Hello, my name is Dr Sian Davies-Vollum
and I'm the Head of the School of
Environmental Sciences at the University
of Derby, and I'm a geologist, and I'd
like to ask you a question.
What do you think of when you hear of
the term geology? What do you think of
when asked what geologists might do? I
bet you might think about oil and gas,
maybe coal, maybe you think about fossils
and dinosaurs, and while it's true that
these have been a part of geology it's
not necessarily true for what a
geologist might do now and in the future.
Yes, without geology we wouldn't have
been able to explore and discover oil,
and gas, and coal that fueled the
Industrial Revolution, but that was over
150 years ago, so 20th century. Looking to
the future, a geologist's unique knowledge
of what goes on below the surface, so
below the ground, means that very are
needed for a key role, a really critical
role, in establishing a carbon neutral
sustainable future. I'd like to tell
you more about that over the next couple
of minutes. So firstly energy - we all know
we have to move towards a carbon neutral
future for a sustainable planet, and
geologists play a key role in that. As we
move from a carbon-based economy to a
carbon neutral, or carbon free economy,
there will be a transition period and
during that transition period we'll
continue to emit carbon dioxide. Now what
we have to do really is find a way to
capture that carbon dioxide, and that
process is called carbon capture and
storage, and geologists are key to
understanding that and making that
happen, and to capture carbon dioxide and
to to send it below below the earth in
geologically safe places - so carbon
capture and storage where geology is
really critical to be able to do that.
When we think about sustainable energy,
looking to the future, we might think of
solar energy, we might think of wind
power, geothermal energy is something you
might not have heard of before but
that's a really important energy source
where we use the heat from beneath the
earth, and geologists have a fantastic
understanding of that. We won't be able
to utilise geothermal energy unless we
have geologists who can help to
figure out best places to source that
geothermal heat. We
might have nuclear power and nuclear
energy in our future and if we do we
need geologists to know where to to site
nuclear waste repositories. Those would
be underground, and need geological
knowledge to be able to find safe, secure
places
for hundreds, thousands, sometimes
depending on the radioisotopes involved
in millions of years, and that's the job
of a geologist. But it's not just carbon
capture and storage, it's not just
geothermal energy, it's not just nuclear
repositories - did you know that geology is
really critical to be able to make the
rechargeable batteries that we find in
electric cars, as well as your phones or
laptops? So elements such as copper,
nickel, cobalt, graphite, they all go into
rechargeable batteries, and who helps to
know where to find these elements? How to
mine them? How to source them?
That's a geologist's job. Without geology
we won't be able to secure the resources
that we need to create those
rechargeable batteries for sustainable
transport. Geologists can also help with
the lifecycle of those batteries, so how
to reuse those metals, that's a geologist
job. In addition to energy, and to
transport, we also might look
to what we call geotechnics - now
geotechnics is a study of the near
surface of the earth, and the technical
aspects, the engineering aspects. So
anytime an infrastructure project goes
in, be it a big building, or for example a
rail network, and rail networks are a
part of a sustainable transport future I
think you'd agree, a geotechnical survey
has to be done, and there's a huge need
for geotechnics as we expand our rail
network and we look to infrastructure
projects. So, that's another aspect of
geology that's really key to the future, and
did I mention water - water resources as
climate changes, and our water resources
change with that, changing climate and
changing rainfall, we're going to need to
really know how to source our water.
There's a whole area of geology called
hydrogeology, and that's about the water
that is in surface rocks and sediments,
so geologists play a really key role in
ensuring that we have sustainable water
resources. We need more geologists to
help move to a carbon neutral and
sustainable future, to secure clean
energy, and to secure water resources, and
to help create a sustainable
infrastructure be part of this solution.
If you're passionate about science, about
the earth, about our sustainable future,
geology is for you. Study geology, be part
of the solution. Contact us for more
details, we'd love to answer your
questions about how geology is for the
future, and what being a modern geologist
means.
