The Reasons Why I Chosen To Consider Majoring In Geology

I know in a couple of my past blogs and the most recent one I’m majoring in Geology. I guess I became passionate for geology when I was back in elementary or Jr. High School. I don’t completely remember when it was but, every time we learned about rocks, minerals, and geology in general I always founded very appealing and interesting to me. It appealed to me so much that I was eager to learn even more about earth science in general. There are a couple good reasons why I loved Earth Science. For one reason I love learning and using new technology. In the all of the text books I remember seeing some GPS units, seeing all of the field equipment which included off road four wheel drive vehicles, and briefly hearing about GIS. The second reason is I love not just being indoors using different technology but I love being outdoors. Some of my outdoors activities that I love is walking through the woods, gardening, collecting rocks, and believe it or not mowing grass. Now since I’m a geology and petroleum geology major as well I’m extremely thrilled. Just for a side note I’m not against renewable energy or saving the environment. These two things are very important and we need to be doing them. One of the main reasons why I fell in love with geology is because, I want to make a difference in our world. Just like I said in my second blog all of the Earth Sciences are involved with solving some of the toughest challenges that we have today. One of the main things that I feel challenged by is that the energy demand is raising pretty rapidly in upcoming countries. While the renewable energy resources are on the rise but they have a very long way to go. It is a big challenge to help meet the energy demand and protect the environment at the same time. That’s one of the main reasons why I chosen geology because of how diverse the field is. I can help find areas suitable for renewable resources also, help the environment, oil and gas, construction, and many more. I love the challenges that geology offers and I want to be working in both the outdoors in the field and indoors. I just want to remind everyone that I have a passion for geology. I also want to remind everyone that I’m not against renewable energy or saving the environment. 

The Geologic Time Scale

In a past few of my blog post I have mentioned the Geologic Time Scale very briefly. For this one I figured it is a very good idea to talk about The Geologic Time Scale. The Geologic Time Scale is an essential tool for all of the Earth Science professionals to help see important relationships in the Earth’s past during a certain time period. The Geologic Time Scale covers many different events in the Earth’s past. Some of these major events are the formation of the moon, rise of the dinosaurs, snowball Earth theory, and many more. Some of the events that are covered in The Geologic Time Scale remain with many different mixed reviews on them. The reason why some of these topics don’t really have a good explanation of having a right answer or a wrong answer. Or there are answers for them that we just don’t know yet. I believe some of these events will remain with many different mixed hypothesis because; it is going to be a while before we find any good solid evidence to strongly support these hypothesis. This is what it means to me makes geology, paleontology, and other sciences very important on solving these vital questions about the past. What we can learn about the past can help us learn about what is happening in the future. Sorry for getting a little off topic a little bit but, this does relate to The Geologic Time Scale. The Geologic Time Scale covers many years of history of the Earth. The years range from 4.6 billion years ago to the present. Here are a few example of some of the eons and what happened during them. 4.6 billion Years ago during the Hadean eon the moon formed and the Earth was still forming and was covered with molten rock. There are many different rocks and formations that can be dated back to very early dates during the geologic time scale. Some of them are ranging over 100 million years. I know I said early dates but that depends on your definition of the word early. The Geologic Time Scale is very interesting and being a geology major myself I have to memorize most of the time scale. It is actually not to bad to memorize mostly everything on the time scale.  

Paleontologist Help Us Understand The Past, Present and Try to Predict The Future.

We’re going to take a look at a different filed in geology and talk about Paleontologist. Paleontologist are geologist that specialize in studying fossils and the Earth’s past. Many paleontologist travel the world on looking for fossils and examining ice core sheets the artic. Paleontologist I believe play an important part in some of the greatest challenges that we’re facing on Earth. For one Paleontologist can do different types of testing to see how the climate was during different time periods one Earth. They run test on fossils, rocks, and drill through ice sheets in some of the coldest climates around today to tell what the climate was like back then. Paleontologist also study many different types of mass extinctions. There are five known big mass extinctions throughout the geologic time scale. One of the mass extinctions that has taken place was the extinction of dinosaurs. Paleontologist also study the evolution of plants and animals. One of the ways that paleontologist and other geologist can tell how old something is through carbon radiometric dating. Paleontologist also study how the climate has changed throughout the past. With this paleontologist can use these results to see how the difference in climate relate to the many different types of mass extinctions. Paleontologist play a very important role on helping understanding about what happen to our planet in the past. By learning what happened in the past of the Earth can help us understand what might be happening in the future. I believe that paleontologist will help play an extremely important role in trying to figure out what is going to happen in our future with the effect of climate change that we’re experiencing today. 

Do We Take Mineral Resources For Granted?

