What's your perception of Geology

[Catchy Slogan]

I did Geography at school, so it pretty much just lumps everything into one course there.
Eh, I found it interesting enough, but it wasn't for me. But it is pretty important. Not just 'Oh, that's a nice rock.'

 

[honestdiscussioner]

I'm happy to report I'm well aware of the differences between archaeology and geology. I'm utterly surprised most people don't understand that scientific distinction. Until I reread that last sentence, and I realized I expected people to understand science, and my surprise abates. Seriously, the only thing the average citizen knows less about is philosophy.

::sigh::

Hey, Potholer54 on youtube does a LOT of geology stuff. Though his productions are amazing for how low-tech they are. I'd say you can do it.

 

[LostTimeLady]

Off to do do it at University in Sept, Geology and Petroleum Geology, I really like some sides of my course and am fascinated by it, others bits bore me to near death.

I know quite a lot, but I have just taken a year out (gap year) so I could to with a reminder!

Edit: Some one asked me what I would be doing my degree on and I said "geology", they replied with
"What theology?"

"No Geology"

"What's that?"

Fair enough really I think, as it's not exactly a common subject at school.

Interestingly enough, I've had that one before as well. The college I'm at at University is known for it's concentration of Christians and therefore theologists so when I gave my college and my subject they obviously heard 'theology' as that's what is expected at my college. Like you say, it is fair enough (although I always thought theology as a separate subject was quite rare too in High School at least).

 

[honestdiscussioner]

I did Geography at school, so it pretty much just lumps everything into one course there.
Eh, I found it interesting enough, but it wasn't for me. But it is pretty important. Not just 'Oh, that's a nice rock.'

Geography is the study of land and terrain . . . slightly different from geology.

 

[gbemery]

Exactly. A friend of mine (who's reading geophysics ironically) does a bit of rockwatcher bashing but for me, rocks are both amazing, beautiful and contain a record of the history of the Earth. As you say we can tell all sorts for enviroment of deposition to how much CO[sub]2[/sub] was in the atmosphere at the time.

It's funny that people need convicing that there's merit to looking at a rock when looking at a test tube full of chemicals is considered perfectly fine. Yet both of doing the same thing, trying to understand the world.

There defiantely seems to be a bit of general ignorance about just how little we knew about the Earth before the likes of Arthur Holmes, James Hutton and Co. came along.

I really love the igneous rocks and metamorphic. I'm not a fan of sedimentary formations though. I know that seems kind of weird since metamorphic rocks were either igneous or sedimentary to begin with. After taking my mineralogy, and petrology classes I usually never go anywhere with out a hand lens.

I think people don't take much merit to rocks because they glance over them everyday and wonder why someone would take so much interest in something they find as mundane. A chemist and his test tubes are in a lab and people relate that to science. A geologist can be in their backyard looking at the rocks in their garden or on the side of a highway looking at a road cut.

Have you ever watched the show "How the Earth was Made"?

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I did Geography at school, so it pretty much just lumps everything into one course there.
Eh, I found it interesting enough, but it wasn't for me. But it is pretty important. Not just 'Oh, that's a nice rock.'

Geography is the study of land and terrain . . . slightly different from geology.

I know. Which is why I said in my school they just lumped everything into one course as catch-all and slapped 'Geography' on the front. We also spent a trimester on Geology now and then in Geography. I'm not that much of an idiot to post on a thread that complains that people don't know the difference when I don't know the difference.

Defeats the point, no? ;P

 

[honestdiscussioner]

I did Geography at school, so it pretty much just lumps everything into one course there.
Eh, I found it interesting enough, but it wasn't for me. But it is pretty important. Not just 'Oh, that's a nice rock.'

Geography is the study of land and terrain . . . slightly different from geology.

Whoaaaa!!! Amazing misconsception that has my geographical senses tingling. - Land and Terrain are a tiny part of Geography, in the same way say Sedimentology is a tiny part of Geology or WW2 a tiny part of History...

I didn't say ONLY land and terrain. I don't think it is prudent to list EVERYTHING that is studied under a discipline.

Is history a study of past events? Yes, there is no misconception there. However there are specific things under that umbrella that history also studies.

 

[Beat14]

Interestingly enough, I've had that one before as well. The college I'm at at University is known for it's concentration of Christians and therefore theologists so when I gave my college and my subject they obviously heard 'theology' as that's what is expected at my college. Like you say, it is fair enough (although I always thought theology as a separate subject was quite rare too in High School at least).

Admittedly I don't even know if Theology as a subject it taught in high school. Glad to know my experience is not unique to me.

People always seem to say how interesting a degree in geology sounds, but I could bore them to death on a lump of rock on the other side of the window for a good 10 minutes. My friends tell me to shut up quite often thanks to my knowledge of geology.

 

[Zantos]

Firstly, geology has phrases like nun attack (I know, I was emphasising a point of how funny it sounds. Also I have no idea on how to actually spell it). That makes it awesome. Secondly, it has a scientific test that involves picking up a rock and licking it. These things make geology cool.

 

[Galaxy Roll]

Apparently I don't think too highly of it since my dream last night had me finding loads of gold veins in chunks of rocks I got after hitting the ground with a big stick a few times.

 

[Soviet Steve]

1. Do you know much about the subject of geology?
2. Do you think that the study of geology is important in schools?
3. Do you know someone who's studied geology or works within the Earth Sciences (geology, geochemistry, geophysics, the oil, coal, gas and minerals industry etc etc)?

