He wants to do field work because he loves the outdoors. He realized that in astrophysics, he be sitting in front of a computer all day, there being no "field work" short of becoming an astronaut, something very unlikely. Or he'd be teaching.

He is as fascinated with earthquakes as I, and he was literally only 3 miles (on a soccer field in Aptos up in the Forest of Nicene Marks, when the Loma Prieta EQ hit.

Cathryn