Mineral mining may not be what it once was in Chattanooga, but that doesn’t mean local geologists don’t have essential roles to play in our community which don’t have anything to do with mining. The work of a geologist is quite varied, says Dr. Habte Giorgis Churnet, head of the department of physics, geology and astronomy at UTC.
Some of a geologist’s daily tasks include sampling rocks, soils, or water for quality work. Many geologists also do laboratory analysis either of a descriptive nature or using appropriate instruments such as transmitted, reflected and SEM microscopes. Churnet has a bachelor’s degree in geology from Haile Sellasie University located in Ethiopia. He earned his master’s degree in geophysics from Leeds University in the U.K. and his doctorate in geology at UTK.
Churnet’s own expertise lies in petrogenesis and the application of geologic principles to the understanding of the geology of the southeastern U.S. His contributions include studies of sedimentary rocks and carbonate-hosted metallic deposits of East Tennessee, paleoclimate of the southeastern U.S. as deduced from chert, and tectonism in that same region.
His previous work experience includes summer employment by Anaconda Copper Company in Charlottesville, Va., Gulf Oil Company of Ethiopia at Asmara, and by the Ethiopian Geological survey mapping in the vicinity of Adigrat. Churnet says students who are graduates of geology may find work in the government with the U.S. Geological Survey, the state of Tennessee, or TVA. Graduates can also opt to go with a private company such as Marion Environmental, Inc., Arcada, Qore Property Sciences, or S&ME, Inc. They also have the option to teach pre-college students.
Students who choose to study geology may takes classes to learn the ages and times of rock formation, about the remains of organisms in rocks, about the origins of rocks; hazards of a geological nature, studying the waters of the land, environmental geology; studying the construction of the earth’s rock layer and studying the rocks of our region.
Many people think geologists don’t do anything but drill for oil and gas, says Andy Hartman, a professional geologist who currently works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Center Hill Dam and Wolf Creek Dam major rehab projects.
With the Corps, he works as a geologist and quality assurance representative on construction contracts within the Nashville district. He completed his bachelor’s degree in geology at UTC and his master’s in soil science at UTK. He entered the field of geology because as a kid he was a “rock hound” and loved crawling into any cave he could find.
Hartman works mainly in the field of engineering geology, and concentrates on investigation, construction and remedial works to civil engineering jobs. He has worked in environmental geology, and says his specialty is in karst geology and soils.
His recommendation for those wanting to get into the field is to get a degree in geotechnical engineering and geology.
“Engineers rule the world, but most can’t think outside the box or the equation: a geologist can,” Hartman says. Hartman says that, to his knowledge, there are no active surface or underground coal, copper, or zinc mines anywhere near Hamilton County anymore. The coal mines in the area started winding down in the ’80s.
“There were a few feeble attempts to surface mine near old underground sites, but they were mainly wildcat mines and never developed,” he says. “The old mine adits you see on Edwards Point and around Timesville on Signal were probably done in by the 1960’s.”
Coker Creek, also in Monroe County, is the only gold district in Tennessee, but only one ounce of gold is found for every four tons of soil moved.
“The only thing close to ‘mining’ any more is mountain stone, and the economy has pretty much shut that down for the time being,” he says.
The reason for the phasing out of mining in the area is the high sulfur content in the Tennessee soil, Hartman says, which makes mining unprofitable for the most part. In Chattanooga, oil shale has the possibility to be mined once the technology is put in place to do so. Currently, the pyrite in oil shale oxidizes the product. Possibly the effects on the land is another reason mining has diminished. The main effect of coal mines is acid mine drainage. Strip mines usually heal over time with poplar, blackberry bush, and low pH loving vegetation being introduced, he says.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service used to administer the Rural Abandoned Mine Program (RAMP), which used funds supplied by a tax on underground and surface mined coal to reclaim abandoned mine lands. The fund is still there, the tax is still applied, but NRCS has not gotten any money for the work since the mid 1990s, Hartman says, as he can verify from his time working for NRCS as state geologist from 1992 to 2008. Hartman and Churnet agree that even with the mining business diminished in the area, there is still plenty for geologists to do above and below our community’s surface.