[JQP (OP)]

And how does one learn to do a GS?

(I read the Wikipedia stub and I'm looking for details)

[Evie]

Generally, a geological survey is simply studying a certain area of geography and trying to figure out what types of rock layers it contains. The first step in studying an area is simply walking it over and drawing a map of the exposed rock layers. You can extrapolate what is below the surface from the angles at which the different layers sit and in what order they are found. Often, remote sensing equipment is needed to verify what you can't see with the naked eye.

I learned how to do geologic mapping through my course studies in geology. You could try to learn to do it by reading books, but you need to be able to identify different types of rocks and understand things such as the principle of superposition, fault structures, etc. Joining a geoscience club or some similar group may give you opportunities to learn this process from others.

Here is a link explaining geologic maps: http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/gmap/gmap1.html/

[JimBob]

OK - this is strange. The link above in my browser generates an error on the National Park Service site, BUT when I search "geologic maps" on Google I easily click through to the page being sought.

http://www.google.com/search?q=geologic+maps&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

If having trouble, here is a second link: a discussion of the subject on the USGS Site.

http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/wgmt/aboutmaps.html

(I thought you would give your employer's site first, Evie. Have you NO loyalty? The above is the action of a consultant!)

[Evie]

Eh, I only have to be loyal if I'm in a permanent position, which I'm not. Six month appointments tend to make people jumpy.  []

[JQP (OP)]

Thanks Evie, JimBob.  I'm on a slow connection so I'll ask more questions before I visit those links.

How does one determine the availability of building materials on a site, if previous records and surveys are not available?  Say, if one wants to know about soil suitability for agriculture or if a site has granite, clay, etc?  What kind of equipment is used for geological remote sensing?

[JimBob]

Eh, I only have to be loyal if I'm in a permanent position, which I'm not. Six month appointments tend to make people jumpy.  []

To survive with Bass and myself you need to be more testy. Please drink more and then answer these messages. Soon, in the time it took me to get through grad school, (the normal time, so no smart remarks)you will be a good geologist.

As P. B. King said repeatedly, almost every other breath actually, on one of the last field trips he led and which I was privileged to be a lowly undergrad, the ONLY undergrad, to be able to go with the big kids, "HORSE sh1t!" (That will automatically be "nicefied" by the forum software.)

This will increase your survival factor here. Right Bass? Oh, I forgot, you pulling a trailer full of horses through the Rockie Mountains right now, aren't you - Ever wonder why you got married in the first place? Well Huh??
 
       -- El Jefe Grande y Gordo

[JimBob]

Thanks Evie, JimBob.  I'm on a slow connection so I'll ask more questions before I visit those links.

How does one determine the availability of building materials on a site, if previous records and surveys are not available?  Say, if one wants to know about soil suitability for agriculture or if a site has granite, clay, etc?  What kind of equipment is used for geological remote sensing?

The US Department of Agriculture has soil maps and a lot of information. You can probably find the info on line but to make it very easy on yourself, contact your county's Agricultural Extension agent. I believe every county or Parish in the US has one.

Remote Sensing: Let me count the ways - many. I ran out of fingers and toes. Landsat, ASTRA, and other satellite surveys. radar and side-looking radar, gravity, magnetics --- on and on. At present I am using two that I think are great. Both detect the presence or absence of hydrocarbons. One, a long term scintilometer reading that is spedterally set to detect differentially radon and potassium ions is an indirect measurements for hydrocarbons. Oil and gas fields tend to suppress K+ ions over the field and have a radon halo around it. Then direct hydrocarbon radio-luminescence (transmit radar waves out and hydrocarbons will give off light due to excitation, which is then detected) has SO FAR proven 100% effective for me. Others say the same thing.


There are a lot of other things - esoteric things like MagnetoTellurics which my 1978-1984 consulting company (see papers by (E. Berkman and A. Orange, my partners) did the first useful interpretations with, are there and the personal models have evolved to such an extent that they can bey used buy a complete idiot - even little green frethack, who posts here. (See the hive or sponge discussion.) 

