<p>Is geology a good major if I am more interested in research than application? I have absolutely no interest in coal, oil, gas exploration, mining, etc. I am also not interesting in doing research on something such as the origin of a specific mountain range or a geologic structure. I am more interested in research that has the potential to benefit the human population. For example, I am more interested in researching such things as climate change, changes in earth systems, planetary science, etc.</p>
<p>Geologic research relies heavily on case studies, primarily due to the fact that there is only one world, so you can’t really set up control and experimental planets in the way that you could, say, a drug trial. You won’t find many serious research scientists studying “the origin of some specific mountain range” just to figure out that one mountain range - they use it to test specific questions and predictions that could be applied more broadly to other geologic settings. </p>
<p>To use some of your preferred fields as examples, very few people research “climate change full stop.” They might look at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or Medieval Climate Anomaly to see how the planet responded to past warming events, or they might model rainfall in the Sahel to look at the interactions between changing monsoons and desertification. Planetary scientists look at how life has adapted to extreme environments on Earth to figure out what we should look for on other planets, or apply the remote sensing techniques developed for Earth to study specific processes that might have analogues in the rest of the solar system. Earth scientists primarily rely on examples to draw broader conclusions about how the world works.</p>
<p>That being said, I wouldn’t be studying climate science if I didn’t think it had some potential for broader human good. On the other hand, if you are planning to go into pure research, you should also be planning on at least a Ph.D. Maybe throw in a postdoc for good measure.</p>
<p>Although you say you have no interest in commodities, that is where the best employment opportunities are. Right now, the most important are oil and gas. Currently, they estimate about some trillion barrels of oil from tar sands in Canada. There may be more deposits. Geologists are paid a premium to discover new deposits. Planetary science wise, if you are interested in planets beyond earth, astrophysics may be a better field to study, but opportunities in that is very scarce. Remember, not all planets are terrain based. Many of them are Gas giants orbiting very close or very far from their parent star. They maybe single stars or binary stars. But, like I said, planetary science should be more of a subsect of astrophysics, rather than geology. But whatever you do, do not specialize too narrowly too soon. You may end up closing doors that you don’t want to. But if you want to do pure research, a Ph.D and several post docs are definitely are requirement, especially if you are choosing an academic setting.</p>