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Geologist?
Scandrea Started conversation Sep 14, 2004
Hey rockhound!
Always good to see another one! Hope you like H2G2 so far!
Are you a geologist, or do you do it for a hobby?
Geologist?
Rockhound Posted Sep 14, 2004
yup... Geotechnical Engineer professionally, but have the out-of-hours hobby/interest in fossils and the shiney minerals (hang-over from a MSc in Mineral Exploration)
Are you a geologist then, or an interested amateur?
H2G2 is great... I've been lurking for a long while.
Cheers,
Rockhound_jo
Geologist?
Scandrea Posted Sep 14, 2004
I'm a geology student, about 9 months away from being a geologist! I've survived field camp, so I think I can call myself a geologist, even though I don't have the little piece of paper yet. I get my bachelors of science in May!
...but I'm probably going to graduate school anyway...
We just had a geotechnical engineer come speak at our department! What do you do?
Geologist?
Rockhound Posted Sep 14, 2004
We do ground investigations, usually pre-development, which can be anything from a greenfield site to an inner-city ex-industrial site (old gas works, enginnering works, old Ministry of Defence bases).
We do a desk study to highlight anything in the sites history that might need further attention, then go out on site (the fun bit!) to do the work. Anthing from a day with a digger/excavator, to several weeks worth of work with drilling rigs/crews.
Then with the lab results, logs and any other data we assess both the structural (type of rock/soil, types of foundations suitable for use) and contamination issues (the ex-industry sites are always fun in this respect ) connected with the site.
Sometimes we get involved after the initial investigation with preparing risk assessments and remediation strategies, and discussions with the Environment Agency and the Local Councils on behalf of the clients. Also have to draw up foundation schedules (trees and clays are not a great combination when trying to build a house!) sometimes.
I actually enjoy it - not bad for someone who spent all three years of her BSc (in Geology), and the year doing an MSc (Mineral Exploration) saying "I'm not going into geotechnics"
I've probably bored you senseless now...
Geologist?
Scandrea Posted Sep 14, 2004
No, not at all!
The geotechnical engineer that spoke to us did similar things, but his major work was in soils and structures. He showed us some pictures from a few of his jobs. He's pretty busy, as this area is pretty developed, and has a lot of old peat bogs from the glaciers!
I'm still kind of trying to figure out what I want to do. I know I'd like to get into research, because I've done internships like that for the past two years and had a blast! Right now, I think it's going to be stratigraphy or geomorphology that I get my MS in. But it all depends on what program I can get into.
Geologist?
Rockhound Posted Sep 14, 2004
Ahhh, research. I thought about that, but the overdraft and the bank manager meant that after the masters I needed to start earning money. Wouldn't mind getting back into it at some point though.
I initially wanted to get into mining, but there were very few jobs where they'd even look at someone like me with no practical experience - the old catch 22, you can only get a job with experience, but how do you get the experience?
One of my friends has the best of both worlds: she works as a survey geologist for the Bristish Geological Survey, great job, long field season, quite academic, but also producing material on a commercial basis.
Its kinda the nice thing with geology... even when you've "specailised" you can still keep an interest in the other parts of the subject.
Keep in touch with what you decide to do... always nice to hear from another geo
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Geologist?
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