Building Houses With Geological Concerns in Mind

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When people start looking for land to build a house, the first things that often come to mind are property value and beauty. Unfortunately, it can feel like geologists often get overlooked in this part of the process. While a realtor’s job is to sell a piece of property by making it as appealing as possible, it’s irresponsible for anyone in the housing market to ignore geological warnings when it comes to building something new.

Because geologists often get ignored when it comes to home-building, far too many people make the mistake of building on land that is susceptible to earthquakes, flooding, or landslides.

So, what can geologists do to have a greater presence in the real estate industry? How can you make a difference and work with home-builders to ensure the safety and security of newly-constructed homes on the right kind of property?

Understanding the Ideal Home Location

The ideal home location in the eyes of a geologist may not be the same as the ideal location for a realtor or buyer. One of the first things you can do to get a better understanding of the risks in certain locations is to educate yourself on geologic hazards in that location. Some of the most common concerns for specific locations include:

 

●     Tornadoes

●     Hurricanes

●     Landslides

●     Tsunamis

●     Earthquakes

 

Obviously, different concerns affect different parts of the country. So, it’s not enough to only understand some of the risks of your own area. That’s especially true if you want to branch out and work with contractors across the country.

The more you know about different geological hazards in different locations, the easier it will be to keep builders informed. Realtors constantly use the “location, location, location” motto when it comes to selling a piece of land or a home, but as a geologist, you can help them to find the ideal location that is as safe from disaster as it is beautiful.

Image credit Tony-Lam-Hoang on Wunderstock

Working With Contractors

If you contract your services out, you can work with building contractors or directly with those interested in building or rennovating a home to make sure they aren’t building on land with geological concerns. On top of that, any good contractor is sure to ask their clients questions about what they’re looking for in a project, including how long they plan to stay in their home and other expectations they might have — which means you as a geological contractor should be doing the same.

You should also ask specific questions and make sure they understand your concerns about the location they’re choosing. You can ask them how they plan to utilize the property while guiding them on some of the best practices to keep their new construction safe. That could include foundational changes, like using shock absorbers or making the foundation more flexible, depending on the risk of geological activity in a particular area. It’s important to emphasize that on top of everything else homebuyers should keep an eye out for when buying a new house, they should also be aware of where that house is located.

If you spend enough time working with contractors, you might even think about designing your own buildings and homes that are structurally sound and meant to withstand some geological problems, like earthquakes. The more you learn about the construction industry, the more you can do to keep people safe. The more the home-building industry knows about geology, the more they will take natural disasters seriously when it comes to laying the foundation for a new house.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone, but it’s especially important for any family that wants to build a new house. Without the knowledge of a geologist in a geologically-active area, that family could be placing themselves in great danger in a very short amount of time.

Image credit Alex-Siale on Wunderstock

Working With Realtors

Another route you could take when it comes to utilizing your geological skills is to work with a local real estate office. Again, realtors want to list land that is appealing in every way possible. You can work with them by surveying their land options for things like:

●     Seismic activity

●     Likelihood of a landslide

●     Wildfire threats

●     Flooding concerns

These aren’t necessarily geological hazards that would completely prevent anyone from building on a lot. But, a home-builder needs to be made aware of these issues. It might force the realtor to lower the price of the land, but transparency can get it sold faster.

There are plenty of geology jobs to consider when you’re an expert in your field. But, working with people who are about to build a house can be an incredibly fulfilling reward, simply because you could be saving lives. The more geologists that get involved with building houses, the more people will take notice of geological concerns and potential hazards.

Find ways to work with builders, contractors, and realtors in your own neighborhood to make sure you’re all on the same page when it comes to keeping homeowners safe in their new construction for years to come. Even if you start small, you can use your skills to eventually branch out across the country and help connect geology and real estate once and for all. The more geologists who take an active interest in such things, the more lives can be saved from natural disasters.

