What rocks tell and how we came to understand it
" One day earthquake and thunder decided to explore the world, but doing so they reached only a desolate and dry plateau. Earthquake noted that the land was located much too high in the sky for humans "They will have no food, if there is no place for the creatures of the sea to live in!" Earthquake begun to shake, stronger and stronger, until the earth finally collapsed and the sea inundated the land...
According to a popular myth, long time ago lived a giant named Finn McCool on the shores of the county of Antrim in Ireland. On the opposite shores lived the Scottish giant Benandonner.
Japan is situated in the collision zone of at least four lithospheric plates: the Eurasian/Chinese Plate, the North American Plate, the Philippine Plate and the Pacific Plate.
According to a popular Japanese myth the cause of earthquakes is the giant fish Namazu , often depicted as a giant catfish in woodcuts called namazu-e .
Geology usually requires outdoor activities in remote, inhospitable, hazardous or dirty environments. At the beginning of the 19th century it was hard to imagine that a gentleman would engage voluntarily in such an activity and it's seemed even less comprehensible that a woman could and should be allowed to do the same thing!As results of these social prejudices throughout history women geologists have encountered difficulties travelling to their field locations or working in the field.Girls and women working in the field were tolerated in the social lower classes, like professional fossil collector and dealer Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme Regis (Dorset), daughter of a craftsman, but for upper-class women engaging in field research was almost impossible.Women could minimize these "problems" by collecting fossils and studying rocks in their local environment, for example on private property or in the surroundings of their home, where their social status was known and such behaviour regarded as eccentricity and somehow tolerated...
Environmental Hazards and Disasters: Contexts, Perspectives and ManagementBy Bimal K. PaulWILEY-BLACKWELL334 pages | Softcover1st edition | November 2011ISBN 0-470-66001-5Asked to explain a natural disaster, most people trained in physical sciences will probably describe how plate tectonics cause earthquakes or how climate change affects floods or droughts...
" Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! "" Jabberwocky ", by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)Insects are the most successful multicellular animals on earth today and there is no reason to assume that in the geological past this situation was very different...
The monthly gathering of the Geoblogosphere - The Accretionary Wedge - hosted this time on the blog " In the Company of Plants and Rocks ", is asking for my favourite geological illustration...
Charles Darwin, in his most famous book " On the origin of species ", almost doesn't mention the fossils that he discovered in South America, apart the brief reference in the introduction:" WHEN on board HMS 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent...
" No such hypothesis is sufficient to explain either the cataclysms or the glacial phenomena; and we need not hesitate to confess our ignorance of this strange, this mysterious, episode in the history of the globe......
STAFFBehind the scenes at Scientific American
Read
STAFF
Read
Exploring the human condition.
Read
Insights into intelligence, creativity, personality, and well-being
Read
Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
Read
Critical views of science in the news
Read
STAFF
Read
Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
Read
News and research about endangered species from around the world
Read
The Science Behind Extreme Weather
Read
Science by and for kids ages 8-15
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
Read
Climate science in a changing world
Read
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
Read
Discussion and news about planets, exoplanets, and astrobiology
Read
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
Read
Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
Read
Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
Read
STAFFIllustrating science since 1845
Read
STAFFA science blog, sans blague
Read
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
Read
Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
Read