Episode 9 of the podClast is ready for download. This week’s episode discusses the latest rumbling, shaking and eruptions in Tonga, global warming and the ozone layer and dinosaurs – small and feathered. Plus a reading recommendation.
It’s a new episode of the podClast! In episode 7 we discuss really old sponge biomarkers in rocks from Oman, Palaeomagnatism, geology on Google Earth and more. This is the first episode in 7 months and it’s the longest podClast ever, so put down you rock hammer, lift a glass of something cold and listen to the banter of the geoblogosphere.
On page 40 of his notebook M, written after the voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin scrolled the following:
I a geologist have illdefined notion of land covered with ocean, former animals, slow force cracking surface &c truly poetical (V. Wordsworth about science being sufficiently habitual to be poetic)
Darwin defined himself as a geologist. His seminal publication On The Origin of Species relied on what would later be known as the Theory of Plate Tectonics in order to geographically isolate and then force adaptation in species. (You can try and read Darwin’s hand written notebook M here or read the plain text version here).
So from one geologist to another, happy bicentennial Charles.
Sandra Herbert has written a book called Charles Darwin, Geologist, which is definitely on my “to read” list between now and the 24th of November, the sesquicentennial of the publication of “Origin”. Which I should probably read through again before that date too. If you’re up for reading through some superb 19th century scientific literature, On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (here’s the pdf) can be read at Darwin Online (or at Google Books), along with all of Darwin’s other works (and there are plenty).
It’s Charles Darwin’s 199th birthday today. Happy Darwin Day to one and all. To mark this event, I look at Darwin’s epic beard and ponder the evolutionary implications
Is it time to seriously consider the distinct anthropogenic effects on the geological record, seen as a result of the industrial age, as a unique geological epoch?
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