Leading Geological Services in North Carolina’s Triad region

Triad Geology, led by a licensed professional geologist, focuses on providing accurate environmental, water resource, and geological assessments

Philip J. Gerla, PhD, PG (North Carolina license 2784 and Arizona license 70033), established Triad Geology (formerly Havasu Geologic) in 2019 after leaving a tenured post in the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, where he conducted research and taught hydrology and environmental geology beginning in 1988. From 2003 through 2013, Dr. Gerla worked part-time as a conservation hydrologist for The Nature Conservancy–Minnesota and Dakotas Chapter. He received a PhD degree in geology at the University of Arizona, held teaching positions in Ohio and Wisconsin, and was employed as an environmental consultant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Gerla has published peer-reviewed research papers, book reviews, and various reports that cover a diversity of hydrogeological topics, such as the effects of land use on stream flow, changes in water quality following fire, groundwater-surface water modeling, fish ecology, and stream–hyporheic zone interaction. His recent research activities include assessing the effect that conversion of cropland to native land cover has on peak runoff, quantifying the effect of climate change on regional hydrology, and characterizing the relationship of soil-water infiltration on shallow groundwater geochemistry.