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org/

Environmental geophysics: Its about time

By JOHN P. GREENHOUSE
Departmentof Earth Sciences,lke Universityof Waterloo
Waterloo,Canaab

T.

hrsworkshop,thepublicationlaterthisyear of the SEGs threevolume Geotechnicaland EnvironmentalGeophysics,

anda number of otherfactorsbring hometo me the fact thatgeophysics
and
the environment are slowly discoveringeachother. More and
more small geophysicalcompaniesare advertisingservicesto the
environmentalindustries.Geophysicistsprowl landfills and tailings pondswith strangeinstruments.Of course,geophysicshas
alwayshad to do with the environmentin a generalsense.This,
however,is Environmentwith a capital E, the trendy, ecological definition thatdazzlesour mediaand politicians.More importantly, thisnew geophysicaldirectionprovidesreal encouragement
amid the overall gloomy careerprospectsfacing would-be geophysicists,a small but bright prospect.
For all this new activity, I want to suggestthat we have been
slow to join the parade.Relativeto sisterdisciplinesat least,there
seemsto have beena reluctance-perhapsambivalenceis a better
word-within the geophysicscommunitytowardsassociatingitself with environmentalissues.Collectively we seem to prefer
euphemismslike geophysicsappliedto environmentalstudies
(the title of a sessionat this years EAEG), or to hide behind
familiar terms suchas geotechnical or engineering.
But environmental geophysics and even enviromnental
geophysicistare cropping up more frequently. I proposethat
thesetermsshouldseemuch wider use. Secondly,if therehasin
fact been some foot dragging, if there is still some lingering
prejudice,then it is worthaskingwhy, to whatconsequence,
and
what might be doneaboutit.
What follows is entirely personalopinion, posedfrom my admittedly limited and North Americanperspective.

ical activity consumedan estimated$1 biion. Its nearestrival,

mining, accountedfor $39 million or about 4 percent of the
petroleumbusiness.Figure 1 comparesthe remaininggeophysical
marketswith the mining sector.What is labelledas environmental by the SEG (no definitiongiven) is only about1 percentof this
pie. As many of the practitionersin this area may not be SEG
members,the real percentagecouldbe significantlylarger.

hats in a name? Environmentalgeologyhas been an establisheddiscipline since the late 70s and now constitutesthe
fastestgrowingsectorof the marketfor youngearthscientists.Environmentalengineering,whateverthat means,is becomingan establishedprogram in North American universities.(In Canada,
environmentalengineeringprogramsare seenby someof us as a
threat to the long establishedgeologicalengineeringprograms.)
We haveenvironmentalgeochemists,
environmentalchemists,environmentalbiologists,and a hostof other and curiousenvironmental scientists...but despitethe obviousenvironmentalapplications of geophysicswe, in North America at least,have shunned
environmentalgeophysicist.

Minerals
Engineering
Geothermal
Groundwater
Environmental

VV hat is at stake?In 1988, accordingto the SEG Geophysical

Activity Report (August 1989 ZZI$, petroleum-relatedgeophys7his article is a revisedtext of a keynoteaddressto a workshop
on environmental
geophysics
at theAnnualMeetingof the EAEG,
in Copenhagen,on May 28, 1990.

32

GEOPHYSICS:

THE LEADING

EDGE OF EXPLORATION

JANUARY

Figure 1. Worldwide data acquisitioncostsiu 1988 for nonpetroleumapplications.

1991

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This wouldnt be so bad if we didnt have in its placeseveral

