One famous geophysicist, Academician Qingzhong Li, is working at the department.

The predecessor of Department of Earth Exploration and Information Technology is the Geophysical Division in the Department of Marine Geology, established in the early 60s of the 20th Century. "Marine Gravity and Magnetics" for undergraduate established in 1971 shows its marine geophysical characteristics. After that, it has developed gradually to form a complete and professional "Marine Applied Geophysics". Since 1997, the Marine Exploration and Information Technology was established, the previous "Marine Applied Geophysics" was adjusted to form the current specialty of "Exploration Technology and Engineering". The Exploration Technology and Engineering specialty is the first- established and only evolved from the Marine Geophysical Exploration, being distinctively characterized by Marine Geophysics.

Earth Exploration and Information Technology has two undergraduate specialties of one existing Exploration Technology and Engineering, and Earth Information Science and Technology, offering three master degrees of Earth Exploration and Information Technology, and Mineral Resources Investigation and Exploration, Marine Geological Engineering and one Ph. D degree of Geophysics.

The total staffs are 21, including one academician and nine professors, eight of which have pursued Ph. doctoral degree. The department initially established a staff with rational and complete structure in knowledge.

After years of effort, the research fields have been involved in various important scientific directions such as fluctuations in seismology, high-resolution seismic exploration, geophysical methods for complex oil and gas fields, seismic wave modeling, lithosphere exploration, water resources and the environment as well as non- seismic exploration techniques. The department has developed its own characteristics and advantages in the field of these research fields. It took four 863 projects, four National Natural Science Foundation of China, three special projects, four provincial projects, two large-scale international cooperation projects, and a large number of technical services over the past five years.