Weblogs

Erik Klemetti is an assistant professor of Geosciences at Ohio’s Denison
University and he writes
Eruptions,
a blog about all things volcanic for Wired. A few days ago, he [put up the following](http://www.wired.com/2016/08/dear-
college-students-take-geology/) which I sincerely hope will be taken to heart
by untold numbers of students around the world.

Dear College Students: You Should Take Geology

GEOLOGY (OR, MORE properly these days, geosciences) is a field that most
incoming first-year students have little experience with. Maybe they had a
rock collection, maybe they took AP Environmental Science. Maybe, if they
were lucky, they had a high school teacher with some training in the field.
However, most of the time, geology is faaaaar down the list of disciplines
that any first-year might think to study … and the field doesn’t even cross
their mind before they graduate.

That, my friends, is a mistake. Few disciplines in today’s world play such a
significant role in how society operates and what we can do to protect our
future. Few fields of study can play such a profound role in protecting
people’s lives on a daily basis, whether you realize it or not. And few can
bring together so many disparate ideas, from sciences to social sciences to
humanities to the arts, like the study of the Earth can.

And no, it isn’t “Rocks for Jocks.”

I’m looking specifically at you, Mr./Ms./Mx. “I don’t like science.” Science
is all around you, and understanding how the planet on which you will
(likely) spend the rest of your life is pretty important. You make decisions
every day in which geology was a factor somewhere along the line, so if you
are ignorant of those ideas, you might not be making the right decision.

So, what do I mean? Here are some of the ways that taking a course in the
geology will impact your life for the rest of it.

Time: Humans tend to not be great about thinking on long timescales—that
is, anything longer than maybe their own lifespan. In geology, that is a
merely a flash compared to deep time. Deep time is the timescale that takes
us back over 4.5 billion years to the formation of the planet. So, while 100
years might seem like a long time now, take a geology class and you’ll be
thinking about events that happened 10,000 or 100,000 or 100,000,000 years
ago … and that gives you perspective about events happening on our planet
today.

Space: Geology is also a discipline that gets you to think about many
scales of space. Need to understand the evolution of a continent? We got
that. Need to think about how isotopes of an element go into a crystal when
it forms? We got that too. Best part: You likely need both ends of the size
spectrum to solve problems.

Observation: Many science fields are very theoretical (I’m looking at
you, physics … with apologies to the astronomers). That’s great and all, but
if all the equations aren’t your bag,* geology is chock full o’ observing.
It is these observations that are the backbone of the field, both in looking
at a static landscape like the folds in a mountain belt and at active
processes, like a landslide or an eruption. Satellites have opened up a
whole new world of observations that unlock geologic problems … and offer us
tantalizing new ones to examine. The field is a visual one!

*author’s note : contrary to popular belief (at college), geology is not
an “easy” science. We do math! We do chemistry! We do biology! We do
physics! We do archeology! But if you’re in college to do stuff that’s easy,
you’re doing it the wrong way.

Thinking globally: You can’t really avoid thinking about the planet when
you study geology. Now, it might not be the surface of the planet—lots of
geologists study parts of the Earth deep beneath our feet (I’m talking
thousands of kilometers down)—but that’s OK. You’re still thinking on a
global scale. Ocean circulation, volcanic ash in the air, plates colliding,
earthquakes rattling the planet. All these things (and more) are processes
that geologists contemplate on a global scale.

Getting outside: Best thing about thinking globally and wanting to
observe the world? It gets you outside. Most geologists covet their time
doing “field work” and if you are a geology major, you’re likely going to
head off at some point to do “field camp” (where you learn the secrets of
mapping the Earth) or “field research,” where you can make observations,
collect samples, and think about geologic processes all while hiking some of
the most spectacular landscapes. Places I’ve gone as a geologist include the
high Andes of Chile, New Zealand, the Cascades in western North America,
Hawaii, the coast of Maine, the deserts of California and much, much more.

Climate: Now, so far I’ve talked about all the fun parts of geology.
However, if you’re looking for work that is important to you, your family
and society across the planet, geology is the place to be. First off,
geology is ground zero for understanding climate change across the history
of Earth. We’ve been studying the variation in the planet’s ecosystems for
two centuries now (heck, paleontology helped start the discipline) and can
look back billions of years to see how the climate has varied. This gives us
that evidence to show how much our current climate is likely in a state of
distress. Geology is also how we can understand what the impact of climate
change will be on our planet, both in the short- and long-term.

Hazards: If you take geology, you’ll find out about all the ways the
planet might be trying to take you out: eruptions, earthquakes, landslides,
floods, sinkholes, tsunamis, and more. You’ll also learn how geologists are
trying to protect people from perishing in such disasters by better
understanding their impacts and assessment of their risk to lives and
property. More importantly, you’ll realize how to protect yourself. Buying a
house? Maybe you should check to see if you’re on a floodplain. Is the house
in an earthquake-prone area? Is the hillslope stable behind the place?
Geologic hazards will impact you at some point, so understanding them puts
you ahead of the curve.

Resources: Take a look around you right now. I’d venture to say that
much of what you see came from a geologic deposit at some point. Copper
wires? Maybe from the copper deposits of the Andes. Steel for your car’s
frame? Maybe Minnesota. Your iPhone is chock full of rare earth elements
that likely came from Chinese carbonatite deposits. The power for your house
may be coming from a range of geologic resources: coal (yes, sadly) or
uranium (better) or hydro-power. If you study geology, you’ll start to
realize the impact that extracting these resources has on the planet (and
people) so you can make more sustainable decisions. You might even get a job
in geologic resources (and trust me, it is profitable—a practical reason to
take geology: to get one of the many high-paying entry level jobs out
there).

Synthesis: However, to me, one of the key reasons to take geology is to
start thinking about lots of ideas all at once and begin to synthesize the
information. If you really want to understand the hazards posed by a
volcano, you’ll need to understand magmatic processes that form the magma
and allow it to erupt, how that stuff that erupts moves across the Earth’s
surface, what people might be living near the volcano, and how it might be
best to communicate the hazard to them. Geology has so many intersections
across so many disciplines that a background in geology will allow you to
intelligently speak about everything from the age of the planet to the
potential of an earthquake in your hometown to how animal life has changed
in Ohio for the last billion years.

Geology is so central to the lives of so many people. If the goal of college
is to create an informed citizenry that can then navigate their lives, a
background in geology (even if it might be a single class) might be one of
the most important disciplines you could choose. So, if you’re never
considered taking that geology class offered on your campus, now might be
the time to give it a try. You’ll come out realizing our place in the
planet’s long history.

I’m sure I haven’t even scraped the surface, so do you have any more great
reasons to take geology?

Thanks, Erik!

The image at the head of this post, in keeping with Erik’s volcanic passions,
is from Iceland, 2015: the eruption of Holuhraun, courtesy of NASA’s Earth Observatory.
This is of particular interest to me, since I’m off to Iceland tomorrow (Katla
willing) and among the destinations on my itinerary is Askja volcano which, in
the cloud and the snow, can be seen 19 kms directly north of the eruption in
the NASA image. Exciting, huh? Just hope the weather and lithospheric
turbulence don’t spoil the fun…

Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/weblogs/