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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Oct 24, 2016 - 10:58pm PT
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Base: RE age dating of volcanic ashes, have you checked out this USGS database?
http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geochron/
Andrew: most geologists work for oil companies but that industry is obviously in serious decline right now. If you can find a geology gig where you work on a rotation e.g., 28 days on and 28 days off, you will have blocks of time to climb. There are jobs in the oil and mining industry with this schedule but it usually means you will be spending 28 days in some remote location.
There are jobs for geologists in the groundwater remediation industry but those opportunities are also declining. My suggestion would be to get a graduate degree...at least a Master's degree with a specialization in GIS and geophysical methods for groundwater resource evaluation and exploration. Another field of interest for geologists is evaluation of abandoned oil fields to identify deep repositories for CO2 sequestration. Large scale CO2 sequestration will need serious government subsidies.
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WyoRockMan
climber
Grizzlyville, WY
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Oct 25, 2016 - 08:03am PT
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Michael Hjorth- That’s the good stuff!
BASE, good luck on your hunt for zircons. Ash beds, due to them almost always being altered are a driller’s bane. I dig them though, as the corresponding high gamma signatures serve as guideposts for steering.
My background is in hard rock underground precious metals. Grade Control, is the likely first job in this brand of geology. It can be one of the finest jobs as well. You get a fresh outcrop that no one else has ever seen, you get to map and sample it, interpret the geology, make the call on what’s next… Very few other jobs entail the full spectrum of fundamental geology like grade control does. In that realm, particularly for high grade deposits, you get the opportunity to look at a lot (Spray: I surpassed the 500k feet mark a long time ago) of whole core. The detail you can pull out from simple visual observation is amazing.
I’ve had the opportunity to do a bunch of whole core (collar to TD) into a variety of reservoirs. The petroleum guys were satisfied to just look at the electric logs and were reluctant to actually make it out to the field and look at the physical core. A huge discrepancy we had in a Permian carbonate was the wiggle picker’s insistence on a shale bed marker. It wasn’t shale at all, it was a “shell bed” that was gamma hot, (likely U migrating from the stratigraphically lower Mississippian Madison FM). With a bit of acid to assist the permeability, these beds provided a great recompletion zone. Easy to miss with old legacy logs.
It has been a very satisfying career for me. I’ve been able to work in a wide variety of disciplines in mostly cool locations. There really aren’t many boundaries and for the most part I’ve been intellectually challenged and rarely dreaded going to work.
I’m with Tricouni on creationism arguments, particularly on-line. I work hard to make sure those types are kept off the local school board however.
Grippa, good advice on taking the ASBOG FG soon after school. I did the FG/PG exams 15 years after graduation, gave me a good excuse to "relearn" a bunch.
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Oct 25, 2016 - 08:24am PT
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BITD, many of my climbing partners (and college roommates) were geology majors who went on to get graduate degrees. Jim Hoagland and Dennis Bird come to mind—both attending UCR—were active climbers in 1971-1974ish.
I fondly remember sitting on ledges on El Cap with hammers cracking granite along cleavage planes…
The sport seemed to attract them. …Or they were attracted to the sport.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Oct 25, 2016 - 04:33pm PT
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Grippa: Great to read that you are nearly a graduate! Congrats for sticking to it.
Also, I've been enjoying reading the posts in this thread.
Here's a little geology humor.
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ianv
climber
Bellingham
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Oct 25, 2016 - 07:39pm PT
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I think it really depends on who you end up working for and what your job description is. I worked as an environmental geologist for 7 years, based out of Seattle, for a very large engineering firm. The work was generally feast or famine, and my companies policy allowed me to take "leave without pay" fairly liberally. I would be involved with a a project for a month or two, sometimes working 16 hour days for the entire time with only a few days off. When I was finished, I would take a few weeks off since I had banked enough hours. If you work for a small firm, you may end up doing a lot of UST removals, phase I's and similar projects that have more 9-5 M-F schedules. Figure out a way to set up a hangboard in hotel rooms if you end up with a job that has you working big projects. I got super weak by the end of most projects.