misleadingand overlappinglabels. Most of us prefer to think of
ourselvessimply asgeophysicists.
But while thereare manytypes
of geophysicists,
a majorityof usat this meetingfall in thecategory
of exploration.
The basic subdivisionsof explorationare petroleum,mining,
and (for the moment) other. Once you reach other, you may
still have to elucidateyour interests,and clearly the choicesget
difficult. Geothermaland archaeologicalare clear enoughspecialties. But then we get into geotechnical,engineering,groundwater,
shallow, and now environmental.What do they mean? How do
they differ? Engineeringgeophysics,for example,which I sometimesclaim to do, is theonly oneof the groupthatmy 1984edition
of the EncyclopaedicDictionary of Geophysicsby Robert Sheriff
defines:use of geophysicalmethodsto get informationfor civil
engineers...usually restrictedto shallowerthan 1000 ft penetration. That definition is subtlydemeaning.It implies that we are
handmaidsfor civil engineers. Groundwater geophysicistis
datedand narrow, suggestingthe studyof supplybut not quality.
Geotechnicalgeophysicistis alliterativebut not really informative. Environmental has only vague implicationsof garbage
dumpsand valleys of drums. Shallow geophysicisthasan unfortunateconnotation,in the Englishlanguageat least!
Justwhat is the differencebetweenengineeringand geotechnical geophysics?
When is groundwatergeophysicsnot geotechnical, or environmental?Why do environmentalsurveysuse engineeringseismographs?
And so on!
If we have trouble with theselabels, what must thoseon the
outside looking in-students in particular-think? How much
simpler it would be to replacethesetired, redundantlabels with
one unifying modifier.
When you think about it, we could do a lot worsethan environmental! It implies the studyof the shallowsubsurface,the
interfacebetweengeologyand man. It has,anecologicalconnotation, of course,but it also hasthe wider meaningof determining surroundings.Many surveysare undertakento determinea
geologicor geotechnicalframework for projects.What we call
engineeringgeophysicalsurveysare often part of environmental
assessments.
Environmental couldembracebothour traditional targetsand the new, wastemanagementrelatedobjectives.It
would link us to the pressingmattersof the day. It is evocative
both to the professionand to the public of what we do. Furthermore, the newly definedfield wouldhave a substantialconstituency. In termsof expenditures(Figure 1) it wouldaccountfor roughly 30 percentof mining geophysics.

0 ur

ambivalence.A little personalhistorymayexplainmy point

of view. I am today a journeyman geophysicalprofessorin a
medium-sizeduniversity, specializing in what I like to call
environmentalgeophysics.Like many of you I am a refugee,in
my casefrom the oil industryand latterly from deepcrustalgeophysics.I decidedabout 12 yearsagothat electromagnetic
sounding of the deep crust, while an intellectuallystimulatingsubject,
was increasinglyless relevant. How many people,after all, care
if the electricalresistivity30 km beneathWest Virginia is 50 or
200 ohm-m. On theotherhand,well-fundedhydrogeologists
down
the hall had interestingproblemsconcernedwith contaminationin
shallow aquifers. Some of theseproblemscould benefit from a
geophysicistsperspective.These problems were of immediate
concernto thousands,perhapseven millions, of people.
This collaborationinevitablyled to otherprojectsin thegeneral
area called engineeringor geotechnicalgeophysics,but all these
projectswere now linked to a new reality (or buzzwordif you are
cynical) in the geosciences-theenvironment.
I dare say that many of you have had a similar careerpath.
Like me, you may have arrived in this challengingline of work
uncertainas to what exactly you shouldcall yourself and with a
feeling that your early training had not preparedyou particularly

well for your new surroundings.In mining andpetroleumexploration, geophysicsis well recognizedand integratedinto the team
effort. Geophysicaltraining in the universities recognizesthis
partnershipand preparesstudentsfor it with bridgingcoursessuch
as economicgeologyand sedimentology.Geophysicistsrise up
throughthe ranks in theseindustries,becomeexplorationmanagersand companypresidents.
But in the environmentalarea, geophysicists
from traditional
backgrounds
may find themselvesin very unfamiliar territorywith
unfamiliar partners.Why werewe-why may we continueto bepoorly prepared?Here are somepossibleexplanations.
Fear of tokenism.Perhapsgeophysicists
just takepridein bucking thetrendto environmentalize their trade.Let othersindulge
in buzzwords!
Ties to the exploiters. This view holds that explorationgeophysicistsand their societies,stronglylinked to resourceexploitation companies,avoid biting the handthat feedsthem.
Inertia of the establishment.Ourscan be a ratherconservative,
perhapseven arrogantdiscipline.We professorstend to teachthe
subjectswe were taught. Perhapsas a groupwe are a bit tied to
the star system,the established,more easily impressedby equation solving, complexinstrumentation,and softwaredevelopment
than the realitiesaboutus. We train data manipulators,not field
geophysicists.
The sameattitudethat once saw geologyas a largely unnecessarypart of a geophysicistseducationperhapsnow
views environmentalcoursesand programsas soft science,too
generaland broad in their scopefor the rigoroustraining that we
think is requiredof our discipline.

