Calling all Geologists and Geographers!

Okidoki! After seeing the unusual number of geologists and geographers coming out of their geologically-realistic limestone caves in the various map-realism/geology/geography threads, I thought we should meet and introduce ourselves. ;-) It kinda feels like those stats you see with higher-then-expected numbers of high-level adventurers given the population size of a campaign city. ;-)

So... I am a geology PhD, specialty in paleontology, and teach at an Ontario (Canada) university. Some of the other posters over in those above-mentioned threads would likely be horrified to know that I'm responsible for creating the official City of Greyhawk poster map that was published in 2001 and have therefore imposed my own evil geological views onto the official World of Greyhawk setting (and has advised on many other official-published projects). Bwaahahahaaaaa!!!! More to come.

If you like RPG maps with realism, check out the many maps spread about my website.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

Let's see, I have a bachelor's degree in Computer and Information Science (but I also studied Geography as an undergrad, and was only 3 credit hours away from a second having a bachelor's in Geography as well when I graduated), and a Master's in Geography (from SUNY Buffalo), and with that background, it's unsurprising that I'm working in Geographic Information Systems (I'm a software designer at ESRI). And, while I have three credit hours in cartography and another three credit hours in photographic cartography (there's an obsolete field!), I find the main effect of this background when I sit down to make a map is to paralyze me with all the things I could do wrong. But I usually persevere and draw up something anyway. But I still do find myself mulling over things like central place theory when locating cities.

Well, I got a BA in Urban Geography with a focus on Urban Planning. Frankly, I should have taken the extra math course and done GIS/Cartography because that turned out to be my favorite part of school.

After graduation I worked for an urban planning company for a year before deciding that it really wasn't what I wanted to do. I LOVE the theory of city planning and geography, but the actual day to day work that I was doing was more along the line of federal grant work...not interesting at all. I ended up going to work at a company doing IT, which is what I've been doing for the past eight years.

I have my bachelors in Geology and masters in Geology(Hydrology) but don't use them much - by the time I had them I got sick of working for the Federal govt.

BS in Chemical Engineering and intensely interested in the natural world. I may not be an expert, but I know I know a whole heck of a lot more than most.

I'm a professor of Earth Science and Chemistry at a college in Iowa. Nice to meet you all!


...and no, a lake shouldn't have two rivers flowing out of it, even with magic.

For a while a former player of mine thought that all rivers flowed south. (Our local river flows east....)

Fun times.

Hey all

I've got an Anthropology degree but did some Geology and Physics within it.
Currently living in a volcanic zone (so not too many limestone caves sorry) and teaching

plus according to our legends one of my ancestors was a Volcano god

Nail said:

I'm a professor of Earth Science and Chemistry at a college in Iowa. Nice to meet you all!


...and no, a lake shouldn't have two rivers flowing out of it, even with magic.

For a while a former player of mine thought that all rivers flowed south. (Our local river flows east....)

Fun times.

Click to expand...

Why not? Why can't a lake have two rivers coming out of it?

The short answer is that it would take an unusual event to create the situation. In my neck of the woods glaciation could account for things like this having happened, but only temporarily as erosion would quickly favor one outlet over another and the lake level would be expected to fall until there was only one outlet.

So two rivers could develop in a young system with the lake fed by multiple underground sources (springs).
Erosion will eventually bring them together but that may still be thousands of years in the future

not probably but still possible