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| CONTINENTAL DRIFT AND YOU |
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by Darrel Gilbertson
THE ELEGANT NOMENCLATURE OF GEOLOGY
You may think that the field of paleomagnetism has nothing to do with your daily life. Think again.
From what I understand from reading a new book on one of the greatest episodes of vulcanicity in modern history, Krakatoa by Simon Winchester, we better be worried. (I picked up the book thinking it might describe remedies for the person who stubs their big toe on the bed post at night.) Of course that adds to the ever growing list of things that I need to worry about (when I find time or after paying the monthly bills).
Geology gets my vote for the most elegant scientific vocabulary—schists and basalts, subduction zones and plate tectonics, phreatomagmatics and fumaroles, continental displacement and magnetism, and so forth. It has an endless parade of taxonomic tongue twisters.
SCRATCH BENEATH THE BIG WORDS AND WHAT ITCHES
I found several aspects of the story both confusing and clarifying--aspects to the geological history of this volcanic paroxysm that took place in islands west of Java in 1883.
1. the world is old but is not stable
2. the interior of the planet earth is hotter than all get out (necessarily venting like a steam kettle)
3. the continents are “drifting apart or closer” from an original super continent and
4. the geology of the earth is one of constancy over unimaginable time spans interrupted by catastrophizing events of “rapid” change (sort of rapid—like twenty thousand years).
SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR EVERYMAN AND HIS INSTITUTIONS
I remember the story of the Anglican cleric who was told that his cathedral was moving (sinking actually) “an inch a century.” “That’s too fast” he replied.
But the author of Krakatoa proceeds to describe in detail the reversals (or at least changes) in the magnetic fields of the earth. These are the result of gigantic forces from below. It is a fascinating account but difficult for the amateur to follow. What is the logic, the point or some notion of relevancy from this perspective for me? (This latter question is a completely ego-absorbed twenty-first century post-modern question. Other centuries would have thought it self-centered rubbish.)
Two implications follow (from where I stand—a blogger’s phrase I have stolen):
First, you may live in a “stable time” of social quiescence, or
Second, you may be caught up in a convulsive moment of human or natural history (or both) when everything comes loose.
In the second case (one that is probably NOT happening today despite the blaring headlines of almost every newspaper, television documentary and media port). We live in an alarmist Henny-Penny society that pounces on every possible scenario as a fatal, final fulfillment of a ghastly religious or natural prophecy.
HERE IS SOME USEFUL ADVICE AND COUNSEL
Be longitudinal. That means take the long term view of everything. And, if the forces we are discussing are as monstrous as they appear, no preparation (short of faith in God) will avail anyway.
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