California Budget woes may cause the Board for Geologists and Geophysicists to be eliminated and its functions to be transferred to the Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors as reported by Ken at the GeoSlice blog. The proposed consolidation is described on Page 26 of the California State Budget 2009-10. According to Ken, the state board says the plan is not finalized yet and concerned Californians should contact their representatives.
The California Geologic Survey has published a new map of landslide susceptibility for the entire state of California. It addresses only deep-seated landslides, not shallow slides such as debris flows. The criteria used for developing […]
From the USGS Newsroom:
USGS scientist Ken Hudnut fills us in on how science created the theoretical magnitude 7.8 earthquake behind the Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history, coming Nov. 13—and what such an earthquake would do to downtown Los Angeles.
Seems like they did it right wiith this study. They had multiple teams independenlty come up with the ground shaking model, then had different structural engineers who are experts in seismic design of large buildings review the tall buildings in the L.A. area for the design earthquake. They say that buildings would likely come down in the 7.8 magnitude event. Click through to watch the video interview from the USGS.
These are some really fantastic photos of the Devil’s Slide tunnel construction. For those who aren’t familiar, the tunnels will be bypassing a particularly landslide and rockslide-prone portion of the California Coast that is currently […]
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To all concerned,
I am a masters level geologist, specializing in asbestos mineralogy, with numerous professional publications. Geology is a science, and as such never have been a licensed any more than chemists, physicists, biologist, geneticists… If one penny of taxpayer money is going into this Board, it must be eliminated. It is illigetimate, and should not be part of any agency within the California government.
Many geologists are specialists in some area of geology, as are most real scientists, and they are excluded from the Board. I think you will find most University Professors in geology are not licenced.
The Board is a club of geotechnicians (for the most part, I am not generalizing to all Board members) whose sole purpose is the create for themselves a group that has a license to make money under certain requirements that no one practice geology in the State without a license. The state might just as well take taxpayer money and put it in their pockets. They are not qualified to practice under the scope that they practice.
So, worse than a total waste of money for the taxpayer – a rediculously underqualified group of geotechnicians who have usurped the science of geology.
You should have seen it when it was the RG exam with a 22% pass rate. In those days geology professors sat on the Board and made up the questions. The thinking was if you could pass such a tremendously difficult test then you really had to know your stuff. That was the theory anyway. The RG test was far more comprehensive, especially with regards to structure, than any college course I ever took. It’s easier now that it’s based on the Asbog. Smart MD like you ought to be able to pass it no trouble.