritime climate, with cool summers and snowy winters. We have miles of wild shoreline that is very handy, and four nearby national parks:

Houghton is a small city named after Michigan's first state geologist, Douglass Houghton. We are about 200 Mi east of Duluth, Minnesota, about 200 mi north of Green Bay, Wisconsin and about 400 north of Chicago.