Insider Info

Is geophysics all dry rocks and computer printouts? No way!

"I've been to Indonesia and Turkey. I've missed a big earthquake -- magnitude 8. I got malaria....Yeah, it's been fun," says geophysicist Sean McDonald.

What was he doing in Indonesia? He was there for several months, helping out in the search for gold and base metals.

The exploration crew would use geophysical instruments attached to a helicopter, which flew very close to the ground. The equipment took readings of the magnetic nature or radioactivity of the ground below. This in turn would indicate gold mineralization in the area.

What else does he remember about that time? "Living 6,000 feet above sea level with pygmies in the jungle."

These days, McDonald is hoping to get into a different branch of geophysics altogether. He's interested in environmental geophysics. That would involve using geophysics on environmental problems, like contaminated groundwater.

McDonald was still in high school when he first became interested in geophysics. He had a friend who was a few years older. This friend was getting great summer jobs in the oil patch that helped pay for his education.

So McDonald thought the field deserved some attention! He took a high school geology course and even won a prize for his studies.

"I was interested in it right from the beginning," he says.

He still finds this science fascinating. Would you believe forensic geophysics?

"[Police] are using geophysics to find grave sites," he explains. Geophysics can also be used to find weapons dumped in water.

As you can see, geophysics is a broad field with lots of room for specialties.

Barbra Schuessler Maher is a geophysicist in Colorado. She's studying for her PhD and has already been working as a geophysicist. Her favorite area of study is something called "induced seismicity." What is that?

This term refers to small earthquakes that are caused by human activity. For instance, when oil is extracted from the Earth, it can cause a small earthquake.

Likewise, when water is pumped into the ground to help extract the oil, small earthquakes can happen. In other words, people cause or "induce" earthquakes, or "seismic" events.

She likes the field because it is so interesting.

"It's a nice blend of using your science and math skills, and a little bit of creativity," she says. There is lots of problem solving involved!

"There are lots of projects that are more than looking at numbers or writing a [computer] program. You have to deal with lots of different types of data," says Schuessler Maher.

She didn't always want to be a geophysicist. She was at university studying physics, with geology as a minor. She finally decided she didn't want to be a physicist.

But it was only when a professor suggested she study geophysics at an advanced level that she had a sense she was on to something. She did some research and decided to study earthquake geology at the University of Arizona.

"Once I got there, I was hooked!" she says.

Speaking of earthquakes, Wayne Pennington has experienced some of the most devastating earthquakes the world has seen. For a geophysicist whose focus is earthquakes, it's all in a day's work.

"I spent a year and a half studying earthquakes in the Himalayas. The quakes I experienced in Pakistan and in Mexico were the most interesting," says Pennington. He is a geophysicist and professor at Michigan Technical University.

In addition to earthquake research, Pennington works in oil and gas exploration and development. While his most recent projects have been in Michigan and southern California, Pennington's exploration work has taken him overseas. In Ireland, he worked on offshore oil wells.

Pennington became a geophysicist for the same reason a lot of other people choose this field. "Many people are drawn to the earth sciences, including geophysics, because of a love for the outdoors and a natural curiosity about what they see there. I'm one of those people."

While Pennington planned to be a geophysicist and intended to study earthquakes, he says his interest in oil and gas exploration was not at all what he had planned.

"Like many people, I stumbled into my current specialization, and would never have predicted I would end up doing this. Studying earthquakes was my first intention."

Strangely enough, it was studying earthquakes that brought Pennington into the field of oil and gas exploration. It also had a lot to do with being in Texas.

"Many earthquakes in Texas have been induced by oil and gas field activities, and I happened to be in Texas for several years. As my experience with these earthquakes increased, so did my interest in the oil and gas industry," he says.

Pennington says his work in the oil and gas industry involves some pretty interesting projects. For example, one recent project used sound waves to find mineral deposits in rock.

"We study sound waves sent through the Earth and record their echoes from layers of rock in the subsurface. The timing of these echoes tells us their depths," he explains.

There are lots of other subjects to study in geophysics, besides the kind of work he does. "Many geophysicists specialize in other areas, such as the atmosphere and the solar system."

While there are many different types of geophysicists, Pennington says they all have something in common. "We all use physics to learn about the Earth."

Another of Pennington's interests is teaching what he has learned to students. Luckily, he's a professor and does this every day!

"I spend about 40 percent of a typical day teaching. Another 20 percent is spent on research, 20 percent on university duties and another 20 percent on editing duties."

Having spent a lot of time in university classes as a student, first completing his bachelor's degree and then adding a PhD, Pennington knows what things look like from the student's perspective.

Pennington's fieldwork has allowed him to do quite a bit of traveling. But he says such opportunities have decreased as technical advances have been made.

"Travel to field sites is less frequent than it used to be, with the improvements in digital data transmissions and improved electronic communications," he says.

Now, Pennington is more likely to travel to attend meetings than to experience earthquakes in exotic places. "Travel to professional societies or meetings with colleagues is quite frequent. Occasionally, I attend meetings in other countries."

Like most occupations, geophysics has its stresses, not the least of which is money. "The current low funding for research is probably what I like least about this work," Pennington says.

While he dislikes the scrambling for money involved in doing research, Pennington admits it's the way geophysics is headed.

"Nobody gets paid to simply study things anymore," he says. "They have to be able to do something with that knowledge." In other words, if you can help a company make money, your research is worth money.

"The top researchers are funded by groups of oil companies," Pennington points out.

Finances aside, Pennington says there's nothing like that feeling when you've discovered something new, like a rich oil or mineral deposit.

"Making discoveries no one has even thought of is one of the thrills," he says. "Geophysics is a relatively new field with a lot of unsolved problems."