Oh, and the above suggestion to get a higher level degree is solid. It may be difficult to find a desirable job with a BS. The only path that I would consider going back into geology for would be teaching (at a community college), but those jobs are difficult to find.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Oct 25, 2016 - 07:49pm PT
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Any of us who have studied as geologists should be grateful. I believe that of all of the sciences, this one grounds you in how conditions really are here on Earth more than any other. I've known plenty of super-smart colleagues who just didn't get the fundamentals because they were not grounded in Geology. If you don't get the fundamentals, it is likely that you will make mistakes going forward.
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Michael Hjorth
Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Oct 26, 2016 - 12:31pm PT
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@rmuir:
I'm glad you mention Dennis Bird!
I have worked with him for three seasons in Greenland a few years back - and visited him at Stanford. He hasn't been climbing for years, but if you press him even so slighty, he'll be happy to tell (re-tell, sorry) about his seasons in Yosemite, and an early repeat of West Face, El Cap (3rd?).
Most hilarious (each time!) is his hunger camp story from the eighties, stranded alone on an island off the East Coast of Greenland for 13 days (or was it 16?). Since then Dennis will never leave camp without a healthy lunchpack and doublechecked helicopter return schedule...!
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Oct 26, 2016 - 01:50pm PT
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One of my favorite mentors, Bennie Troxel, prolific Death Valley field mapper and Quaternary Tectonics specialist...
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Oct 28, 2016 - 10:21am PT
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This TED Talk is what I was talking about up thread RE geophysical exploration for groundwater resources...
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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rubberrat
Trad climber
CA
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Oct 28, 2016 - 02:13pm PT
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Those that can...do. Most of the grads I know got jobs in water or oil.
That is why I teach and don't really consider myself a geologist but rather a geology professor. That being said, the jobs teaching are few and far between. Most universities want PhD's and want you to do research,supervise grad research, publish, be on a tenure track, blah blah blah. There's a glut of geology degrees out there. I don't worry about it and spend as much time as I can climbing and giving clink grief - can't decide which is more fun. They go together so well!
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Feb 15, 2019 - 03:24pm PT
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I've used the measurement tool on Google Earth for some time for long distance travel but I never tested the accuracy for "to the foot" measurements until I measured my house- it's dead on.
These varnished boulders have caught my eye for some time. It's an isolated field of densely packed burgundy rock amongst sparse and nondescript tan granite- let's say somewhere near the Peninsular Range. I always assumeded if I went out to investigate it would turn into a case of the amazing shrinking rock. Anyone have good info on how varnished rock like this forms?
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Feb 15, 2019 - 03:44pm PT
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It's a strange field of rock. The features seem to be more angular and sharp than the granite nearby, along with squared off or sharp cracks. Maybe the varnish reduces erosion There's a dozen or so rocks in the 70 to 100 foot range and hundreds in the 30 to 60 foot range. No bedrock hill tops in sight, more like an isolated talus field.
Anyways, it may be a total mirage- heading out next weekend to find out.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Feb 15, 2019 - 04:41pm PT
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Those rock pics Contractor remind me of the formations of the Allegheny Plateau near me.
I have studied a bit of sat and photos from airplanes of the AP ,those are similar looking to the erratics on top of hills ,found all over.
I have a degree in Geology and only worked shortly in that field.
Great thread.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Feb 15, 2019 - 04:51pm PT
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Here's a couple of old geologists, Ydpl8s and Nick Danger.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Feb 15, 2019 - 04:58pm PT
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Here's a couple of old geologists So what's the process of desert varnish forming on old geologists? Seems to be a thing...haha
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Feb 16, 2019 - 08:14am PT
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Talk about climbing Geos, check out the sample locations for Roger Putnam's thesis at Univ N Carolina Chapel Hill, UNDERSTANDING PLUTONISM IN THREE DIMENSIONS: FIELD AND GEOCHEMICAL RELATIONS ON THE SOUTHEAST FACE OF EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Feb 16, 2019 - 09:10am PT
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Bringing macro to micro, to understand things we have to look at them at all scales.
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PSP also PP
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Feb 16, 2019 - 11:38am PT
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"Why don't you guys speak up when the Christians hammer me about the age of the Earth?"
Because it is low hanging fruit.
lots of non remote geology jobs.
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Feb 16, 2019 - 03:27pm PT
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the other end of the scale...petrographic thin sections of andesitic volcaniclastic sediments of the Miocene Nearly Formation, Altamont Hills, CA...
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