GSCI 100 Lecture #2 -

GSCI 100 - Intro Geology
Fort Hays State University
Spring 2011

Lecture #2

Podcasts: Section A (MWF 9:30am) | Section B (MWF 10:30am)
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Clerical:

Homework #1a is due today. Please complete it ASAP, if you haven't done so already.

Homework #1b is due by next Friday (1/21).

Homework #2 is "due" next Wednesday.

Themes of the Day:

Syllabus Review

Why Study Geology?

For Profit - Lewis G. Weeks
Bachelors Degrees in Geology get Jobs - especially in hydro/environmental fields - Geologist salaries are rising according to AAPG.
- AGI Geoscience Careers Brochure
- Careers for Geoscientists Video
To better understand "how planets work".
- To understand the landscape you see in your travels.
- To understand long term climate change.
- Avoid damage to life or property due to geologic hazards.
- Learn how to interpret the tales that rocks tell.
- A window to the past and future world.
- Etc., etc., etc.
Geologists are nice people - Ann Landers tells us geologists make great spouses.
To fulfill a science requirement... but that doesn't mean it won't be fun.

History of the Science of Geology

Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age - natural resource specialists
First geologic maps are from Egypt (circa 5 ka) - resource maps
79 A.D. - First scientific description of a volcanic eruption by Pliny the Younger (Pliny the Elder succumbed to volcanic gasses during naval evacuation efforts.) (Vesuvius from Pompeii in Google Earth)
De Re Metallica, 1556 by Gregorius Agricola - Dawn of mineralogy as a science (translated into English by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, 1912)
Nicolas Steno (Neils Stensen - mid-1600's) Principles of Superposition, Original Horizontality, Lateral Continuity
James Hutton (1726-1797) - "Father of Modern Geology" - observed the angular unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland which led to understanding of the immensity of geologic time - Earth history viewed as "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."
Catastrophism (origins in Biblical view of Creation) vs. Uniformitarianism (championed by Hutton) - "The present is the key to the past." - Strongly debated mid-late 1700's
Charles Lyell (1830) Principles of Geology - Includes Principles of Crosscutting Relations and Inclusions
Current view emphasizes uniformitarian processes, but recognizes geologic significance of catastrophic events
Alfred Wegener (1912) Hypothesis of Continental Drift
Plate Tectonics Revolution (1960's) - paradigm shift