[Geology2] Re: Nearly 3,900 New Maps in Time for Summer

Oh, yes, historical geology does have practical aspects. Some of the oil company geologists study well cores for microfossils that tell them the age of the layers, and that lets them correlate from one place to another. And knowing just what was going on at particular times in earth history helps build an integrated picture of the planet which helps predict where mineral deposits might be located. And now that the extinction events of the past are better known we are better aware of the dangers and might be able to do something to prevent them or modify the effects.

But most of the things that students take away from their courses are not going to be practical knowledge, but more like an understanding of how the world around them operates, and the knowledge that it is rational and how the world today was built piece by piece, and our place in it.

I like historical geology most of all for its philosophical side. A few years ago I wrote an article for Fossil News about the fossils on my coffee table, and what they mean. I've pasted in part of it below:

Our views of ancient times have been painted on large canvas by many hands, a bit here and a bit there, sometimes with disconnected ideas coming together to form new connections and fill the blanks. It is still a work in progress but we now have a vision complete enough to see the major elements; much of the life, the times and events and environments going back hundreds of millions of years. It must be one of the greatest intellectual achievements of man to be able to understand ancient worlds in detail as clearly as half-forgotten days of shaded youth, to be able to see ancient days, all without ever having lived them. We have discovered at last our long-sought time machine, not of wire and metal and glass, but built deep in the mind.

And each of these rocks is also the final resolution in the struggle for life, the final coming to rest and the end of the world for one. The hard minerals represent both life and the end of life, and the endless succession that we are all a part of. But we can also see that over the millennia the world gradually moved on toward new expressions, a continual succession of new adventures in life and the environments it created for itself, ever forming new ways of being. What kinds of biological currents are at work now, and how will they sweep us along in mind and body?


--- In geology2@yahoogroups.com, Allison Maricelli-Loukanis <allison.ann@...> wrote:
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> Well I think if you have either been thru the educational system or have kids or nieces or nephews that are currently going thru it and you pay taxes to support it, then of course you can criticize. Sounds like you went to school with Lin..didn't she have this teacher too? 
>  Historical geology is important too though because it tells somewhat of ancient processes that directly affect us today. For instance, giving us clues to where a diamond mine might be found or where there would be likely sources of oil/gas? OR am I being too simplistic here? Allison
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