Sunday, November 30, 2008

Geology is "Hot" because...

  1. I get to climb around on rocks and balance myself in precarious positions.

  2. I get to wear field boots,

  3. and field sandals (see above).

  4. I get to fly around in helicopters and stay out in the field all night when idiot pilots forget to pick me up.

  5. I get to have a breccia collection.

  6. I get to find v.g. (visible gold) out in the middle of nowhere (well, near Beatty, NV in this case).

  7. I get to stop at roadcuts and look at rocks, which I've been doing at least since I was 5 (my first memory of a roadcut was from age 5, a particular slaty cut in eastern Nevada).

  8. I get to have strange geology dreams.

  9. I get to write geology poems and geology songs.

  10. I get to find faults everywhere, and it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

  11. I get to travel, even on days off.

  12. I get to go mapping.

  13. I get to find geology everywhere I go, even on vacation.

  14. I get to work in the desert, with snakes and things.

  15. I get paid to drive and paid to eat.
I get to know that subduction really happens, and that it has been happening for a long, long time. And I get to know that one really neat woman, the geologist and geophysicist, Tanya Atwater, contributed greatly to ideas of plate tectonics when those ideas were still being formulated. Her work, along with geological work done in, on, around, and over active and erupting volcanoes, constitutes part of my current definition of "hot" geological science.

Menard, H. W., and Tanya Atwater, 1968, Changes in direction of sea floor spreading. Nature, v. 219, p. 463-467. Reprinted in Plate Tectonics and Geomagnetic Reversals, p. 412-419, W. H. Freeman Co. San Francisco, 1973.

Atwater, Tanya, 1970, Implications of plate tectonics for the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of western North America. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., v. 81, p. 3513-3536. Reprinted in Plate Tectonics and Geomagnetic Reversals, p. 583-609, W. H. Freeman Co., San Francisco, 1973. Reprinted in U.C.S.D., Scripps Inst. Oceanography., Contributions, Vol. 40, Part 2, p. 1249-1271, 1970.

This post is being submitted for the December Scientiae Carnival, which is being hosted by Isis the Scientist, who loves Naughty Monkeys and Star Trek.

scientiae-carnival

7 comments:

Harold Asmis said...

And you are sooo hot!

Crystallizations said...

I would have to agree with the sandal wearing part. I am hardly ever out of my Keen sandals, and if I am, I am wearing my Keen hiking boots. People think I am crazy for wearing my sandals in the rain, but it is with socks, which makes it ok.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Dr Isis is going to go after your socks-with-sandals statement. There are many Keen wearers around the blogosphere!

Silver Fox said...

Now, Harold, how do you *know* that? ;)

Silver Fox said...

Xtlzations + Academic, I almost always wear sandals with socks unless it's really really hot (outside). Apparently these are Keens, I'm always thinking they are Tevas, but Teva changed it's styling, and I don't like them so much anymore. The photo wasn't staged; you'll be seeing more in-the-field shots of boots, etc, sooner or later!

I wear the sandals through water and such - at least I did with my old ones. When it gets too cold, I wear pack boots everywhere, like they are giant, comfy, slip-on slippers.

ScienceGirl said...

I bet NorthWest is the best place for geology! Gorgeous pictures (I recognize a lot of my favorite places in the world), hot science!

Silver Fox said...

ScienceGirl, glad you found some photos you like! I guess my northwesternmost photos (at least from the standpoint of northwest from the western U.S.) are mostly in Alaska. My recent In The North photo is definitely SomeWhere Else! :)