Is geology a good major ?

 Generally geology is the study of earth science. But it does not mean it only comprises of general study of the earth.

Geology is the vast major itself with the wide variety of branches like geophysics, geochemistry, environmental geology, paleontology, structural geology, engineering geology, mining geology, etc.

If you are planning to take geology as a career you need to know these basic things:

For geologist it is very important to have great knowledge and understanding about anything related to the earth.

Generally, geology is all about the study of rocks that includes everything from their genesis/formation.

Formation, deposition and extraction of minerals all comes under the study of geology.

Geology is very unique as it comprises important headings like tectonic movements, continental drift, mass wasting, orogeny, sea floor spreading, stratigraphy and many more which explains the history of the earth.

It has the wide range of application as this major requires study, research, surveying, recording, sampling, modeling and interpreting the geological data.

Recently the rate of demand for the geologist is increasing day by day along with the increase in number of graduates per year.

According to the report, geologists are paid handsomely as far as their experience and seniority is concerned.

Things you need to know before taking geology as a major:

If you are dreaming to study geology then you must be able to understand basic earth science as geology itself is a detail study of earth science.

Geology is field oriented major, anything they analyze and interpret is the action of the survey and field work. So you must be well prepared for working outdoors mostly.

Sampling and collecting rocks is the most important task while studying geology. So you must be able to recognize the basic rock types.

Geology not only comprises the sampling and determining rock type as it is a vast major, it equally comprises the past history and the evolution of the geological features.

Mining geology, engineering geology, hydro geology is the most common majors in geology along with sedimentology, structural geology, paleontology, petrology, petroleum geology and so on.

Geology is mostly regarded as the important major mostly because of its wide range of applications.

Nowadays, geology is one of the important study in modern science as everything derived are the product of the geology and the study of such major has contributed a lot in the field of modern study.

Extraction of the valuable minerals like diamond, gold etc. and petroleum products along with the wide spread construction and many more is only possible due to the majors like geology as its comprises the entire nature.

Geology is not only restricted in study as it is the surface we stand, hills we climb, river where we swim and everything that contributed for the formation of the earth surface.

So if you want to study earth then geology is one and only major that describes and details the earth with association of science.

And geology is always considered as a good major of study.

These are the branches of geology:

·         Economic geology – geology related to the economic development.

·         Engineering geology– Application of geology to engineering practice

·         Environmental geology–application of geology in environmental development

·         Geo chemistry –Application of chemistry in geology to determine various chemical prospect of the earth

·         Geophysics– application of physics in geology

·         Geomorphology- study of the landform and its corresponding building  processes

·         Hydrology– The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater

·         Marine geology – The study of the structure of the ocean floor

·         Mineralogy – Scientific study of minerals

·         Mining geology –deals with the extraction of minerals from earth.

·         Petroleum geology– study of genesis and accumulation and extraction of petroleum fuels.

·         Petrology – the branch of geology that deals with the study of rocks.

·         Sedimentology – The study of sediments and of the processes by which they are formed          

·         Stratigraphy– The study of the formation of the layer of the rocks.

·         Structural geology– The branch of geology that deals with the structure and the deformation of earth crust.

·          Volcanology – deals with the study of volcanoes and its associated phenomenon.

·         Bio- geology – The geological study of earths biosphere and the lithosphere.

·         Historical geology– deals with the study of earth's geological history.

·         Paleontology – study of the past history of the earth and evolution along with geological time.

 

Apart from this, geology certainly comprises some of the basic principles that define the basis of geology. They are:

1)             Principle of original horizontality:

This is the basic and the most important principle of lithostratigraphy. According to this, the sediments that form the sedimentary rocks are first deposited in horizontal basin. So the basin where the sediments deposits first are essentially horizontal. But the bed we observe today are uplifted, eroded etc are the result of different geological action.

 

2)             Principle of superposition:

This is one of the important principles of lithostratigraphy which suggest that younger strata lie on the top of older strata. During the time of deposition, the sediments are deposited on horizontal basin first and the new sediments keep on adding above the old sediments. From this we conclude that in any geologically un-deformed sequence of bed, the sequence that is settling at the bottom are deposited first than its overlying beds.

 

3)             Principle of cross cutting relations:

The beds deposited in horizontal basin are acted by different geological activities resulting in deformed structures. So the “principle of cross cutting relation” states that when a certain layer of a bed is cut by a fault or may be intruded by igneous intrusion then the cut layer of bed is supposed to be older than the causing events.

4)             Principle of lateral continuity:

 When the beds are deposited in a basin and later with respect to time they gradually expose on the surface by the means of geological activities. So these beds exposes on the large scale area on the surface. Then “principle of lateral continuity” explains that when the bed is exposed in large scale area and is cut off by action of erosion turning it into valley in between separating a laterally continuous sequence of bed. So the same sequence of the bed is divided into two or more sequences.

 

 

                   5)             Principle of floral and faunal succession:

 The “Principle of Floral and Faunal succession” states that plants and animals evolves into new species with respect to geological time and the sedimentary rocks of different ages will contain fossils of different species which represents that particular geological age. By knowing the age of the fossil the relative as well as absolute age of the rock sequence can be determined. Index fossils, often called as a characteristic fossil of one certain geological age exists for very short time and are especially valuable to determine the age of the rock sequence. And it suggest that two rock sequence of different locations containing the same index fossil most be of same geological age.

    6)          Principle of Uniformitarianism.

This principle states that: “the same physical process and the laws that operate in the today’s world, operated throughout the geological time.

The principle of uniformitarianism suggests that “present is key to the past”.

But this statement does not hold in many examples like movement of glaciers then and now, volcanic eruption then and now and others too.

So this statement was further corrected as:

“The same physical process and laws governing that process today, operated throughout the geological time although not necessarily in the same intensity as now”.