An Interesting and Adventurous Career in Geology
It is necessary to explain what geology means for better understanding its career base, options, choices, and possibilities. Geology is the study of different kinds of rocks, Earth’s materials, and formations that have occurred over some period of time. Geology is not just one plain subject studying rocks. It is a more complex and highly interesting science which will never be boring for anyone who enjoys nature and its conditions.
What do geologists do in real life?
The possibilities have no borders in this environment. The scientific work of geologists involves many important discoveries and researches in the areas of the prediction of the behavior of Earth’s conditions, location of the necessary natural resources as drinking water, petroleum, and metals.
Studying the soils and finding ways of its conservation, protection of the water supply, lowering the risk of the loss on human lives and their belongings caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, eruptions, volcanoes and other dangerous natural disasters, and observation of natural calamities. Finding the way of how to reduce the negative footprint caused by people and their reckless activities; researching the land and weather conditions for the architectural base needed when the roads and buildings are projected; and many other opportunities.
Geologists will hardly ever be bored in their work environment. There are also plenty of specialty areas in geology fields such as paleontology, mineralogy, hydrology, and volcanology. Also after having a bachelors degree in geology, students can narrow their studies and find their passion in one of the specialty fields such as petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, mining, environmental educations, environmental law, and environmental consulting. The possibilities are endless.
They can be also become writers, editors, museum workers, and so on. The work place of geologists can vary depending on the character of his/her projects and can be anywhere from working in a lab, classroom, office, natural resource companies, environmental consulting companies, government agencies, universities but also field work which can be anywhere from mine fields, dry deserts, peaks of the mountains, unpredictable caves, urban areas, tropical forests, or the ocean floor.
What are the steps to become a successful geologist?
The minimum is a four-year college degree in geology. The students should have an interest in math, science, writing, computers, geography, and communications. After a four-year degree, the students can continue to study geology or can choose their specialty area and can earn the master’s and/or the doctorate degrees. There are hundreds of universities around the globe which offer geology programs. The best known are the Curtin University of Technology (Australia), University of Southampton (UK), University of Lausanne (Switzerland), Queen College-City University of New York (US), and University of Otago (New Zealand).
If you are still not convinced about this career field, think about the world economic crises that are the worst since the crises after World Word II. The number of jobs needed in geology fields is much higher than the availability of graduate students in the next few years. In addition, the starting salary ranges from $50,000 to $100,000 per year.
Not bad for the graduate?
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