Geologic Dogma...

Mikhail Lomonosov from here

You would think I wouldn't be surprised at myself, at my shock and awe, of having a seemingly "late-stage" epiphany regarding the dogmatic content and slanted perception of Western geology education... But yesterday I was slapped in the face with yet another example of how little is taught regarding the historical evolution of geology as a science (i.e. - most geology programs). I recently read somewhere (on another geology blog, I've searched for it but I can't find it), someone else pondering how Hutton, Lyell, Smith, and Wegner are mentioned, but not fully explored. We teach Historical Geology, where we might also mention Werner, Steno, Agassiz, Bretz, etc., but we don't teach a course devoted to the History of Geology. Granted, most programs are already strapped to cover the traditional disciplines - I mean, when I took mineralogy it was already optical and physical balled up into one course (I still feel gypped)... OH, and I had to learn about Dana in graduate school on my own? I digress.

My thoughts are driven by a few articles I read in Geo-Alp, a yearly journal published by the University of Innsbruck and the Natural History Museum of South Tyrol in Bozen, Italy. I wish I could read and speak German, however the journal publishes some articles in both English and German, much to my personal frustration (I chose the option of learning Visual Basic, some Action Script, and CSS instead of a foreign language). My first introduction to the idea that geology existed outside the confines of the traditional players occurred while I was a TA for Historical Geology and Stephen Rowland mentioned a name I'd never heard of: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. Huh? Wegner wasn't the only person toying with the idea of Continental Drift? Why hadn't anyone mentioned that before? And thus, my interest in the history of geology as a science began. So, as I started, I shouldn't have been surprised to read about Otto Ampferer (1875-1947) or Giovanni Arduino (1714-1795).

Herr Otto also contemplated the modern concepts of Continental Drift and Sea Floor Spreading while mapping the Northern Calcareous Alps. In addition to describing overthrusting and nappes, he envisions something he called aufsteigende Unterströmung - or rising currents that "break through the continental masses and drives them apart" (Krainer and Hauser, 2007). And he penned an article titled "Thoughts About the Geodynamics of the Atlantic Space" in 1941. So Otto was post-Wegner, but he described the possibility of a mechanism that we now generally credit to much later workers. I'd never heard of him... After rummaging around online, I found some references to more recent texts (Şengör, 2003 and Foulgar, 2005), and I have to admit I'm not likely to pick either of these up for pleasure reading.

I had at least heard of Arduino before because I purchased The Origins of Geology in Italy prior to leaving for the semester (still working my way through it). I hadn't read Vaccari's article though, so I hadn't seen Arduino's lithostratigraphic theory, which I'm assuming was influenced by Werner's Vonden äusserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien (On the External Characters of Fossils, or of Minerals) in 1774, who was influenced by Johann Gottlob Lehmann (1719-1767). Yet, when I visited the Kansas Geological Survey, they claim Arduino first proposed the idea of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. I wish I had a scanner so I could share a simplified version of Arduino's classificiation, but it's very similar to Werner's. Here's a complicated hard to read one from here:

So I guess the point in my rambling, the question I've been asking myself, is how many Lomonosov's and Ampferer's don't I (we?) know about because of the Western bias in our education system? Were there no Romanian, Chilean, Japanese, etc., geologists that pre-dated the "known suspsects?" I guess we know of lots of these folks, they are showing up in specialized textbooks and special bulletins, but I'm guessing most of us don't have the spare time to explore all the other areas we probably enjoyed as undergraduates, but didn't happen to specialize in (e.g. - I'm really intrigued by ophiolites but I'm probably not going to pick up a special paper on them!). To soothe my intellectual fumbling, I just ordered "Thinking about Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology" - but even 1996 feels outdated. Perhaps a sabbatical project?

Postscript: As I was looking around for information on Otto Ampferer, I stumbled across this image in Şengör,'s book:

There is a high-resolution version here. If you know where I can order a poster of this beautiful piece of artwork let me know. Thanks!

Aesthetic Geology....

Frederick Edwin Church - The Natural Bridge, Virgina: 1852

I've been mentally developing (and actively collecting material) for a course I'd like to teach titled "Aesthetic Geology" modeled after a this wonderful book (although far to clunky to use as a textbook). I'm a fan of both the literary and graphic representation of geology in a variety of mediums - especially historical photography. Most geologists are familiar with the standard McPhee, Lopez, and Abbey possibilities, etc., but there are many other literary possibilities (e.g. - Muir, Voltaire, Perry, Cook, etc) a plethora of possible paintings to interpret (e.g. - Cole, Church, Durand, etc.) and numerous possibilities with respect to photography... So, when I stumbled across some interesting woodcuts from a Hungarian? mineralogy text and cross sections from a French mineralogy text, I wanted to share. Not only are they "attractive" but the geologic depictions are of course interesting... I'm always amazed at the detail and care taken in early scientific woodcuts/illustrations - in comparison to my geologic and petrologic sketches (regardless of how many hours I spent staring down a scope, my sketches were NEVER artistic!). Enjoy, and if you have a favorite poem or painting, let me know! Another possible Accretionary Wedge?

Accretionary Wedge: Geology in Film

I relish the thought of being able to fully partake in this particular "wedge" but sadly I don't have all my notes from a course I've taught a few times titled 'Geology in Film.' It's just a 1-credit fun course that looks at the reality of science in Hollywood depictions of geology, geologists, and geologic events (I think this type of course is catching favor these day)... As we all know, the science is pathetic but the entertainment is fantastic!