Indiana Lee is a  journalist from the Pacific Northwest with a passion for covering workplace issues, environmental protection, social justice, and more. When she is not writing you can find her deep in the mountains with her two dogs. Follow her work on Contently, or reach her at [email protected]

The Fitness of Geology

"I do not know of any fields in which professionals enjoy their work more than geologists do. Perhaps this is due to the uniqueness of work in the geological sciences. What other science requires the use of both the mind and body?" ——John Wakabayashi

Science is a labor of the mind and will, but some of its specialties call upon the muscles as well. Perhaps the foremost of those is geology. I believe geologists are the fittest of scientists and, aside from one or two specific hazards, the most likely to have long and productive lives.

Meeting Chair John Wakabayashi talks about the geology along Panoche Road

Physical Fitness

The geologist's fieldwork is the kind of freeform, nonrepetitive workout that gyms can't offer:

• For legs and feet there's lots of walking, kneeling, crouching and standing on tiptoe at outcrops.
• For core strength and cardiovascular fitness there's carrying a pack while scrambling over boulders, slogging down streambeds and clambering around quarries. There's reaching high overhead for that elusive mineral pocket and lying down at full length to get the closest view of an exposure.
• For the upper body there's turning and lifting rocks, as well as the free-weight exercise known as using a rock hammer. There's drilling core, holding maps in the breeze, pushing aside brush.
• Lastly, geologists talk using their hands and arms vigorously. This is especially true of structural geologists. There's a joke that the way to shut geologists up is to tie their arms down.

Carrying specimens back to the vehicle combines all of these. And every minute of the day is different.

A day in the field leaves one pleasantly tired and ready for a mild muscle relaxant.

Mental Fitness

At every step geologists are also using their eyes and minds. Geology seems particularly to call upon multiple intelligences as well as the method of multiple working hypotheses.

Fieldwork is motion with a point—it is constant observation. They say that the best geologist is the one who has seen the most rocks. Seeing rocks is an intense mental workout in four dimensions, three in space and one in time. The minerals, textures, fabric, colors and fossils all must be noted and assessed. The regional setting and neighboring rocks bear on the immediate scene as well.

When rocks are brought back to the laboratory, all the field evidence must be kept in mind there too—and when the field site is revisited, the lab results may change what to look at. Indeed, they may change what is being seen.

The ability to plan complex undertakings and change plans on the fly is an essential geologic skill. Whether it's equipment breakdowns, injury or illness in the team, bad weather, the threat of wild animals, or salvaging a failed expedition, mental fitness is what prevails. The exemplar in this respect is one-armed geologist John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition down the Grand Canyon in 1869 without a map and emerged a hero.

Mental exercise is known to help prevent or forestall dementias related to age, such as Alzheimer's disease. Playing chess works, but the geologist's open-ended kind of mental exercise is better suited to our native brain. Geologists who teach or give presentations—that is, most of them—get the same stimulation year round. And in a field that many can excel in, but none can master, the challenge of geology never fades.

Social Fitness

The day is long gone when geology was a solo occupation. Well-run teams do better science than individuals. The best geologist must not only see the most rocks, but must work well with the most people. The best geologist is effective in email as well as in the field: a glance at the authorship of journal articles shows that collaborators may be anywhere in the world.

A geologist may deal with suspicious landowners to gain access to their property, not to mention strangers in the woods and petty officials in foreign countries. All of these possibilities call for good social skills. And after every interaction, geologists have another story to tell each other.

Hazards of the Field

Physical, mental and social fitness go far in the field, but some special hazards wait there too. Bears and wolves and other large animals make firearms a necessity in many areas. Falls, cuts and sprains require skill with first aid. There are hazardous plants to watch out for, too. Although technology makes hunger, thirst and getting lost less likely than in the old days, a passing familiarity with wilderness survival is good to have.

Then there's the sun. Long hours in the sun, especially at high altitude, make skin cancer an occupational hazard for geologists.

Finally, it's essential to be a good driver, and it's helpful to be handy with tools. Every geologist has at least one story about a car, a boat or a plane

.