Marcellus Shale Drilling Fuels Gelogy Program

marcellus shale Drilling fuels geology program’s growth industry grant gives students hands-on experience he impact of gas drilling in the Marcellus shale is a widely debated subject. While educators and industry leaders discuss its pros and cons, at least one Cal U professor strives to remain neutral on the subject.

“I try to stay out of the Marcellus shale debate, because our program is winning on both sides of the industry,” says Dr. Kyle Fredrick, an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences.

“The growth of the geology program has been amazing over the last four years, and much of it can be attributed to the recent boom in gas drilling.”

Enrollment figures support his claim. In the past four years, the number of geology majors has nearly tripled, to 60.

Since natural gas drilling rigs have become familiar sights throughout the region, the role of the geologist has become more visible — on both sides of the debate.

“Geologists are needed for both resource exploitation and studying the environmental impacts of drilling,” Fredrick says. “This has ultimately created a lot of local job opportunities for our students.”

The drilling side of the oil and gas industry employs geologists to make site assessments, to plot locations for gas wells and to monitor potential hazards.

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Dr. Kyle Fredrick (center) talks with students Brian Nicholson (left) and Andrew Jinkens about the effect of a fallen tree on the Pike Run waterway.

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On the environmental side, energy firms hire geologists to create sediment control plans and assess sites for damage.

As the need for geologists continues to grow throughout the Marcellus shale play, the Earth Sciences Department is emphasizing hands-on experience to give Cal U students a competitive advantage in the job market.

Mining real-world data Less than a mile from campus, Pike Run sweeps past Rotary Park before emptying into the Monongahela River.

Although the small waterway is a popular fishing spot, abandoned coal mines, mine pools and old septic systems along its path have a negative influence on the watershed.

The stream provides the perfect opportunity for geology students to conduct research and gather data, just as professional geologists might do in the field. But until recently, a lack of equipment hindered those efforts.

Enter Dominion, one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy.

In September the company awarded Cal U a $30,000 education grant to develop a network of hydrologic instruments so students can gain experience with real-world data and analysis.

Using the instruments, students will conduct a short-term evaluation of the water quality of Pike Run and its associated tributaries.

rappelling robot looks at rocks

Touring a Cal U lab are (from left) Dr. Tom Wickham, chair of the Earth Sciences Department; James Mesloh, executive director of the Dominion Foundation; and Dr. Kyle Fredrick, of the geology program.

“The idea is to develop a monitoring network throughout the watershed, so we can see what is entering and exiting the stream,” Fredrick explains.

Students will be involved throughout the entire project. The hydrology class will help to lay out the monitoring grid, the geographic information systems (GIS) class will create a map of the grid, and the watershed evaluation class will use the data to study the flow and chemistry of the water.

Overall, Cal U geology students will have the opportunity to both collect and analyze meaningful, real-world data using state-of-the-art instruments.

“The process of taking raw information and trying to understand what it is telling you is critical,” says Fredrick. “That is something students will do every day at their future jobs.”

Connecting to careers “I believe the opportunity to conduct research at Cal U presents additional hands-on field work that would be attractive to potential employers,” says Andrew Jinkens, a junior geology major.

Like Jinkens, many Cal U students understand the importance of adding fieldwork to their resume as a step toward future employment. They also are making connections within the energy industry.

With more than 50 active members, the Geology Club at Cal U connects students to industry representatives at the local and national levels.

Geology students (from left) Nathan Polen and Brian Nicholson review data on water quality with Dr. Kyle Fredrick (right).

Club members present at national conferences, help local Boy Scouts obtain merit badges, judge competitions for the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences, and take field trips throughout the year.

“What we are planning for the future of the Geology Club is something I believe will help put the Cal U geology program on the map,” says senior geology major Bryan Nicholson.

With an increased emphasis on research, a club that interacts with industry representatives and strong connections to local Marcellus shale jobs, the geology program is focused on guiding students toward successful careers.

“The most appealing thing is that the program is rapidly growing, but it still is small enough to remain personal,” says Jinkens.

“The facilities are new, the students and staff are motivated, and the more people become interested, the faster this program will continue to grow.”

By Jeff Bender, PR and Web writer at Cal U

What happens when geology students want to study rock formations on dangerous cliffs?

Th e y us e a robot built by Cal U students.

In a collaborative project between the geology and robotics programs at Cal U, students were tasked with creating a prototype robot that could scale steep ledges and capture close-up images of the Earth’s surface.

“We met with Dr. Kyle Fredrick of the Earth Sciences Department to develop specifications for what the robot needed to accomplish,” says Anthony Rodi, an assistant professor in the Department of Math, Science and Information Systems and the former director of the National Center for Robotics Engineering Technology Education.

“A lot of the robot parts were fabricated by our students, and the end result was great.”

The robot consists of a small video camera mounted on wheels. The wheels allow the remote-controlled robot to move up and down a rope suspended from the top of a rock formation. Geologists can stand on solid ground, yet collect images along the rock face.

The design has been a huge success.

Frederick uses the robot to teach his students, and he and Rodi showed it off to more than 18,000 geophysicists from around the world last year at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Rodi says the real success comes when two unrelated areas, such as geology and robotics, find productive new ways to work together.

“We are always looking for ways to collaborate and keep projects studentcentered,” he says. “We are here for the students, and we should give them the most opportunities possible.”

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