Research within the School ranges across the whole of the geosciences in both the social and natural sciences and encompasses a wide range of expertise.

Archaeology at Aberdeen is unique in the United Kingdom in that it focuses explicitly (yet not exclusively) on the lifeways and worldviews of northern cultures, encompassing a region that takes in the North Atlantic, Northern Eurasia, high-latitude North America and the North Pacific. However, with projects spanning the globe from Western Alaska to South-East Asia, archaeological research at Aberdeen is far from confined to the North. Bridging the humanities and physical sciences, it encompasses the methods and thematic approaches of modern archaeological research including bioarchaeology and biomolecular archaeology, geoarchaeology and environmental archaeology, material culture and archaeo-technology, indigenous archaeology, social and cultural studies, and theoretical archaeology.

The Environmental Processes and Change research group comprises three research themes: Cryosphere and Climate Change; Northern Rivers Institute – Environmental Hydrology and Palaeoecology. Our work includes monitoring, modelling and reconstructing landscapes, catchments and environments throughout the world but with particular focus on the high latitudes.

Earth Science research is concerned with the evolution of sedimentary basins ­ tectonic structures that hold the record of processes that shape the planet over geological time. Our work uses data, methods and resources especially from the oil and gas industry to answer fundamental questions related to Earth surface systems, structural geology, subsurface fluid migration and planetary processes.

Research in Human Geography is inherently interdisciplinary, coalescing around four cross-cutting themes which are rural/urban transformations, social, economic and environmental sustainabilities, governance and local/global politics of scale. These themes are explored within three broad areas of activity, namely "nature, culture and livelihoods" , "transport and mobilities" and "development, politics and social justice".