ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY TOOLS-OF-THE-TRADE: INSIGHTS FROM AN EARLY CAREER PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST

The current state of geologic education imposes kilometer-scale processes as the focus of undergraduate education, yet many applied professions deal with meter-scale processes from the ground surface to shallow groundwater. Environmental contaminants, for instance, pass through unsaturated alluvial and fluvial but also glacial, coastal, and eolian depositional sequences before encountering groundwater. These environments deposit the clay, silt, sand, and gravel that create porosity and permeabilities that vary by orders of magnitude. To the environmental consultant, porosity and permeability are a dominant geologic attribute, and in this presentation, I will reveal why that is so. Porosity and permeability control gas- and liquid-phase chemical transport and inform solutions to remediate contaminated soil and groundwater. In soil, vertically and horizontally drilled underground slotted pipes are connected to above ground vacuums of mammoth proportions to suck out contaminants. In aquifers, groundwater wells are installed to extract and treat groundwater or, conversely, inject chemicals or air to reduce contamination. In addition to a brief introduction of shallow small-scale process, I offer up my experiences as a geologist who went from studying Martian hydrothermal systems at University to a consultant that develops and implements environmental investigations to protect human health and the environment. I will provide early career insights to inform educational leaders and tips to students that wish to apply their knowledge outside academia in the applied field of environmental consulting.