Ask a geologist

A.A.S. '93 Surveying and Mapping Hometown: Eau Claire, Wisc. Fun Fact: Greg-an Army veteran-was stationed at the Nike Site outside Anchorage during the Cold War.

On any given day, Greg Durocher may find himself corresponding with recently-rattled homeowners, prisoners who want to escape to Alaska, conspiracy theorists looking for confessions or weekend explorers who may or may not have found a dinosaur egg.

When his desk phone rings, he has no idea who is calling or where they're from. It's an entertaining game of roulette, and one that's kept him in his job with USGS Science Information Services (SIS) for decades.

As chief of the Alaska SIS division, Greg fields questions from across the country for the US Geological Survey (USGS). He tweets, emails, posts on Facebook, answers the phone and even live chats-all to answer the burning geologic questions of our nation. "We're kind of where the public meets the USGS," Greg said of his department.

The USGS operates five SIS offices, all in different time zones. By the time Greg arrives at his office-located on campus at Alaska Pacific University-his colleagues in Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and California are already busy answering the world's geology questions. When all five offices are online, the questions rotate through the country-for 12 minutes each hour, the emails pour into Greg's office, then rotate elsewhere so he and his staff can fire off replies. At the end of the day, as the sun sets across the country, Greg answers the remaining trickle of questions from his desk-surrounded by rock specimens on his shelves and photographs of mountains tacked to his corkboard-and signs off for the day.

Greg's been with USGS since the postage stamp was still a vital means for communication, and he's continually adapted as technology keeps changing the ways we seek information. When he first started-armed with a B.S. in geology from his home state of Wisconsin-streams of energetic explorers and Alaska adventurers would pour through the USGS office, looking for maps, details and insight from Greg's office. The energy of these visitors-coupled with his location adjacent to the USGS Map Store-prompted him to seek a degree in surveying and mapping at UAA.

The rocks haven't changed since he earned his degree, but his job certainly has. As technology advanced, things moved online and, as a final indicator of the changing times, the long-standing USGS Map Store shuttered its doors at the end of October. Foot traffic at Greg's office has all but disappeared in the past few months, as both the maps and people's questions have moved almost entirely online.

Likewise, the flood of letters has all but ended. "Whenever we get an envelope with a stamp now, 99 percent of the time it's from a prison someplace," Greg said (prisoners may lack Internet access, but still have questions to ask about Alaska).

Although the Internet significantly changed how his office operates, it's likewise opened up access to thousands of people. "It's been an interesting transformation," he noted. He can now talk to anyone in the world through Facebook or live chat, and he's welcomed the challenge of condensing scientific explanations into tweets. "Maybe I'll use a more sophisticated term that they might have to look up, but it says everything you want it to say in one scientific word," he says. "They can Google it and find a definition."

That "teach a man to fish" philosophy extends to everything he does. Rather than just tell someone the magnitude of an earthquake, he'll link them to the real time earthquake map-sortable by date and severity-to see when and where a quake hit, who reported it and what other parts of the country are currently shaking and rattling.

After years on the job, he's pretty good at knowing his audience. For instance, he can generally tell when college kids are just looking for quick answers to their homework (especially when they forget to delete the assignment information). "I'll send them links so they can look up their answers, but I won't answer their questions," he laughed.

Greg assigns questions to his Alaska team as they come in, but he's quick to claim any rock-related inquiries. "I love identifying rocks," he said. The emails all start the same-"I found this rock"-and then go one to speculate whether or not it's a meteorite or a fossilized dinosaur egg. With only photos and descriptions to work with, Greg sends along his best guesses, often accompanied with an image of a rock from his own vast collection (it hasn't been a dinosaur egg... yet).

Now that the Map Store is closed, Greg and his museum-like office are moving to smaller quarters on APU's campus. "It took me 26 boxes to move all those rocks over here, and I've acquired more since then," he sighed. He's starting to clear out his collection a bit before the move, though. "I've scattered a few outside of our buildings to add to the geologic décor," he joked.

Rocks aren't known for being fast-paced or prone to change, but Greg's career in geology is both. People now expect quick answers on Facebook, and live chat necessitates a level of immediacy.

He's adapted to each new change and adopted each new resource over the years, and he plans to continue. "I was talking about retiring but I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff," he said.

So go ahead and call 1-888-ASK-USGS with your pressing questions on rocks, volcanoes, oil and diamonds. There's a chance Greg's friendly voice will be on the other end.

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Have a question for Greg and his team? Click here to contact Science Information Services at USGS.