The road wound steadily north as our SUV passed through snowy mountains under a cloudless March sky. Once again, my colleague Jeff Moore and I were driving the Dempster Highway to conduct snow surveys for my Ph.D. research on permafrost conditions west of Fort McPherson, NT. The Dempster Highway is Canada’s only all-season road that crosses the Arctic Circle. The highway begins just east of Dawson City, Yukon and extends 736 km to Inuvik. Officially opened in 1979, the road is a critical transportation route accessing communities in the Mackenzie Delta region. Recently, the road has gained im ..read more

Since the 25 April 2015 Gorkha-Nepal Earthquake (M 7.8), Nepal has experienced more than 400 aftershocks, including the M 7.3 12 May 2015 aftershock. The April 2015 Gorkha-Nepal Earthquake is commonly known as the Gorkha earthquake sequence. The cumulative impact of the April and May 2015 Gorkha earthquake sequence has killed over 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. Estimated economic losses are 10 billion. An estimated 500,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed (S-UK. 2015, Karnak 2015, USGS 2015a, NSC 2015). During the international response to the April 2015 Gorkha-Nepal Earthq ..read more

Part I of this post was published on the CFES Blog on May 22. Was this Hazard Event a Natural Disaster? By now our reader will know that muddling up concepts and stating that the 2015 Gorkha-Nepal Earthquake is a “natural disaster” may have significant implications for those who are most at risk from natural hazards. Time will tell. Highlighting this unfortunate use of the phrase “natural disaster” is really about the use of correct terms by those providing post-event information. Importantly, post 2015 Gorkha-Nepal earthquake communities will require this information transfer from geoscientis ..read more

Mark your calendar folks, because there is a new day for scientists, nature enthusiasts, and people of all ages to celebrate! The UNESCO General Conference recently approved the establishment of International Geodiversity Day. This annual, worldwide celebration raises awareness across society about the importance and value of “non-living” nature for the well-being and prosperity of all creatures on the planet. International Geodiversity Day is held on October 6th, and 2022 is the first year it will officially be observed. Geodiversity is not a term we hear of often, unlike biodiversity, which ..read more

A fundamental problem exists at universities; publications are prioritized over public service and teaching. At first glance, this seems logical. Publications, citations, and impact factors are what bring financial resources and prestige to a university: key ingredients for a successful business, sorry, university. However, when we consider the role of the university in society, the argument for publications as the primary metric for faculty advancement seems less robust. In Canada, we attend public universities funded through taxpayer dollars. The original intent behind this was that educatio ..read more

On October 2nd and 3rd I had the opportunity to represent CFES at the GeoVancouver 2016, the 69th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, organized by the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) in collaboration with the Vancouver Geotechnical Society (VGS). The theme of this year’s conference was “History and Innovation” and included a broad technical program which covered various topics such as “Risk and Reliability”, “Engineering Geology and Geomorphology”, “Pipelines and Tunnels” and “Climate Change Floods and Landslides”, keynote speakers, various social activities as well as an exhibition with ove ..read more

Education: HBSc. Geophysics, Western University, Ontario Past positions: Area Manager/Senior Geophysicist at BG International (2008-2010), President/Chief Geophysicist at Sheehan Energy Inc. (1998-2007), Senior Geophysicist at Ulster Petroleum Ltd. (1993-1997) Current Position: Managing Partner/Chief Geophysicist at Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd. As a managing partner of Petrel Robertson Consulting in Calgary, Canada, I lead teams of geoscience professionals consulting to industry, government, and financial institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. I work all aspects of oil and gas ..read more

Education: B.A.Sc. (Geological Engineering), M.Sc. (Geology), M.B.A. Past position(s): Management jobs in financial evaluation, project management, risk management. Geological engineer. Current Position: Senior Manager, Technical Services My job focuses on reporting resources and reserves for a gold mining company, and managing related work such as audits and projects by external consultants. At the year end, I make sure that our reserve and resource estimates are reviewed by the appropriate geologists and engineers, and that the company wide statement is compiled correctly. When we publish T ..read more

I am a geologist who builds geological models for the oil and gas industry, and this is what I do I’ve been building geological models for more than 6 years now, and I like it because it involves integrating all the data you have into a useful model of what might be down there. You need to be reasonably fluent in every discipline which has useful data on the formation you are trying to model. I thought I might take you on a quick tour of how these models are built, (at least in the sedimentary environments of the oil industry) and what they are used for. First, you need to build a stratigraphi ..read more

Education: BSc and BAppSci (Hons) in Geology, MSc in Science Communication Current Position: Freelance science writer @ resourceswriter.com Past positions: Geoscientist @ Geoscience Australia, HSEC Coordinator @ Rio Tinto, Communication Advisor @ CSIRO – among others! Why did you choose a career in earth science? To be honest, I chose Earth Science in my first year at university to avoid taking Math, and I’m so glad I did! I fell in love with Earth Science in the first semester of my first year, along with the idea of working outside with fun people, and travelling all over the world to under ..read more