onsequences.So what if we have been a little late on the

bandwagon;doesit really matter?Well, I think it does in some
ways. Here are someconsequences
that cometo mind.
Professional control. One effectof the neglect,alludedto earlier, is that geophysicists
involved in environmentalprojectsare
still to someextentlookedon asservicemen,specialists
whotackle
a specifictask but are not capableof understandingthe overall
problem. As a result, few geophysicists
seemto make it into the
ranksof projectmanagers.
Split constituencies.A casecould be made that the development of environmentalgeophysicsin the past decadehas taken
place largely outside the establishedgeophysicssocietiesand
schools.In North America, for example,the NationalWater Well
Associationaggressivelytook up the slack. Two thousandpeople
attendedthe NWWA OutdoorAction conferencein Las Vegasin
April of 1990; one of the threecontinuouslyrunningsessionswas
on geophysics,mainly to do with groundwatercontamination.The
technicallevel of thesetalks is generallylower than at the EAEG
or SEG. Many of the presentershave very minimal qualifications
as geophysicists.
Often they are competentprofessionalsin other
areas-hydrogeologyor civil engineeringfor example-applying
geophysicsto their problems.They representgeophysicsto often
quite large audiences.
This is just the tip of the proverbialiceberg;there are today,
in North America at least, many peoplecalling themselvesgeophysicists,working in the environmentalfields, who do not have
the properqualificationsand who coulddo the professiona lot of
damage.They work instrumentsbut they havelittle idea asto how
they work. They interpretmapsby rote, with little appreciation
for the subtletiesof the geophysicalfields involved.
(Ironically, a contributingfactoris that someof the mostsuccessfulgeophysicalinstrumentsmanufacturedfor the environmental trade, suchas the GeonicsEM-31 or the ABEM WADI, are so
simple that anyonecan operatethem. This familiarity inevitably
leadsto the muchmore seriousillusion that the datacan be interpreted.)
Student enrollments: the next generation of geophysicists.

Demonstrablythe quantity, and in my experiencealsothe quality,

GEOPHYSICS:

THE LEADING

EDGE OF EXPLORATION

JANUARY

1991

33

149
129

109

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59

9
1993

1954

1995

1986

1957

1999

1999

1990

1995
1993
1994
Hydrogeology
Engineering geology

1995
1997
Geophysics
Geochemistry

1999
1999
Queternary
Other

Figure2. Undergraduateapplicationsin the fiit year of earth

sciences
at the Universityof Waterloo.

Figure 3. Graduateenrollmentby field of interestin the earth

of studentsentering the geosciences

as undergraduates
has been
falling steadilyin North Americaduring thepastsevenyears.The
data in Figure 2 are for earth sciencestudents(including a geophysicaloption) at the University of Waterloo, now one of the
largestundergraduate
schoolsin Canada.I believethey reflectthe
continentalsituationin geoscience,and geophysicsin particular,
quite well. Physicalgeographyand environmentalstudiesenrollments, on the otherhand, arc thriving.
We like to explainto ourselvesthatthisshrinkingpoolof talent
is linkedto thedecliningemploymentopportunitiesin the resource
industries.There is anotherand muchmore credibleexplanation;
the studentsdont find us relevantor interesting!Looking for a
challengingand sustainablecareer associatedwith the environment, theydont relatethatto whatthey seein Geology 101. How
much more so then geophysics,whichI am suggestingshunsthe
connectionmore than most.
(Interestingly enough at the graduatelevel, at least in my
university, things are quite different. As shown in Figure 3,
graduateintake into earth scienceshasbeen rising steadilyon the
basisof a huge interestin environmentalgeology/hydrogeology
andgeochemistry.
Geophysicshasremainedrelativelysteady.One
conclusionwe might draw from thesegraphsis thatgraduatestudents arent being drawn from the geoscienceundergraduate
population.This is partly correct;engineers,environmentalists,
geographers,
evenchemistsandmathematicians
are tilling thevoid
along with refugeesfrom othergeoscienceindustries.)

