geologists have a similar job function to geotechnical engineers and some who study engineering geology go on to be geotechnical engineers. However, geotechnical engineering can arguably be seen as a specialism of civil engineering; engineering geologists, meanwhile, are first and foremost geologists who apply geological principles to construction works to determine where certain kinds of earth materials occur. Its a grey area, though, and geological professionals often debate the definitions between themselves. If engineering geologists work for an engineering consultancy, they will usually be working in the same team as geotechnical engineers and that team is often called geotechnical or ground engineering.