What rocks tell and how we came to understand it
“Inside the globe [there] exist mysterious forces, whose effects become apparent on the surface. Eruptions of vapors, glowing lava and new volcanic rocks…[]” Alexander von Humboldt At the end of the 19th century and after the victory of “Plutonism” in the great Granite War, geologists accepted the idea that igneous rocks originate from deep inside [...]..
In 1820 the Italian engineer Count Giuseppe Marzari-Pencati (1779-1836) published a short article about the stratigraphic succession found near the small village of Predazzo.
In the early afternoon of September 26, 1997 a sequence of earthquakes hit the Italian province of Umbria. The two main quakes, with a magnitude of 5.6-5.8, were followed by a series of aftershocks - one aftershock was so strong that it caused the partial collapse of the damaged roof of the basilica of St...
For centuries the quarries in the slope of the “Tschingelberg” had provided valuable schist-plates and with the introduction of public school (and chalk boards) in the Swiss canton of Glarus the demand increased exponentially...
“Humanity’s genius is to have always had a sense of its weakness. The physical energy and strength, with which nature insufficiently endowed humans, is found in animals that help them to discover new territories.” “Home” (2009) A post dedicated to the forgotten heroes of early geology - asses !...
“Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook, and the earth was moved. I uncovered my face, and I saw that a serpent drew near…[]…his body was as overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli….[]… it [...]..
August 21, 1986 was a busy market day in the village of Lower Nyos (Cameroon) and most people that evening went to bed early. At 9:30 p.m. a strange sound, like a distant explosion, was heard and suddenly people and animals tumbled onto the ground...
After some monster science* the “History of Geology” blog will be dedicated to “travelling geologists” – the first post will introduce us to a woman who visited (and survived) the “island(s) of monsters”: (*anyway Discovery Channel makes a much better job promoting silly science) “Outside the harbour of the country, neither very near it nor [...]..
Marie Tharp was born July 30, 1920 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Already in early years she followed her father, a soil surveyor for the United States Department of Agriculture, into the field...
Today geologist Charles Darwin is not remembered as great monster hunter, despite some Victorian paleontologists and geologists were interested in the topic, but after discussing how geologists tried to capture " Nessie ", it´s time to hunt for " Bigfoot ":Since ancient time people were fascinated by monsters - a term adopted for mythical creatures, but also real animals or humans with grotesque anatomical deformations...
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