MISC> Ask-A-Geologist - USGS offers new Internet service (fwd)

["Gail M. Szeliga" <ny000999@MAIL.NYSER.NET>]

For the group's information:

Ask-A-Geologist - US Geological Survey offers new Internet service

Have you ever wondered about why California has so many earthquakes, and
New York does not?  Why is there so much oil in Texas, but not in
Wisconsin?  What are the deepest canyons in the United States? (The answer
might surprise you!)  While the answers to many of these questions might
be as close as an encyclopedia, some questions are difficult to answer
without checking many sources.

Beginning Monday, October 4, 1994, the USGS will offer a new, experimental
Internet service - Ask-A-Geologist.  General questions on earth sciences
may be sent by electronic mail to the Internet address:

        ask-a-geologist@octopus.wr.usgs.gov

All electronic mail to Ask-A-Geologist will be routed to the geologist of
the day.  The geologist will reply to your question within a day or two,
or provide referrals to better sources of information.  Please include an
Internet-accessible return address in the body of your message.

Ask-A-Geologist is an experimental service of the USGS Branch of Pacific
Marine Geology, with participation from several other branches.  The
United States Geological Survey is the principal source of scientific and
technical expertise in the earth sciences within the Federal Government.

Naturally, we cannot answer some classes of questions.  We cannot answer
questions about specific sites -- for example, Is my home in a landslide
area?  We cannot answer questions with a specific economic impact -- for
example, How much gold is left in the Homestake mine?  We cannot endorse
commercial products or companies.  And, we cannot answer questions based
on information not yet released to the public.  We might be able to
provide referrals to other sources of relevant information.

All questions and answers will be part of the public record.  After
collecting questions and answers for a few months, we will make a
Frequently Asked Questions list (with answers) available via anonymous FTP
and World-Wide-Web.

We encourage grade school and high school students with electronic mail
access to send in questions -- but we can't write your reports for you!
In limited testing, we've had an enthusiastic response from many grade
school students.

If you have any questions about this service, but not about geology,
please contact the system administrator - Rex Sanders
<rex@octopus.wr.usgs.gov>.