Survey on The Culture and Ethics of Geologic Sampling

(by Marjorie Chan and David Mogk, USA)

Dear Geoscience Community,

We invite you to participate in a survey on The Culture and Ethics of Geologic Sampling that is being conducted on behalf of the Geological Society of America (GSA) to collect information to better understand geologists’ attitudes about, and practices of, geologic sampling.

This topic is particularly important in a time of increased pressures on natural systems, decreased accessibility to field sites, degradation of irreplaceable geological resources, and raised international awareness of the importance of geoheritage, geodiversity, and geoconservation.

Responsible sampling is relevant to protecting important geoheritage sites, being respectful of

indigenous cultures, and in consideration of other societal issues.

We hope that students and professionals at all career stages will take this 15-20 minute survey.

All responses will be submitted anonymously. The results will be presented in aggregated form at the 2022 GSA Annual Meeting Noontime forum on Culture and Ethics of Geological Sampling on Monday October 10 and presented to GSA with recommendations for community-based guidelines for ethical and responsible geological sampling into the future. This survey is

co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Geosciences Institute

(AGI), the International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG), the Mineralogical Society

of America (MSA), National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), and the U.S.

National Committee for the International Union of Geological Sciences (USNC-GS).

The survey can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/geologic-sampling

Please respond by September 15, 2022 so we have time to aggregate results for reporting at the fall GSA meeting. The more input we have, the better we can report on the current status of our culture. As an incentive, at the end of the survey you have the option to be entered into a raffle for a $50 GSA Bookstore credit. More background is available in the September 2022 GSA Today Groundwork article.

Thanks in advance for your participation and for contributing your input to this most important

topic.

Marjorie Chan (University of Utah, Chair USNC-GS)

David Mogk (Montana State University, Past Chair USNC-GS, IAPG-USA Co-Coordinator)

---

Tools on geoethics:

https://www.geoethics.org/tools

IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics:

https://www.geoethics.org