King Saud University was established in 1957 and the Department of Geology, which is one of the departments of the College of Science, was founded in 1958 (1378 H). The Department, upon successfully celebrating its Golden Jubilee in 2008, expanded to incorporate the Geophysics teaching curriculum and was re-named as the Department of Geology and Geophysics. The Department has achieved diversification of teaching and research programs at the University in order to cater for the needs of an ever-increasing number of qualified earth science graduates in the Kingdom.

The Department of Geology and Geophysics is housed in a three-storied building in the College of Science (Building-4) in the main campus of King Saud University. It is recognized as one of the distinguished science departments in the Arab World because of its teaching standard, wide range of course options offered in the disciplines of geosciences, intense laboratory and field training, the cultivation of the student's capability for independent thinking and research, the use of modern educational tools for teaching, well equipped laboratories and museum, and the maintenance of a reasonably good teacher-student ratio. Furthermore, the Department contains specialist laboratories for Petroleum Geology, Geophysics, Hydrogeology, GIS, and the Seismic Studies Centre for seismic monitoring at the national level and seismological research studies in Saudi Arabia. 

The Department is enriched by its scientific interaction with other academic institutions and agencies in Saudi Arabia, including the Saudi Geological Survey, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, ARAMCO, etc. Moreover, the Department participates actively in academic exchanges with internationally renowned research laboratories in countries like USA., Germany and UK.

The Department of Geology and Geophysics has a group of recognized faculty members with broad specialties in different geological and geophysical branches. The majority of them obtained their Ph.D. degrees from high ranked universities in USA, UK, Germany and France. The faculty members are assisted with staff assistants and non-academic technicians. 

The Department follows a generous policy in encouraging sabbatical and study leave as well as other scientific visits by its faculty members. All such measures help sustain a good academic and research environment in the Department. The Department also publishes an Earth Science journal; Arabian Journal of Geosciences, published by Springer (Germany). The journal has already been well acclaimed in the scientific world and is included in the Science Citation Index.