So here are a few of my favorites per Tuff Cookie's request. Although I thoroughly enjoy the traditional classics (i.e. - Earthquake, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Volcano, Dante's Peak, etc), I'm drawn to the esoteric (or what I believe to be esoteric).



One of the best (I mean worst, I mean best...) films that offer a horrific view into the geology behind volcanic eruptions is "When Time Ran Out (1980)" - even though Paul Newman is in it and provides gloriously awkward dialog. Again, without my notes, what I remember best is a "lava level" diagram depicting subsurface magma levels, traditional Hollywood volcanic eruptions (i.e. - ridiculous explosions), and the view of LAVA (Jello?) from a poorly constructed wood bridge. You would think by the time Hollywood made Volcano/Dante's Peak they would have found someone to differentiate between felsic and mafic eruptions AND create a realistic volcanic eruption (OK, DP wasn't that bad)...

Another older favorite is "The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)" - a tragic story of nuclear weapons and orbital chaos... meaning a Cold War nuclear race between the US and USSSR causes Earth's orbit to shift hurtling us towards the sun. Not classical geology (maybe someone would even argue solely astronomy, but I've used it in class and watch it with glee nevertheless).

Some of my other favorites include At the Earth's Core (1976), Krakatao: East of Java (1969), and When Worlds Collide (1959). The eruption scene in Krakato is unbelievably long and fabulously innacurate! When Worlds Collide (similar to The Day the Earth Caught Fire) is riddled with Cold War references of course appalling geology. I strongly recommend watching them just for the sheer thrill of poor cinematography, dialog, plot, and of course even worse scientific accuracy... I apologize for not being to pull out "all the stops" on this one, but I think I'll repost once I get back to the US and add in my observations. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone has any new ones I can add to my collection...



My Collection in no particular order:

All of the above, Meteor, Armageddon, Earthquake, Tremors, A View to A Kill, 10.5, Magma: Volcanic Disaster, Twister, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Deep Impact, Asteroid, One Million BC, The Lost Volcano, The Big One, Earthquake in NY, Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Broke, and probably a few more I can't remember right now... It grows each time they put out another bit of ridiculousness...

Brunnenburg Semester Program

Its been too long, I know that because I just looked at the last post I made last fall AND I received a nice reminder from Ron... Good to know that someone out there actually reads this stuff! I took a "break" as I was preparing for a semester abroad teaching at Brunnenburg Castle in the South Tirol of northern Italy. The castle overlooks the city of Meran near the village of Tirol (a.k.a. - Dorf Tirol).

View Larger Map

It is an amazing intersection of German/Italian and mountain/valley cultures framed by some incredibly geology and influenced by a remarkable history. As I was preparing for a discussion on the regional geology, I realized just HOW intimately linked this region is in the development of the science of geology and the geologic time scale... The Jura Mountains lie to the northwest, and although the link to the Jurassic Period is clear, the evolution of Agassiz's hypotheses regarding continental scale glaciation also blossomed in these mountains! I was lucky enough to find a reprint of his 1840 "Études sur les glaciers, Neuchâtel" - complete with woodcuts and transparent sketches- on Ebay a few years ago. For a really nice interdisciplinary analysis of the quest to understand "ice" - I recommend The Ice Finders, in which Bolles weaves the lives of Agassiz, Kane (one of my favorite explorers), and Lyell into a fascinating story!

Sections from the Jesse Earl Hydge Collection

Lithograph from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

Similarly, we are close to a number of localities (e.g. - Tuscany, Florence, Appenine Mountains, etc) visited by Nicholas Steno (1669) - (including many Wunderkammer - or cabinets of wonder or curiosity). One of the most famous is Ole Worm's Wunderkammer depicted below. Most importantly, this is the region that helped shaped his thoughts on superposition/stratigraphy and dogma surrounding the age of the Earth (also where he wrote the Prodromus).

Ole Worm's Wunderkammer.
For an excellent discussion of the relationship between Steno and the Wunderkammer I recommend Rosenburg's 2006 article in Geology.

Brunnenburg also isn't "too far" from Frieberg, Germany where Abraham Gottlob Werner (1787) was trained, taught, developed his concept of Neptunism, that is rocks crystallizing out of early oceans, and his classification scheme for rocks (Primitive, Secondary, Transition, Tertiary, and Volcanic) - which our modern geology time scale still borrows from (e.g. - Tertiary/Quaternary).

Comparison of Hutton and Werner - from here

And one can't live in Italy without thinking of Gubbio... Made famous (geologically) by Alvarez et al. 1980 after publishing: "Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction" after finding high concentrations of Iridium. This was groundbreaking work given the general acceptance of Uniformitarianism and difficulty Gene Shoemaker had in convincing the scientific community that catastrophic impacts played an important role within this accepted philosophy. Almost any 101 geology student can identify the K-T boundary as the point where dinosaurs exist and then cease to exist, but being able to touch that boundary (littered with extraterrestrial material) would be truly amazing... (Hint, hint... hoping to visit).

Field photo in Gubbio from here

There are obviously more geologic links to this region and I'll be posting more frequently now, updating with photos and trip descriptions... Look for an upcoming post on Erdpyramiden, and Mt Etna! Until then, here's a view looking northeast from Tirol towards the Passeital Mountains through a vineyard (the proper way to admire mountains here).