Chris Rowan is a geologist specialising in the dark arts of paleomagnetism, and getting people to pay him to travel to exotic destinations for fieldwork. Having drilled up New Zealand during his PhD, and South Africa in his first post-doc, he now works at the University of Edinburgh.
Anne Jefferson has a love of all things water-related and blends hydrology, geomorphology, geology, and climate change in her work. She has a Ph.D. from Oregon State University and is now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.After linking to some spectacular photos taken from right in the path of an avalanche, and a jealousy-inducing photo of himself standing right next to an oozing lava flow, Geotripper asks if geologists have a death wish:
I considered what happens when events like this happen to geologists. We run for a better look! A landslide, a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, it seems like we can't resist; while others run away in a wild panic, I imagine many or most of us will be scrabbling for a camera and running towards whatever is going on.
The closest I've ever got to a volcanic eruption is about 40 years (when I visited Pompeii on a school trip in the mid 90s), but I can think of several instances where my determination to plant my nose on the best exposure has put me in a somewhat precarious situation. On one such occasion during my undergraduate mapping project, I descended a few metres down a steep cliff face to examine a possible contact, and then found that I couldn't safely climb back up again. The only way out was a descent down 25 metres' worth of fairly sheer felsic lavas. Not fun, even if there were lots of lovely brambles at the bottom to break my fall. I was hardly alone amongst my cohort that summer, either - there was a running joke that it wasn't a proper mapping project unless you'd had at least one near-death experience.
If this is a tendency amongst geologists, I'm don't think it's either the result of us all being adrenalin junkies, or of us shifting into 'absent-minded professor' mode and being too focussed on the rocks to notice the danger. It's more that our appreciation of the potential risks in a particular environment are counterbalanced by our strong desire to get to grips with the geology. Our subconscious is still screaming, "Fly, you fools!", but we also have that other little, yet very insistent, voice saying, "Hmmm, this is interesting - and you'll see it much better from a little bit closer..." For the most part, these are risks we choose to take, because we consider the experience to be worth it. Indeed, the willingness to take risks that other people consider to be slightly mad seems to be part of human nature; it's just that most people express the urge through bungee-jumping, or eating Fugu, or hurling their car around blind corners at 100 miles an hour, rather than running towards an active volcano. And they call us mad...
I'd be very interested to hear other people's perspectives on this: what's the most precarious situation you've got yourself embroiled in during fieldwork? And was it worth it?
Update: Ron, Kim, Silver Fox and The Lost Geologist have offered up their tales of derring-do, whilst I think Mel has found my next hiking destination...
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I suppose I exemplify the risk-taking geologist image, since my ultimate career goal is to be on one of those volcano disaster assistance teams and rush out to whatever mountain is getting ready to explode. Haven't gotten there yet, though. (Not to mention I want to specialize in pyroclastic deposits, which result from the nastiest kinds of eruptions.)
I have been in a few sticky spots during field work so far. Walking over shelly pahoehoe (nasty, fragile stuff that people tend to fall into) a few feet above very red (i.e., still molten) rocks probably wasn't too safe. And a few traverses in Utah had me surfing down boulder fields on loose rock or scrambling over near-vertical, shifting platy trachytes that probably would have sliced me up pretty well if I'd fallen.
I'd agree that I'm not an adrenaline junkie, though. I hate the usual thrills people get into for that rush (roller coasters, skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.) - in fact, I totally wimp out when faced with even the possibility of doing that kind of thing. But I'm willing to take risks in geology because I feel like they're worth it. An erupting volcano is just exciting to me. And it's a chance to maybe help other people in the future - after all, how can I be good at hazard mitigation if I've never experienced the hazards?
Guess that makes me a volcano junkie. (Something my family isn't too happy about, but it is, after all, my choice.)
Posted by: Tuff Cookie | March 4, 2008 12:25 PM
If I'm going to answer that one, I'll need to show pictures.
Posted by: Kim | March 4, 2008 12:26 PM
I've stood on quite a few perilous sections in Scotland and have done a fair bit of fieldwork along the Norfolk coast where cliff falls are common. Not super dangerous, but a tad risky I guess.
The main danger I have is knackering my back when coring. It's already starting to feel a bit worse for wear. My supervisor is 40 and his back is totally buggered from 20 years worth of coring.
For very risky fieldwork, I seem to recall seeing a video in A-Level geology of someone kayaking down a lava flow, which was pretty nuts. There was also a French husband and wife volcanology team who were pretty crazy; the Krafts I think they were called.
Posted by: SteveF | March 4, 2008 12:35 PM
People think I'm joking when I say the most dangerous part is crossing the street in Damascus, but that is right up there with having a poisonous Palestine viper unhappy that you're excavating through its underground tunnels (actually they are probably hamster tunnels that the vipers simply use for themselves and to chase the hamsters) -- that happened to a friend working in a square adjacent to mine.
