About Ask-A-Geologist
- How does Ask-A-Geologist work?
- Who answers the questions?
- How many questions have been answered? (and other statistics)
- A brief history of Ask-A-Geologist
Email messages sent to "ask-a-geologist@usgs.gov" are saved until 1:15 AM Pacific Time.
At that time, each participating scientist receives a fixed number
of the previous day's messages, forwarded by custom software.
We usually get more questions than we can answer,
and those questions get no reply due to problems with junk email.
Ask-A-Geologist scientists research the answers to the questions,
then reply directly by email.
Our goal is to reply to all questions within three working days.
Ask-A-Geologist questions are answered by USGS employees, retirees, and contractors
who have volunteered to participate in the project.
Most Ask-A-Geologist scientists work on these questions on their own time,
during lunch or after work.
Their job titles include geologist, hydrologist, cartographer, and technician.
Their experience ranges from recent college graduates
to senior scientists with more than 30 years experience.
Questions are not assigned by specialty, so a question about earthquakes
might go to a specialist in ground water.
All Ask-A-Geologist scientists have a general background in the earth sciences,
and an enthusiasm for answering a broad range of questions.
Many scientists enjoy finding answers to questions outside their specialty.
Ask-A-Geologist scientists often learn new things and make new contacts
that help their regular work in multidisciplinary projects.
- We received over 38,000 messages October 1994 through April 1999.
- We answered more than 20,000 questions October 1994 through April 1999.
- We received an average of 1809 messages per month
January through March 1999.
- We answered an average of 876 messages per month
January through March 1999, 48% of the incoming messages.
- 147 USGS scientists answer questions (April 1999).
- Most scientists answer six questions once per month.
October 1994
Ask-A-Geologist starts as an experiment with 35 USGS scientists
in Palo Alto, California.
One scientist answers all the questions received on a given day of the month.
In the first month, Ask-A-Geologist receives 127 messages.
September 1995
Ask-A-Geologist shut down due to widespread layoffs at USGS.
October 1995
Ask-A-Geologist is revived and reinvented,
using over 300 scientists nationwide to answer questions.
Each message received is forwarded to a different scientist.
The Ask-A-Geologist project wins the U.S. Department of Interior Innovation Award.
November 1995
Ask-A-Geologist receives 209 messages.
December 1995
Ask-A-Geologist shut down this month due to US Government shutdown.
October 1996
Ask-A-Geologist receives 595 messages.
October 1997
Ask-A-Geologist receives 1121 messages.
January 1998
Due to overwhelming demand, new software limits the number
of questions answered each day.
Ask-A-Geologist receives 1147 messages.
About 60% get answers.
October 1998
Ask-A-Geologist software rewritten to save all the messages for a day,
then forward to scientists for answers.
Scientists can answer questions more efficiently.
Ask-A-Geologist receives 1505 messages.
About 50% get answers.
October 1999
Ask-A-Geologist receives 1723 messages.
About 51% get answers.
For Further Information
For more information about the Ask-A-Geologist project,
contact the project coordinator, Rex Sanders, rsanders-at-usgs.gov.
Please do not send earth science questions to this address.
Return to Ask-A-Geologist page.
Disclaimers
Privacy Statement
URL: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/ask-a-geologist/about.html
Maintained by: Rex Sanders
Last modified:
2003 April 3