{"id":71818,"date":"2019-03-21T11:19:16","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T17:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=71818"},"modified":"2019-03-21T11:19:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T17:19:16","slug":"mother-earth-and-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/mother-earth-and-i.html","title":{"rendered":"Mother Earth and I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hawaii's<\/a>
The lava lake in Kilauea\u2019s caldera can rise or fall in a matter of hours. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image) And its lava is continually flowing into the Pacific Ocean, making the Big Island a little bit bigger every year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my regrets is that I\u2019ve never taken a geology class. \u00a0But the subject interests me very much \u2014 and probably for some of the same reasons that history interests me. \u00a0I recall a lengthy conversation with the late Eugene Clark<\/a> in Costa Rica about his early desire to become a historian. \u00a0But he was dyslexic, and he simply couldn\u2019t keep up with the reading that his history classes demanded of him, and that a career as a historian would inevitably require. \u00a0In the end, he had become a (very fine) geologist, specializing in deciphering the history of landscapes and landforms. \u00a0I instantly understood the connection.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We keep a copy of Roadside Geology of Utah<\/em><\/a> in the glove compartment of our car. \u00a0And whenever I spend enough time in a place that\u2019s sufficiently interesting to justify it (e.g., Kauai, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Hawai\u2018i Volcanoes National Park, and so forth), I tend to buy a guide to the local geology of the area. \u00a0Years ago, my wife and I spent several days in Rocky Mountain National Park with her parents, and I expect that I probably drove them slightly nuts with my incessant sharing of geological discoveries from the back seat. \u00a0But it certainly makes the landscape come alive. \u00a0Instead of simply passing by features that we scarcely notice, we\u2019re looking at details that take on real significance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be spending a little bit of time this summer in the Canadian Rockies, and passing through Yellowstone National Park enroute \u2014 a geological wonderland \u2014 and, barring unforeseen catastrophe (e.g., an inconvenient life-ending eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano), I\u2019ll be following the same long-standing habit. \u00a0And one of my aspirations is to make a serious study \u2014 well, \u201cserious\u201d by my time-constrained, amateur standards \u2014 of Mount St. Helens. \u00a0I\u2019ve been in the area before, but never quite to my satisfaction. \u00a0Volcanology and plate tectonics are, for some reason, of particular interest to me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, my failure to have a solid, systematic, basic geological foundation or framework for what I\u2019m seeing is an obvious weakness. \u00a0So I\u2019ve acquired some materials with which I hope, in fits and starts, to develop at least some rudiments of general geological understanding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notice: \u00a0This blog post is for entertainment purposes only. \u00a0It is not intended for the treatment of any disease, nor does it purport to reflect a double-blind process of peer evaluation or rigorous statistical analysis or to demonstrate a trend. \u00a0No atheists were harmed in its production. \u00a0These statements have not been evaluated for accuracy by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.<\/span><\/h6>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 One of my regrets is that I\u2019ve never taken a geology class. \u00a0But the subject interests me very much \u2014 and probably for some of the same reasons that history interests me. \u00a0I recall a lengthy conversation with the late Eugene Clark in Costa Rica about his early desire to become a historian. 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