The University of Rochester is located in an area that was covered by large ice-sheets during the last major ice age, and shows many glacial features.  The Genesee River and many small streams have cut deep gorges through the flat-lying sediments of the Appalachian Plateau Province, offering excellent sections which have been classical sites for more than a century for studying Paleozoic stratigraphy and paleontology.

     Rochester is centrally located for studying many other aspects of Appalachian geology. The anorthosites and billion year old (Grenville) deformation features of the Adirondacks, the Taconic Klippen in eastern New York, the Acadian deformation features of the Little Mountains, the synorogenic sediments of the Catskill wedge, and the Valley and Ridge Province of the Pennsylvania Appalachians are all within a half day's drive. Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, and many other smaller lakes of the Adirondacks are the subject of many interesting studies in limnology, environmental science, and surficial processes. Ontario Province of Canada, across Lake Ontario from Rochester, offers many exciting prospects for studies in Precambrian geology. Rochester is also within a day's drive of all the major museums in the eastern U.S., providing excellent possibilities for studies of museum fossil collections.