Posted by: Ellery | March 4, 2008 1:20 PM
I've had a lot of discussions where people question why others take such risks and I've come to the conclusion that everyone has their own risk/benefit system. My father doesn't understand why I rock climb, yet he is happy to participate in skydiving. Both use safety equiptment and rely on personal judgement. Living in a very 'outdoorsy' town, I see a lot of people that go mountaineering and a few never come back. But, everyone who participates in such risky behavior says "It's worth it." I don't think geologists are any different. I know geologists who won't set foot near a cliff while others are happy to scramble on down.
I have put myself at risk a few times for that perfect sample, photo, or outcrop and I would be happy to do it again. One thing I have noticed is that I am more cautious when I am doing these things alone than when I am with a partner. I justify to myself that at least with a partner there is someone who can go get help assuming I am not fatally wounded.
Steep slopes and slot canyons while solo in UT, unstable Badlands terrain with rattlesnakes, hiking a very narrow and steep dike in Hawaii... But I have my limits, it's just a lot more fun when rocks are involved;-)
Posted by: Mel | March 4, 2008 1:33 PM
Probably my most dangerous moment was one in which I felt no fear. Flying out of Yakutat, my pilot was trapped by descending clouds and ended up landing on a very narrow, curving beach across from the town harbor. Out in the field, I'm pretty careful, but I've banged myself up a few times on scree.
Posted by: Andrew | March 4, 2008 3:30 PM
Field trip in Massachusetts - we got access to a quarry. We walked up the truck road to the rim of the quarry. After whatever it was the professor wanted to show us, he encouraged us all to run down the scree back into the quarry. I said it didn't look safe, and that I (and a few other, mainly grad, students) would be happier going back round the path.
I was told that I didn't have the right attitude for geology.
No problem with people taking risks - sometimes I do too. But most people don't try taking 20 undergrads with them! Any risk on fieldwork really should be down to the individual to take.
...
Posted by: Julia | March 4, 2008 3:44 PM
Nothing to report. I've never had any mishaps more serious than leaving my hammer on an outcrop, or dropping a camera off of a cliff. Yet. All the broken bones, industrial injuries, etc have happened to either mapping partners or contractors.
Posted by: Lab Lemming | March 4, 2008 5:13 PM
I remember seeing Bill Tidy stood next to a lava flow on TV. He demonstrated how hot it was by cooking a black pudding in it.
The most dangerous aspect of fieldwork for me was being attacked by a swan. It just hated us.
Posted by: Bob O'H | March 5, 2008 1:02 AM
Hmmm, I do envy you geologists who get to go on field trips. It would be so nice to work in a field of science where dangerous fieldwork wasn't a bad undergraduate student in the chemical store room.
Posted by: Propter Doc | March 5, 2008 1:09 AM
I'm a little surprised we haven't heard any bear stories yet. I, fortunately, have none to report, having not done much field work in Alaska (just a few tracks while fishing). I have, unfortunately, had a broken bone incident while working in the field - luckily that was one of the few times in recent years when I wasn't working alone. That's another story to tell, maybe someday...
Posted by: Silver Fox | March 5, 2008 8:14 AM
Bob O'H said: "The most dangerous aspect of fieldwork for me was being attacked by a swan. It just hated us."
It wasn't while I was doing fieldwork, but I've been attacked and bit by a swan too. Swans are mean and vile critters. . . Why do people always laugh when I say that?
Posted by: Ellery | March 5, 2008 11:37 AM
Bob, I'll see your swan and raise you a pair of nesting seagulls. Those f**kers.
Anyway, the reason I end up doing dodgy stuff is because I'm thinking about the geology and not the activity. I soloed up a great exposure of sandstone beds for my undergrad, logging as I went and it was only afterwards that I realised I would never have soloed it just for the sake of climbing.
Posted by: PaulG | March 5, 2008 4:56 PM
Propter Doc. mentioned bears. I spent three summers in Northern Labrador and every summer saw polar bears several times. The first one was just after the last helicopter load of equipment arrived. Other times they woke us sniffing around the tents at night. One day two of us had to stay in camp because a bear was near, 500m away, needed an armed guard to go the the latrine. Almost as worrisome were the bear precautions: Shotguns (loaded with bear bangers, plastic bullets and only one real slug), pistols (the boss had a 357 magnum), flare guns, and pepper spray. There was some equipment damage from bears taste testing while camp was empty, and one guy set off the pepper spray in his tent. No bears were harmed either.
Posted by: Bob Patey | March 7, 2008 11:14 PM