Why Geology?
What is so interesting about geology?
When people talk about the natural world nowadays, geodiversity is increasingly being placed alongside biodiversity as part of the greater whole. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) gives this definition:
“Geodiversity refers to the variety of the geological and physical elements of nature, such as minerals, rocks, soils, fossils and landforms, and active geological and geomorphological processes. Together with biodiversity, geodiversity constitutes the natural diversity of planet Earth.”
Geology allows us to go further than this, and understand something of how planet Earth works, how it has developed from the deepest of Deep Time to the present day, and how it will continue to develop in the future.
Interested in flora and fauna?
The underlying geology explains the characteristics of the local soil supporting these and controlling their distribution.
The endangered Pasqueflower is the county flower of Hertfordshire. Therfield Heath is one of the most extensive remaining areas of chalk grassland in eastern England, with parts becoming covered in hundreds of beautiful Pasqueflowers in the spring.
Interested in landscape?
Again, the underlying geology, together with the long history of tectonics and erosion, give an understanding of the forces and processes which slowly formed each characteristic landscape, and continue to influence it.
The Chilterns may not be as high as the Alps. But they are the distant result of the same mountain-building episode that built the Alps, when the African Plate collided with Europe.
Interested in economic geography?
Geology and related earth sciences explain how the various natural resources we rely upon (minerals, oil and gas, rare earths etc.) came to be concentrated in particular regions and locations.
After the age of coal and oil comes the age of Lithium and Rare Earths – vital for batteries and electronics. Most lithium comes from brine lakes or evaporites. So can it really be extracted from old tin mines around Cornish granite outcrops?
Interested in climate and climate change?
Geology and related earth sciences allow us to find evidence of climatic conditions and related events at different periods deep in the past, and come to a better understanding of interactions and feedbacks which are particularly relevant today.
Ice sheet reaching north London? Hippos and rhinos in Trafalgar Square? Frost Fairs on the frozen Thames?
Geoscience allows us to trace long-term cycles of global temperature, and understand their causes.
And to disentangle them from shorter-term anomalies, and THEIR causes.
Interested in human history?
Geology and earth sciences can give a picture of changing living conditions in different parts of the earth during the period of human evolution and the rise of early civilisations, and can provide tools to date evidence from before the written historical record.
Various Homo species occupied England during warm inter-glacial periods, but the populations died out when the climate became too cold.
Geology teams up with archaeology to show how and when the UK was joined to mainland Europe, allowing human populations to re-settle here. And how and when the link was broken.
Simply curious about how the world works?
Then geology can take you from the centre of the earth to the outer planets and beyond.
Geoscience continues to develop methods of obtaining increasingly detailed data, even from apparently inaccessible locations. Combined with sophisticated analysis and imaging techniques, these allow us to test and improve theoretical ideas.
These seismic tomography cross-sections show a tectonic plate subducting below New Zealand.
Interested? Join Us! If you are not sure whether to become a member, come along to a talk as a guest.