Do we take rocks and minerals for granted? Like many other of are natural resources we can over use them. Mostly everything that we have comes from rocks and minerals. There are many different everyday items that we own that have many different rocks and minerals. Some of these items include lithium, sulfur, and many more. For example lithium is used to make rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries we know are used in cell phones and hybrid cars. However some are these resources there are less reserves of some of these vital minerals than coal, oil, natural gas. Now for some of the importance of metal resources. There are many different types of metal resources that we use every day. We use gold, copper, chromium, silver, and many more. Every single one of these rocks and minerals play a huge role in our economy. To compare we use more rock and mineral materials used in concrete than petroleum a day. It seems hard to believe that is true. This just gives you a brief understanding on how we can take the resources we have for granted. It is very important that we keep using our mineral resources while looking for more of them. In the process we need to do this, it is extremely important to that we protect the resources that we have and recycle whatever we can. To find out more about the uses of all different rocks and minerals check out.  www.geology.com

Rocks are cool!

To learn all of the types of rocks can take a quite a bit of time. There are three types of rock categories igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. I know to most of you a rock is just a rock. But to geologist rocks are more than just rocks. Rocks are extremely important to our society. The reason why rocks are important to society is because of what they can tell us. Rocks can be carbon dated to see how old they actually. By knowing the age of the rocks geologist can see how the climate was back then, and then they can estimate how old it is on the geologic time scale. For some of the types of rocks out there. For rocks like shale, sandstone, and rock salt just to name a few of them. To give you a few example of igneous rocks you have basalt, granite, and pumice to name a few. For metamorphic rocks you have gneiss, marble, and slate just to name a few. Now I’m sure that some of you have granite counter tops. The granite counter tops are extremely nice. Marble and slate are used for counter tops sometimes depending on the application they’re being used. Marble and slate are used in for tile flooring as well. All these types of rocks are used in so many important applications. I just provided a few examples of some of the igneous and metamorphic rock applications. These are the reasons why rocks are so has always been so vital to our society. To go off on a limb here my favorite type of sedimentary rock is limestone. My favorite type of igneous rock is granite. And for my favorite metamorphic rock is marble. To find out more information about all these rocks and what applications they are used in. You can go to www.geology.com to find out more. There are more websites that are available that can give you more information. 

Petroleum Geologist Help Energize Our World

Another field that geologist play a very huge role in is the development of natural resources. For oil and natural gas these type of geologist are called petroleum geologist. Just like I explained earlier in one of my previous post a petroleum geologist works closely with petroleum engineers. The petroleum geologist explores for oil and natural gas reserves. Then they analysis with the engineers if these reserves are large enough to be economical for drilling. If so they work closely with the three stages of a petroleum engineer. The four different types of petroleum engineers include are drilling engineering, reservoir engineer, production engineer, and completion engineer. All of them work together on developing an economical plan on how to access the oil and natural gas reserves. Petroleum geologist are extremely important in today’s world. With the demand for energy on the rise in many different countries. With China and India becoming a huge part of the global energy demand. It’s important to have petroleum geologist find the resources and help the petroleum engineers and other specialist to develop these resources with minimum environmental impact as much as possible. I find that petroleum geologist are extremely crucial on finding these vital resources because mostly everything in society right now runs mainly on oil or natural gas. While we move our planet to a green energy global economy it is extremely important to have oil and natural gas still be a part of the big energy picture. To find out more about a petroleum geologist and petroleum engineer visit the Bureau of Statistics website. One nice thing I find about geology is how the geologist finds these resources, figures out ways to extract them with other experts, and most of all restore and protect the environment. This is why I find so may fields in geology to be so very fascinating. 

Hydrologist Being An Essential Part In Our World

One of the main challenges that geologist are involved with is supplying the world with clean water supply. The type of geologist that works with water are called a hydrologist. To me a hydrologist has to be one of the top most important fields in the geosciences. We all know that everything needs water to survive. With a world with over seven billion people already on Earth and it’s expected to be 9 billion in the year 2050. With that being said all every one of these people will be needing access to clean fresh drinking water. We all know how important it’s to conserve water. Water is the most valuable resource that we have on the planet. We all know how important and serious this challenge is for all the corners on Earth. Hydrologist also make sure that all of our streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, and the groundwater is safe and free of pollutants. If any pollution occurs many of them will design and help engineers and other geoscientist clean up the water. Groundwater is a hidden reserve of water. Groundwater is accessed by drilling a water well down into the water table. The only way ground water gets replenish is from melting snow or rain. Some areas in the United States and the rest of the world have limited amounts of rain fall. We all know about the serious troubles that the American South West have been having. They have been in a serious drought for a very long time. With very tiny amounts of rain fall the groundwater has been being depleted at an alarming rate. Since everything that we use or need in society takes water to make them. In conclusion hydrologist are an essential part on making sure that we have reliable, clean, and safe water. There is one thing that maybe done in the future to help assure we have enough water supply. One is be more ecofriendly by using less water as much as we can. Another could be using turning salt water from the ocean into safe drinking water. One of the best things that I heard on Sixty Minutes is how they’re turning sewer water into safe drinking water. Every little thing that we can do can make a difference. To find out more about a hydrologist please visit the Bureau Labor of Statistics. 

