Geological engineer vs seismic engineer

The differences between geological engineers and seismic engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a geological engineer and a seismic engineer. Additionally, a seismic engineer has an average salary of $88,120, which is higher than the $81,506 average annual salary of a geological engineer.

The top three skills for a geological engineer include geotechnical, autocad and technical reports. The most important skills for a seismic engineer are technical support, stress analysis, and retrofit.

Geological engineer vs seismic engineer overview

	Geological Engineer	Seismic Engineer
Yearly salary	$81,506	$88,120
Hourly rate	$39.19	$42.37
Growth rate	2%	2%
Number of jobs	5,971	8,242
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

Geological engineer vs seismic engineer salary

Geological engineers and seismic engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Geological Engineer	Seismic Engineer
Average salary	$81,506	$88,120
Salary range	Between $65,000 And $102,000	Between $61,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New Mexico	New Mexico
Best paying company	TOPS Well Services	Halliburton
Best paying industry	Utilities	Energy

Differences between geological engineer and seismic engineer education

There are a few differences between a geological engineer and a seismic engineer in terms of educational background:

	Geological Engineer	Seismic Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Geological Engineering	Mechanical Engineering
Most common college	Colorado School of Mines	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Geological engineer vs seismic engineer demographics

Here are the differences between geological engineers' and seismic engineers' demographics:

	Geological Engineer	Seismic Engineer
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 83.7% Female, 16.3%	Male, 90.3% Female, 9.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 20.2% White, 60.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 3.5% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 8.6% Asian, 26.7% White, 56.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between geological engineer and seismic engineer duties and responsibilities

Geological engineer example responsibilities.

Conduct time-and-motion studies and performance of truck-and-shovel analysis and efficiently allocate trucks to shovels and attain optimum productivity.
Identify ways to maximize data gather from logging and testing, conduct onsite petrophysics analysis and QC.
Help to prepare mechanics, geotechnical and geological reports.
Analyze field and laboratory test data and prepare geotechnical reports.
Operate and troubleshoot vacuum deposition machinery used in the development of anodes vital to the design of novel lithium-sulfur battery technology.
Involve consistently infield operation and provide high safety and HSE standards.

Seismic engineer example responsibilities.

Authore substantiation documents in compliance with FAA regulations and customer requirements to achieve type certifications and supplemental type certifications.
Cover all aspects of QC and in-file processing.
Company's algorithms have been develop for streamer data and are not appropriate for an OBC project.
Supervise a team which design and construct the first 1 11/16"3 axis VSP tool for Schlumberger.
Determine loads as per ASCE 7 and perform engineering calculations for beams, columns, foundations and connections.
Streamline the process of FEA model building, solving and post processing by writing custom ANSYS APDL macros.

Geological engineer vs seismic engineer skills

Common geological engineer skills

Geotechnical, 30%
Autocad, 14%
Technical Reports, 11%
Engineering Design, 10%
Slope Stability, 9%
Data Interpretation, 6%

Common seismic engineer skills

Technical Support, 27%
Stress Analysis, 25%
Retrofit, 18%
Nuclear Power, 11%
R, 7%
Data Processing, 5%