Geology
The word geology means ‘Study of the Earth’. Also known as geoscience or earth science, Geology is the primary Earth science and looks at how the earth formed, its structure and composition, and the types of processes acting on it.
Geology
Geology was an observational science
- People would see geologic curiosity and describe it
- Later, people would attempt to explain it
Modern Geology?
Is an inter-disciplinary science, bridging the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics
- More quantitative with experiments and measurements
Geology as an environmental science:
- Rocks record how climate change has altered earth
- Recognition and mitigation of natural hazards
- Controls on erosion and sedimentation
Traditional means of testing hypotheses in geology is not easy
See Scientific Method.
- Problems with size
- A volcano is big
- A river is not easily contained within a laboratory
- Plate Tectonics involves the whole Earth
- Problems with time
- Geologic processes take thousands to millions of years to complete
- Geologists are limited by human time (years to decades)
- Problems with resolution of data
- New technology and procedures often impact, or challenge, old theories
- We can see more details now than a century ago