EDITOR’S CORNER
“Geology at the Crossroads” and Young Professionals
John L. Berry, CPG-04032
I have just returned from a field trip to the Big Bend Ranch State Park, a very large and geologically fascinating area along the Rio Grande, west of the Big Bend National Park. The theme of the trip was “Geology at the Crossroads”, for here at the southern tip of the North American continent one can study the intersections of three compressional orogenic belts (Grenville, Ouachita, and Laramide) and four extensional episodes (post-Grenville, post-Ouachita, Rio Grande Rift and southern Basin and Range) as well as the volcanism related to them. In the Solitario, a big bulls-eye in the desert that results from a deep laccolithic intrusion, are the southwesternmost exposures of the Ouachita fold and thrust belt, involving the unique Caballos novaculite, a few tens of feet of rock that represents perhaps 130 million years of deposition in a starved basin. In contrast, much of the Park is covered with up to 300 feet of the Mitchell Mesa Rhyolite, an ash-flow tuff laid down in an instant 32.8 m.y. ago over an area of 6300 mi2.
In many ways, the profession of geology is at a similar crossroads, and this was reflected in the composition of the group participating in the field trip: a large cohort of older people with a lifetime of experience in oil and gas, mining and regional mapping, and a smaller group of young professionals who are mainly involved with environmental and engineering geology and with regulatory matters. This dichotomy both reflects an upheaval in the values and concerns of our society, and implies a radical shift in the emphasis of professional geological studies.
Where once professional geologists were almost entirely concerned with determining the history, structure and envi- ronments of rocks at depth in order to discover and measure resources, and tended to study present-day geological pro- cesses only as “the key to the past”, in the last 50 years the emphasis has increasingly switched to a study of geological processes for their own sake – because they directly affect the ways we dispose of and remediate our waste, the ways we design our roads and buildings, and govern the magnitude of the natural hazards we may face.
In the meantime, many academic geologists continue to delve deeper and deeper into the earth and further and further back in time, as well as farther and farther out into space, all of which can create and perpetuate a disconnect between the science and the profession. At the same time an increasing multitude of voices in society questions the wisdom of relying on the resources, energy and mineral, that the older genera- tions of geologists spent their lives discovering, while a differ- ent but equally noisome and ever-growing chorus questions the very value of science and the honesty of scientists, putting us in the position of a bed of novaculite caught between the grind- ing convergent masses of Laurentia and Gondwana. Neither group has much understanding of science or of economics.
Further complicating these tectonic forces in Society are the economists, who tell us that we will never run out of non- renewable resources: there will always be enough at a high
www.aipg.org Apr.May.Jun 2019 • TPG 11
enough price. Which is like saying to the majority who will not be able to afford necessities, “Let them eat cake!” And of course, the politicians, who increasingly are saying “Any Professional (as opposed to academic) body is, by definition, potentially a restraint on trade” and therefore to be abolished.
“Geology at the Crossroads” indeed! What is to be done to
weather these buffeting cross-currents? My personal reaction is that we need to better define who
we are and what we stand for, and AIPG is the ideal body in which to discuss this. We need, all of us, to inwardly digest the tenets of professional behavior, so that individually and as a profession, we stand out as rigorously honest people: any breach of professional ethics by any one of us is a potential weapon in the hands of the enemies of science, and AIPG has probably the greatest focus on, and resources for, ethics of any geological organization. We need, as a profession, to make our voices heard in the halls of power – as reliable and disin- terested providers of valuable advice: this means, perhaps, being more comfortable with calculating the costs of various courses of action when they are impacted by foreseeable geological processes. AIPG, since it represents professional, as opposed to academic, geologists is in a position to make a significant contribution to this discussion. Economic geologists have always concerned themselves with the economics of ore deposits – perhaps we should broaden the term to include calculation of the costs of “geologically-impacted decisions”.
In summation: AIPG is the best organization to steer the profession of Geology through these crossroads of technical and societal change, and as an active member you can, by taking part in the discussion, make a huge contribution to the future direction of geology as a profession! As a Young Professional, especially, your contributions to the profession now will help to determine not just the course of your career, but the societal environment in which you will practice, and the intrinsic value placed by society on your work. Go for it!
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