not going to be contentmuch longer with the highly averaged,

layeredinterpretations
thathavebeenthe halhnarkof shallowgeophysics.Numericalmodelsof thegroundwaterregimeare increasingly complex, and require increasinglymore detailedinformation from us. Radar and high-resolutionseismicreflectionhave
thepotentialto provideimagesof thesubsurface
at scalesthatcontrol groundwaterand contaminantmovement.
Graduuteprograms. More universities should promote environmentalgeophysics
as an areaof expertiseat the postgraduate
level. The training shouldincludefield work, geology,hydrogeology, computerprogrammingand interfacing,environmentalgeochemistry(includingorganics)and numericalmethodsand modeling in addition to the standardgeophysicalcourses.Graduates
shouldbe equallyat homeperforminga pumptestor wateranalysis
as a seismicsurvey.

W hetheror not you agreewith the remarksabove,the following recommendations

can do no harm.
Idenrification.We shouldcontinueto identify explorationgeophysicswith the environment,notjust for ourselvesbut for those
watchingus as well. We shouldcontinueto establishand define
thefield of environmentalgeophysics.
Thesearetasksfor societies
and schoolsalike. We shouldnot fear a small amountof tokenenvironmentalism.There.is a place for geophysicsin the environmental industryand we must stakethat ground. If geophysicists
arent doingthe geophysics,someoneelsewill be. To thisendenvironmental geophysicsshouldbe firmly establishedwithin the
major geophysicalsocieties,wherethere are standardsfor membership.
Futurechallenges.As part of thisprocessof identification,we
should point out the challengesthat environmentalgeophysics
faces.Particularlyexcitingare: thedevelopmentof long-termgeophysicalcontaminant monitoring for hazardouswaste sites; the
immenselydifficult (but potentiallyvery profitable)taskof detecting organiccontaminantssuchas petroleumor solventsin shallow aquifers;and the steadilyescalatingdemandfor imagesof the
subsurface.
In this latter regard,1 sensethat the expectations
of geophysics in the environmentalarea as a wholeare changing.Clientsare

sciences
at the Universityof Waterloo.

Finally, is it appropriateto talk aboutfun?In thisgrowingfield

thereare few megaprojects,few specialists.One must do almost
everythingoneself,run magnetometers,
seismicreflection,radar,
processdata, massageclients, advertise, write reports,juggle
books...youname it. What a pleasure.to see the rise.of a grass
rootsgeophysicalindustrywhereall handsaredirty, whereresponsibility comesearly, whereingenuity,perseverance
and luck must
complementtechnicalskills. Its reminiscentof the storieswe read
in THE LEADING EDGE of pioneerdays in the oil industry.What
a contrastto the specializedjobs that so many in the geophysical
professionput up with, jobs conductedfrom the tenthfloor of office buildingsin London,Houstonor Calgary. Environmentalgeophysicsis fun and it is relevant; studentsshouldbe told that.
Though it may never employ more than a small fraction of explorationgeophysicists,
it is surelyan opportuneplaceto be, and
at an opportunetime g
Acknowledgments:
Thispaper had its originsin a conversation
in
the ChallengerBar in Breslau,Ontario,one ihursdayevening
followingyet anothergeophysical
surveyof the Breslubeplume. My
fellow patronsdo not necessarilyendorsetheseviews,but they
contributedto them.I also thankNiels Christensen
of the Universityof Aarhus,Denmark,whoorganizedthe EAEG Workshop
on
EnvironmentalGeophysics.

34 GEOPHYSICS:THE LEADING EDGE OF EXPLORATION JANUARY 1991

JohnP. Greenhouse
is an environmentalgeophysicist
and
associate
professorin the Department of Earth Sciences,
Universityof Waterloo.He attendedthe Universityof British G&mbia and the Universityof California.SanDiego,
receivinga doctoratein 1972
from UCSD.