The Department of Physical Sciences at VIMS includes the subdisciplines of chemical, geological, and physical oceanography. This union facilitates the high level of interdisciplinary synergy needed to address today's complex environmental issues and challenges. The department's objective is to generate, communicate, and apply knowledge concerning physical, chemical, and geological processes in the coastal ocean and in estuaries.

This group studies the cycling of organic materials and both major and trace elements in groundwater, rivers, estuaries, continental margins, and the open ocean. Studies reach from Chesapeake Bay and its watershed to Antarctica.