Geologic Website of the Month
Geology.com
Michael F. Forlenza, P.G.
HGS Bulletin Editor
Typing the word "geology" into the Google Internet search engine will return more than 25 million results. Typing "geology" into the Yahoo search engine will return more than 87 million results. At the top of both of these lists is the link to Geology.com.
Geology.com is a lively website with a broad approach to the earth sciences and related subjects and presents material drawn from many sources. The Geology.com homepage has a clean, straightforward, newspaper-type layout. A header bar allows access to area of the website such as News, Articles, Careers, and World Maps. The body of the homepage is arranged in four columns with lists on the left and right and introductions to articles in the middle two columns. Each article introduction has a title, a brief summary, and thumbnail photograph. Larger photographs of featured articles are located at the top of the columns. The list of articles provided on the homepage is quite extensive with more than 45 selections displayed.
The articles are the heart of Geology.com. These articles cover a wide range of geological topics and timely subjects including such items as: Hurricane Ike damage photographs, the Phoenix Mars Lander, the geology of bottled water, blood diamonds, and the Marcellus shale. The articles are accompanied by excellent illustrations, graphics, and photographs. The interesting article on East African rifts has several excellent maps and beautiful photographs [http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtml].
The homepage is dense with hundreds links in the lists that connect to the extensive resources throughout Geology.com. The most popular links are listed on the left and the constantly-updated list of geology items in the news is on the right. The well-organized access to a wide selection US and World maps and satellite images available on the website is useful.
The Careers page on Geology.com does not list job openings but provides articles on the job market for geologists and links to employers that typically hire geoscientists. The links are grouped into several categories including: headhunters, oil and gas companies, oil field services companies, environmental/engineering companies, government agencies, mineral companies, and academic institutions. The online Geology.com store sells the popular Roadside Geology books, other earth science texts, and some supplies for field geologists such as waterproof notebooks and pens.
Geology.com is published by Dr. Hobart King. Dr. King holds a BS in geology from California University of Pennsylvania and an MS and PhD in geology from West Virginia University and is a licensed professional geologist.
He worked as a geologist at the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey from 1980 until 1994 where he held positions as a coal geologist, economic geologist, and head of the Economic Minerals and Geologic Hazard Section. In 1994, he joined the faculty of Mansfield University and taught the school’s first online course. He was the director of Mansfield University's Center for Effective Teaching and is the author of Hazard City: Assignments in Applied Geology, a CD that accompanies geology textbooks published by Prentice Hall.
According to Dr. King, the content for the articles on Geology.com comes from three sources in approximately equal proportions: guest authors, republication of public domain content, and articles that he writes himself. "Most of the content on the site is written for the non-geologist and entry-level geology student," said Dr. King. "The goal is to provide content that they will find interesting and hopefully useful, presented at a level that they will understand."
Geology.com, which has thousands of visitors each day, tries to provide content that is of interest to both the layman and the professional. "I have two hopes," said Dr. King. "First, I hope that many people who are not geologists arrive at the site and find something that deepens their interest in the subject. Second, I hope that the site offers some resources that geologists use regularly. Many practicing geologists have subscribed to our daily news email."
Dr. King acquired the Geology.com domain in an auction in 2005, which, at that time, was a domain with about six pages of content. He retired from Mansfield University in 2008 to work full time on Geology.com. "The main reason that I started Geology.com is that I enjoy learning about geology and sharing that information with other people," said Dr. King.
The content of the website is continually adjusted based on the popularity of the articles. The continuous maintenance and updating of the website represents a significant level of effort by the limited staff at Geology.com. In addition to Dr. King, the website has a full-time webmaster and cartographer, and a half-time artist and researcher.
Geology.com is a commercial website supported by advertising. However, the advertisements themselves are very unobtrusive. On the homepage there are no visible advertisements. Most of the linked pages have several small sponsored areas along the side or at the bottom. The entire website is thankfully free of banner ads, pop-up ads, or flashing and dancing advertisements.
Michael F. Forlenza. P.G.
hgs.forlenza@gmail.com
HGS Editor