There are a lot more.

 

[JQP (OP)]

Edited: thanks for the pointers JB, I've removed my additional pestering because I think Google can do the rest.

I really appreciate the help everyone.

[Bass]

JQP, I suggest you check the state geological maps published by the state geologic surveys (every state has one).  Even those these maps are quite large scaled- by necessity- they will give you a general idea of the surrounding geology.  Also check with any local colleges and universities.

To survive with Bass and myself you need to be more testy. Please drink more and then answer these messages. Soon, in the time it took me to get through grad school, (the normal time, so no smart remarks)you will be a good geologist.

       -- El Jefe Grande y Gordo

As El Jefe points out with such facundity, a bit of drink does seem to facilitate geologic lucidity.  JimBob may measure experience in terms of time (after all, he's older than most of the rocks he studies), my preferred measure is in the quantity of beer consumed in one bar towns (did you know that virtually every town in the west (western US for you tea sippers) has a "Stockman's Bar").

This will increase your survival factor here. Right Bass? Oh, I forgot, you pulling a trailer full of horses through the Rockie Mountains right now, aren't you - Ever wonder why you got married in the first place? Well Huh??
   

The old curmudgeon also seems to take issue with the special bond between father and daughter.  It's a paternal privilege to help her out- not an obligation [B)]!  As JimBob so eloquently alluded- I had the privilege of driving to Seattle to pick up my daughter's horse, then driving the horse to Missoula, then Fort Collins Colorado, then return (horseless thankfully) to Missoula- a short trip (only 3700 miles, more or less) last week. 

JimBob, get a dog!  Wonderful creatures, they love you no matter how cranky you feel. 

BTW my wife sends her regards.

[JimBob]

facundity? Bass?

I don't think I lowered my pants, did I?  Having been permanently rendered grumpy by the beer, I no longer need it and never touch the stuff these days. So I would remember whether or not I dropped my trousers for ANY reason.

I must admit, with all humility however, I am fount of intellectual knowledge and ideas, and a person possessing a very prolifically useful imagination.

fe-cund (fee'kund, -kuhnd, fek'und, -uhnd)  adj.
                  1.  producing or capable of producing
                       offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc., in
                       abundance; prolific; fruitful.
                  2.  very productive or creative
                       intellectually: the fecund years of the
                       Italian Renaissance.
             [1375-1425; late ME fecounde < AF < L fecundus =
             fe- (see FETUS) + -cundus adj. suffix]
   Derived words
             --fe-cun-di-ty(fi kun'di tee), n.

(Confidentially people I don't think Bass had any idea what he was saying, having just returned from the Stockman's Bar.

As for your wife, she was to have kept the affair quiet, feigning no knowledge of my existence. But now that it is out in the open, give her a kiss for me.)

[Bass]

Lowering your pants?  Wishful thinking, JimBob? 

Please look up the definition for facundity.

[frethack]

JimBob, get a dog!  Wonderful creatures, they love you no matter how cranky you feel. 

Every rule has its exception, and it is my belief that said canine just might turn on him after the first few grumbles and kicks  []

JimBob does kinda grow on you after a while...not so much like mold or fungus, but more like ear hair.  The longer you have to deal with it the more you just come to accept it.

(What he doesnt want you to know is that he is actually an ol' softie at heart...its actually very endearing...hehehe)

[JimBob]

Lowering your pants?  Wishful thinking, JimBob? 

Please look up the definition for facundity.

I thought you were not that well educated and made a typo, Bass. I am somewhat impressed. but not overly impressed. Yet fecundity of speech - the definition of facundity as well as the one I believe you meant to bestow on my impressive rhetoric, Eloquence, is graciously accepted and in return my thanks and blessings on all your financial endeavors today.

As for the green guy, frethack, I actually had to pay him to say this about me. And I keep my ear hair trimmed.