Themes of the Day:

• History of the Science of Geology (continued)
• The Scientific Method in Geology

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

The Scientific Method in Geology - Drawn as a flow chart in class

• Observation
• Defining a Problem
• Creating a Hypothesis (educated guess)
• Testing the Hypothesis - direct tests in geology often hindered by issues of TIME and SCALE
  • By Experiments
  • By Modelling (where Time and Scale preclude direct testing)
  • By Evaluating Predictions
• Analyze Results of Tests
  • If tests confirm hypothesis - Go out and celebrate on Friday night. On Monday devise another test.
  • If tests refute hypothesis - Drown your sorrows on Friday night. Work through the weekend. Either scrap or modify hypothesis. Back to square one.
• Theory results from widely accepted, time-tested hypothesis (often applied to a group of related hypotheses)
• Laws and proofs are for math and physics - rarely encountered in geology.
• Paradigms - model of reality - a framework of hypotheses and theories that represent the best synthesis of the current understanding of a science
• Publish or Perish. For a couple of really insightful essays on the scientific method, take the time to read Whatever Happened to Cold Fusion? and How Science Works (PDF format) by David Goodstein. On a lighter note, here's a guide on How To Write A Scientific Paper from the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).