This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Oh, I know, some folks will tell you it was physics. Yes, there was that, too. And there might be a few who argue for chemistry, and we'll grant them chemistry. Of course those things were there. Can't have a universe without them. Not a universe like ours, anyway.
But geology was hiding within those things. As stars came together, as they began forging elements, as those elements exploded out into the universe and gravity gathered them together again, geology, like life, looked at all that lovely physics and chemistry and said, "Yum! I can do something interesting with that." And oh, it did.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
People think of geology as an earth science, and yes, earth's where humans figured it out. Right there in the name, geo, planet earth. But other planets have rocks. And the elements that formed the earth were, like the elements that form us, born in the stars. Biology will still be biology when it's applied to aliens. Geology is still geology when applied to other worlds, and we've beaten life twice now: there were rocks before critters, and we've gotten our hands on space rocks before space critters. So there.
So that post I linked to up above, that's a post I want you to go read. Because my friend Ryan at Glacial Till, who is doing absolutely scrumptious things with meteorites, he's teaching you geology from the beginning. Right from the beginning of time. And there's another lesson within, one he didn't state explicitly but is there, like geology at the beginning of time, hiding in plain sight all along. And the lesson is this:
You don't have to give up the stars to study the earth.
You wanna be a geologist but study outer space? You can do that. Absolutely, you can. What are the inner planets called? Rocky planets, thankyouverymuch. What are asteroids? Rocks. Big ol' space rocks. Moon's got rocks. There's rocks everywhere, all over solar systems, and sometimes, those rocks land on us. Sometimes, we land on them.
So yes, you can have your geology and whatever else you like. You can have your geology, and your astronomy, and your physics, and your chemistry, and your biology, too. You can have it all. Why do you think I love geology so very, very much? Because it's got everything.
So get over to Ryan's place. Let him show you where geology began, and where it will take you next.
Originally published at En Tequila Es Verdad. Ties in nicely with our first Seahawks installment, dunnit?
