Forensic Geologist

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Forensic Geologist

• scientific application of earth sciences to
  legal matters.
• Forensic geology began with the writings of Sir
  Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes
  series between 1887 to 1927. The idea of using
  science as an aid in criminal investigation was
  foreshadowed in his fictional works.

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By analyzing materials including a piece of
industrial debris or coal, soil particles on
shoes and clothing, type of rock, water
chemistry, and/or other earth materials, forensic
geologists often can help identify
where, when, and/or how incidents occurred and
who is responsible.
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Crime Scene Examples

• Rape ?Soil on clothing of a suspected rapist was
  used to place the suspect at the crime scene and
  to eliminate the suspect's alibi small bits of
  coal in the soil sample from the suspects pant
  cuffs provided additional evidence when
  historical aerial photographs showed that coal
  was stored at the location of the rape.
• Murder ?Soil and other earth materials found on
  murder victims have been used to determine the
  location of homicides, especially when the murder
  occurs in one location and the body is disposed
  in another location. And, using water-current
  measurements, forensic geologists have located
  bodies/objects thrown into water or, conversely,
  determined where the newly discovered body/object
  originally entered the water.

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A Career in Forensic Geology

• Forensic geologists must be familiar with data
  collection and analysis selection of
  investigative methods and multiple working
  hypotheses.
• Evaluations often are circumstantial or
  anecdotal, rather than direct.
• Conclusions are based on several lines of
  evidence for which the simplest causal
  explanation is invoked and tested.
• Forensic geologists must also Infer conclusions
  from limited data sets and must always consider
  scale, relative position, and timing of
  relationships.
• FORENSIC GEOLOGY may be the next big potential
  area of employment for professional geologists.
  The leap from environmental geology to forensic
  geology is not far, considering the similar
  investigative techniques, technologies, and
  reasoning.
• Education Masters degree or a PhD in geology
• Most have full-time jobs at a research university
  or in other
• areas of geology and consult part-time in
  forensic geology.

Main Sources www.geoforensics.com and
www.forensicgeology.net