The Way of the Geophysicist.

I am geophysicist by heart.
But why do I love this subject that much?!

I was some kind of a special child. When others played in a sandpit I started investigating the gravel quarry and actually did a geological analysis of the local gravel quarry. And I was quite successfull competing at science competitions with geological and geophysical topics. I was fairly surprised, when I realised that the ground I'm living on didn't exist until recent geological history. But how come I study geophysics and not geology?!

gnuckx on Flickr :: CC BY 2.0 (unported)

Geophysics describes the physical processes forming and altering our earth. These physical processes are what fascinates me.
Look at volcanos! They are beautiful, majestic, dangerous. This does not stop at the surface, because when you look at the physical effects of emergence of volcanos and magma chambers, your mind will be blown! This goes on with earthquakes and the propagation of seismic waves through the earth. When it comes to questions about the magnetic field of the earth a geophysicist will be able to answer a couple of interesting questions.
Of course, geophysics doesn't stop at the shear observation of natural phenomenae. When it comes to the explanation of physical processes of the earth, geophysicists can rely on high-end supercomputers and advanced software for modelling these phenomenae. But these models need to rely on the laws of physics and there are several constraints and processes that can help explain certain phenomenae. Just look at earthquakes, here you have to have a look at plate tectonics and therefore stress-strain relations so pressure can build up. When earthquakes happen we can invert the waves travelling through the subsurface and locate the earthquake and analyze if what caused this particular earthquake.
In geophysics we do still have some fundamental research to do. If we look at the geomagnetic field, we still don't understand how it is generated. Additionally, there are some misconceptions about geophysics, like a huge misconception that people think the earths mantle is in a fluid phase, while it actually ist solid but ductile/plastic.

As you can easily see, there are a lot of fields involved in geophysics. We need the basics from physics and mathematics to fully understand dynamic processes in the subsurface. Geological knowledge is from great value then it comes to structural or tectonic relations of various areas. Since geophysics relies on models and numerical inversion a lot, computer science in the sense of programming and optimization play a huge role in making research and data processing possible. This list is quite extensible, because there are some adjacent fields that can provide valuable information for certain adjacent fields. Just to name an example, communication engineering can be quite useful in seismic data processing, because information can be transmitted by using (polarized) waves in both cases.

Summing up one could say, that sometimes you get out into the field or even on a ship, or if you're one of the best you even get sent into space². There you work with great technology and then back home analyse everything with high-end computers. You engineer new algorithms to process this data and can be a huge nerd when chatting with friends. Now and then it's time you realise you have a great life.

So tell me: Who wouldn't want to be a geophysicist?!

Be sure to follow me, when I go into detail about interesting geophysical topics, coming up soon!