1. I know stuff like that the Earth is a large ball of molten iron with a lot've stuff ontop.
2. For explaining the origins of the planet and life etc. sure but I don't think it requires more than an introduction. At least here in Denmark that seems fair seeing how chalk is the only valueable mineral or natural resource we export aside from agricultural products. There is the North Sea oil but that's set to run out soon.
3. Nope.

For understanding the world overall it seems worth mentioning and such but unless there's interest in it I don't see it being necessary. (Mind you, this is for 1st-9th grade compulsory school that we have in Denmark)

Put up your youtube channel or PM me with it though, I'd love to see this. Like mentioned before visual aids are your best friend when derpy uneducated folks like me are involved.

 

[LostTimeLady]

I really love the igneous rocks and metamorphic. I'm not a fan of sedimentary formations though. I know that seems kind of weird since metamorphic rocks were either igneous or sedimentary to begin with. After taking my mineralogy, and petrology classes I usually never go anywhere with out a hand lens.

I think people don't take much merit to rocks because they glance over them everyday and wonder why someone would take so much interest in something they find as mundane. A chemist and his test tubes are in a lab and people relate that to science. A geologist can be in their backyard looking at the rocks in their garden or on the side of a highway looking at a road cut.

Have you ever watched the show "How the Earth was Made"?

I haven't actually, I think a friend of mine (the geophysics student) has it on DVD actually. Also, I too am another who usually takes her handlens everywhere!
I love igneous petrology, it's so interesting.
It's true that when something's so common people don't think twice about it when there's a whole world of knowledge locked up in the rocks under out feet.


(Also, wow guys I'm loving the discussions we've got going in this thread! )

 

[gbemery]

I haven't actually, I think a friend of mine (the geophysics student) has it on DVD actually. Also, I too am another who usually takes her handlens everywhere!
I love igneous petrology, it's so interesting.
It's true that when something's so common people don't think twice about it when there's a whole world of knowledge locked up in the rocks under out feet.


(Also, wow guys I'm loving the discussions we've got going in this thread! )

My two favorite subjects so far are petrology and structural geology. One of many interesting facts I learned was that in a quarry if you remove the rock to quickly and don't use precautions than, like say a granite quarry, the rock will explode because of the quick change in stresses. Well I think you can watch that show on Hulu actually...or that might be the one about the universe. My biggest problem with petrology though was trying to find out what mineral crystals were in the rock. You had the obvious ones like Kyanite and Olivine. But when you got to the darker ones it was a pain.

 

[LostTimeLady]

I think you should go for it, but have a clear idea of who your audience is or where you want to go beforehand. I spent a while trying to write draft articles for a semi-professional blog in my field once. It never got off the ground because I never did much planning, so I could never decide if I was writing for people at my level in my field, people just starting out in the field, or people who had no connection to the field but who were curious. It drove me nuts because I kept feeling like I wanted to address what were difficult concepts for people at my level of experience, but explain them all down so that someone who had never worked a day in my field could get them. It kept turning into big, unwieldy walls of text that I could tell just by looking at them that no one was ever going to read.

But if you have the time and energy to make it work, I say go for it. On a daily, on-the-job basis, I see more improvement of my work coming from ideas in blogs from other people in my field than from academic-style research on my own. And often reading people's blogs has led me to academic research in my field I wouldn't have known about otherwise.

So I say go for it. Good luck, and if we are part of your audience please let us know how it goes.

Cheers mate, that's some really helpful advice. I started writing a draft for one blog and realised that what I thought was a simple topic actually required explination right at first principles which shocked me but made me realise that, as you say, planning is key.

My two favorite subjects so far are petrology and structural geology. One of many interesting facts I learned was that in a quarry if you remove the rock to quickly and don't use precautions than, like say a granite quarry, the rock will explode because of the quick change in stresses. Well I think you can watch that show on Hulu actually...or that might be the one about the universe. My biggest problem with petrology though was trying to find out what mineral crystals were in the rock. You had the obvious ones like Kyanite and Olivine. But when you got to the darker ones it was a pain.

I find that sort of thing interesting too. I know what you mean about mineral identification. It's why I think working with thin sections is great because not only can you see the structure of the mineral more closely when you stick the thing in cross-polarisation all sorts of things jump right at you and suddenly a pyroxene is easily identifiable from an amphibole.

 

[gbemery]

I find that sort of thing interesting too. I know what you mean about mineral identification. It's why I think working with thin sections is great because not only can you see the structure of the mineral more closely when you stick the thing in cross-polarisation all sorts of things jump right at you and suddenly a pyroxene is easily identifiable from an amphibole.

Oh I loved cross sections. It really made telling what kind of matrix it had a lot easier.

 

[LostTimeLady]

I find that sort of thing interesting too. I know what you mean about mineral identification. It's why I think working with thin sections is great because not only can you see the structure of the mineral more closely when you stick the thing in cross-polarisation all sorts of things jump right at you and suddenly a pyroxene is easily identifiable from an amphibole.

Oh I loved cross sections. It really made telling what kind of matrix it had a lot easier.

Difinately. I will admit that it was hard graft studying them this year as we were expected to do a lot of drawing and labeling of individual slides, but I did enjoy it.

 

[CaptainREBell]

Geology rocks (harharr).
I studied it at A level, and really enjoyed it...the environmental stuff was really dry though, so that could do with spicing it up!
People always assume it's just about rocks, and it isn't, so I figure it would be good if that was made clearer too.
Also, all famous geologists have a beard. You will need a beard!