Misconceptions

Whatever field you work in, at times its so difficult to step back from it and understand the point of the person outside that field of expertise. At times its really amusing to talk about your field to someone who has no clue about your field. Few experiences of yours truly, for your entertainment.

So this day I was talking to a friend who happened to be in HR (she was new to Oil industry) and we were talking about how oil is explored and produced etc. I guess I was going a bit high-fi with the terms when I started explaining her about seismic exploration and differences between exploration wells and development wells. She asked very basic question: 'So when you explore for oil, why do you guys are so worried about the rock properties?'. For the benefit of those who, like her, think that there is a swimming pool of oil in the subsurface in between the rocks from where we drain the oil: There is no pool. Oil exist in the pore space (tiny spaces between the grains of different minerals in rocks) between the porous rocks like sandstones or limestones. Its not possible to have a void in middle of rocks at that depth for the oil to have its own private pool. The gravity won't take it. It will collapse. The weight of all the rocks above actually consolidate even the porous rocks.

Second incident is from a field trip. So we (a group of three from our company) were on a Geological field trip in Rajasthan . Our main office in India was in Chennai while we were working on an oil exploration project in Rajasthan. Since it was still in exploration stage so we went for looking at some rocks (which meant we took some rock samples(pieces of rocks broken from outcrops/mountains or bigger rocks in middle of nowhere..yes thats we do.)) in order to figure out future exploration direction. The driver with us was a young man who was very good at his work. He drove us around for three days. On the evening of third day, just before we were leaving, he asks very shyly, 'Can you ask you something didi?".
"Sure go ahead." I said.
"Why do you guys came all over here to collect rocks? Don't you get enough rocks in Chennai?"
Oh well. I didn't even know how to start answering that question.
(I hope you guys understand that we were looking for oil in Rajasthan so have to look at rocks in Rajasthan.)

The best one is from my friend. Her husband is a chemist by profession. So one day she was discussing about her research when she was trying to figure out the seismic (acoustic) velocity (a physical property used for identifying subsurface (subsurface: the surface beneath the ground)) in coal. Usually we refer the acoustic velocity in any material/rock as its seismic velocity or simply its velocity (not accurate way but thats the jargon of the field). She was going on about how can she get the velocity of coal from the data she has. Her husband very innocently answers her, "Well that will depend on means of transportation and the velocity with which the driver is driving." And honestly he was right. Thats what will give the velocity OF the coal. Though not the velocity of seismic waves (or acoustic waves) IN the coal.

I know these are very technical jokes pertaining to my field of work and sadly there aren't many that work in this field, unlike IT industry. But incident like these does make us step back once in a while and laugh at ourselves. How ridiculous we should look or sound to people from outside world! Imagine someone collecting rocks from middle of nowhere and carrying it as a prized possession!

I remember the first time I went to the department of Earth-Science and found the Rock museum which they actually lock during the holidays and night times. 'Who will steal rocks?', I used to wonder. Now I know better. Wouldn't you steal (figuratively speaking, of course) the rock having Gold ore/diamonds in it?

P.S.: Did I ever mention that I used to work for an oil industry before joining the Ph.D.? Don't ask me why I decided to give up the life of luxury, business class travels, no looking at price tags to become a grad student. I have been trying to find that answer ever since I joined! Anyway, the first two incidents pertain to that wonderful life while the last one is from this life.