Geoscientists
(Except Hydrologists and Geographers)

High pay & lowrisk
Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.7/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

19% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 3 more strengths

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 192 votes

31% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 19% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers was $99,240 ($48 per hour).

The median annual wage for Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers was 100.5% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers' job openings is expected to rise 3.2% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 22,510 people employed as 'Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 6 thousand people are employed as 'Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers'.

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What people are saying (11)

Leave a comment
Nonono (Low)
17 Nov 2024 18:37
There are some tasks than could be automated, but AI is still inaccurate and incomplete. Geoscientists need to incorporate knowledge and skills from several different disciplines within geoscience.
Eliana (No chance)
07 Jun 2023 18:10
to be a geoscientist you need to travel in the field, collect rocks, analyze sequences, understand and interpret what are you seeing. Maybe AI can help, but you really need to build a full terminator to replace a geologist.
Rocky John
16 Jan 2026 17:16
When I started in geology the best way to map was on horseback with a drafting board on my lap. Close enough that I could see outcrops, far enough that I wasn't bogged down with minutia. Now I don't need a horse because my iPad is my map that keeps track of exactly where I am and my cell phone is my Brunton compass, that I use to interpret and document the orientation of structural features. AI won't be able to brush away leaves and dirt to see actual outcrops so that's one winner for live geologists. On the other hand geologic reports include a lot of "boiler plate" text that explains why we are reporting what has included in our reports and how we derived those opinions. AI should be great for this, but it dumps more responsibility on us to make sure that there are no misinterpretations or hallucinations.
Overall I see AI as just another tool that can help us do a better job.
someone (No chance)
02 Jan 2026 06:45
Geoscience is an EXTREMELY complex field. It combines many different aspects, from mathematics to advanced physics, even sociology! It is extremely hard to automate this intricate and complicated work. Not to mention, geoscience connects to sociology, requiring a perspective on social policies, which is quite hard for AI to replicate.
Ajdin (Low)
01 Jul 2024 18:35
Whilst AI or just simply computers play a crucial role in the industry, the human factor is definitely here to stay
N.M. (Low)
01 Jul 2024 18:28
It requires doing things that I believe robots will not be advanced enough to do in 20 years.
E
08 Aug 2019 05:14
Paleontologists probably not. While robots can have extreme precision, humans can see things which AI programs can't
leo
06 Aug 2020 16:47
AI can see things that human can't see, not the opposite.
Rui Bernardino (No chance)
18 May 2023 20:46
Geologists don't work with numbers, they work with human common sense, theoretical geology ofen doesn't apply in the real world, so you can program a robot that knows everything and it will be dumbfounded when it finds a yellow basalt (yes they exist). Some tasks we do may be automated, sutch as calculations and rock thin section descriptions, that will only allow us to be more productive and focous on the aspects that really matter. There is no replacement for human geometric thinking and thus no way geologists will be replaced by robots
Moyin Ade
29 Nov 2020 00:03
As a student Geologist I agree but I think you’ll still need a Geologist to program the robot. Even in Car manufacturing assembly line still has engineers. Correct/advise me if I’m wrong.👍
Faisal Ali
29 Apr 2020 23:13
When your talking about a (Geologist) this occupation isn't really going to be ''automated'' cause' this work needs to be done by a human not really by computerized bots. I disagree with that but let's say an archaeologist place it'll be possible to replace the work of an archaeologist by AI cause recently AI has discovered some archaeological data that was yrs ago. I believe that this occupation will still live. It will not most likely be taken by AI I'm 100% confident.
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Job description

Study the composition, structure, and other physical aspects of the Earth. May use geological, physics, and mathematics knowledge in exploration for oil, gas, minerals, or underground water; or in waste disposal, land reclamation, or other environmental problems. May study the Earth's internal composition, atmospheres, and oceans, and its magnetic, electrical, and gravitational forces. Includes mineralogists, paleontologists, stratigraphers, geodesists, and seismologists.

O*NET-SOC code: 19-2042.00