The Best Way To Learn Geology is in Nature

One of the best ways to studying and seeing geology is going out in nature to learn about it. I can’t think of any better way to study any Earth science especially geology than being out in the real world. That’s the best way to learn and understand how geology makes up our world. The next time you go outside just look around. You can see lots of geology! There are many great places to go outside and see geology. Some of these places can include behind your house, in the woods, beside the highway while driving, state natural parks, and many more places. There are many great places just in Ohio alone that I know are very excellent places to go see. These places include Hocking Hills, Caesar Creek State Park, Indian Mound Reserve, and High Banks Metro Park. These are a few of the best places in Ohio to see some incredible geological formations. I just went to some of these places last week and they were very awesome. I do encourage all of you to go and check out some of these areas! One area great geological formation that I do need to go see myself is The Grand Canyon. I heard many great things about going checking The Grand Canyon out. The Grand Canyon has got to be one of the greatest geological formation on Earth. Some of the other geological formations that I want to see include: The Rocky Mountains, The Andes, The Himalayas, Death Valley, and many more. From all of the studying that I’ve been doing from my geology classes that I’ve learned really came a live so to speak during the field trip. The best way to study geology is after reading and learning about different areas and different parts of the geologic time scale, getting outside and seeing it in person really helped me learn more and love geology more. I can’t wait till I become a geologist myself. I love being outside and I want to make a difference in the world. I can’t wait to be out doing field work and camping while doing that. As you can see going outside once you learn some about geology and being outside to witness it for yourself is very inspiring. Geology is a part of nature. In return nature is very inspiring!

Why Geology Is Important To Society

Geology is a very important to society. The reason why geology is very important to society is because geology is needed to help the planet with some of its biggest challenges in this century. Geologist are involved with many important major projects around the world. There are so many different subcategories for a geologist. Some of the categories include: geochemist, geophysicist, volcanologist, petroleum geologist, paleontologist, engineering geologist, and many more. With all of the info we need to gather a lot of information about the past, inform people about natural disasters, find vital resources, protect the environment, and many provide many more expertise that make our world that we see today. From being a geology major myself, I know how much of an important role that geologist have in our world. Some of the greatest challenges that geologist are involved with are energy, climate change, find and conserving metal and nonmetal resources, protecting the environment, and many more. Geologist also work closely in many fields with engineers and other science professionals to try to come up with a solution to these extremely complex challenges that we have. Or some just get a degree in engineering geology to do both fields. Engineering geologist work with construction projects, environmental cleanup, and many more. Petroleum geologist works closely with petroleum engineers on finding and developing oil and natural gas resources. One of the main key that geology is the understanding what might happen in the future to our planet. Paleontologist are geologist who specialize in studying the fossils and many other events that have happened in the past. The work that paleontologist do can answer help answer out with some of the answers involving climate change. While the planet is not at the some of the hottest points it has been in history but it is warming back up way to fast. There is a subcategory of paleontologist for those that study past environments. The studying of ancient climates is called paleoclimatology. Paleontologist that specialize in this can also use chemistry and drill through ice in very cold climates. The layers of ice can be examined in a laboratory and examine what the climate was like back then. Volcanologist are geologist that study volcanoes and try to predict future eruptions. These are a brief descriptions of some of the other categories in geology. These are some of the best reasons on why geology is a very important key with some of the greatest challenges we have today.

Mineral Resources on another Planet

Exploring for mineral resources on another planet can be a good thing, if done properly. The reason why we need to explore for resources on other planets or asteroids or the moon is because the resources on Earth are being depleted. Now we still need to protect and use our known reserves of all of these resources. The main reason is that they’re important to the global economy. Even when we start exploring in space. It’s unarguable that we need to explore and find new sources of these vital resources on Earth. We always must keep exploring all for new reserves. The main reason why we need to always keep exploring is because many things that we use every single day contain these minerals. For example Lithium is mined and used in rechargeable batteries. This includes batteries for electric cars as well. I believe that finding resources on other planets can be a great economic prosperity time for us here on Earth. This is one great opportunity to create new jobs not just in America but around the world. There are known Earth resources that are not found in large quantities on Earth. But, most of these resources can be found abundant on the moon for instance. With the exploring for mineral resources on other planets can lead to many different areas for jobs. Science, engineering, technology, manufacturing, transportation, and many more. By doing research on other planets for resource exploration can answer more questions to help better understand space. This can help us answer more questions on how the universe was made. This can help lead to human expansion into space and colonizing other planets and moon to call home. With Earth getting more populated, crowded, and dwindling resources that we need to find and secure more of them. There are many arguments saying, do we have the right to go to another planet or moon and take resources there and use them? Well that is a hard question to answer since that is more of an opinion. So, there is really no true right or wrong answer for colonizing another planet.