Accretionary Wedge: Inspiration

The Accretionary Wedge for July is up, and it asks the following:

“So July’s topic is about your inspiration to enter geoscience. Was it a fantastic mentor? Watching your geologist parents growing up? A great teacher, or an exciting intro field trip? How did it happen?”

This is a difficult question for me to answer; mostly because of the way my decision making process (on the larger decisions at least) seems to work. I go from having a decision to make (e.g. at around 16 or 17 trying to decide what to do at university) to having made the decision without being entirely conscious of the process I’ve gone through to make it.

A whole load of little factors combine to result in a decision being made – the major ones are listed below:

• Local Geology: As I’ve shown in some other posts on this site we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to excellent geology in the Borders (and Scotland as a whole [in fact, the UK as a whole come to think of it]). I had a chance to visit quite a lot of these through my childhood, and loved almost every trip.
  One particular memory stands out above the rest. I think I was about 10 or 11 (because we went with my best friend from primary school, Calum). It was in September; I know that for sure because it was a National Trust walk arranged to coincide with the Scottish Festival of Geology. The walk took us along the bottom of a U-shaped valley from the base of Grey Mare’s Tail to Dob’s Linn. I remember running through the river and scrambling up scree slopes looking for Graptolites. I loved every minute of it, and have been back several times since.

• Favourite subjects at high school: At high school I was always drawn to the more science based subjects. Preferring analytical techniques and observation over hand waving discussion of social issues (I’m looking at you Human Geography) – not to put these subjects down, they’re just not “me”. By my final year I’d narrowed down to Advanced Higher Geography (focusing as much as possible on physical geography), Chemistry and Mathematics. I made a half hearted attempt to take Higher Geology, planning to teach myself and sit the SQA exams; but this fell through with no-one around capable of conducting continuous assessment or marking NABs (but my issues with the Scottish Education System can be saved for another day). In any case, my favourite subjects at this point were physical geography and chemistry. What do you get when you combine chemistry and physical geography? Earth Sciences.

• Holidays: Looking back at my childhood I was a pretty lucky kid when it came to summer holidays to interesting places. I saw the Caves of Drach (Majorca), the Lake District (UK), Pamukale (Turkey), Cheddar Gorge (UK), more glaciated uplands in Scotland and Wales than is probably healthy (UK), the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote (Spain) and a whole lot more. While I understood little of what I was seeing at the time, and much of it is now reduced to a hazy tapestry of memories, these experiences have stuck with me. The staggering beauty of the vistas created by geological processes presented a fascinating puzzle to my young mind, I was curious to find out what created these things.

• Ithaca: The final influence I list is a member of its own group of little influences – brilliant stories about cross-discipline investigations and revolutionary discoveries (another good example is the collaborations between astronomers and geologists that take place in Planetary Geology, another interest of mine). The one that really grabbed me, however, is described in Odysseus Unbound [Wikipedia Page]. I came across a BBC news story about the subject shortly after having read the Odyssey, and my attention was seized by the combination of multiple fields working together to prove a hypothesis. It’s a brilliant story, although the science needs some more detailed examination to confirm the hypothesis, and it’s well worth a read.
  I got the chance to hear a fascinating lecture on the topic at the Geological Society of Glasgow last year from Prof. Underhill explaining the theory and detailing the evidence – a fantastic lecture which helped remind me of one of the reasons why I love science – solving puzzles. (It’s also just occurred to me that this would make a fantastic field trip for last month’s Accretionary Wedge, if only I’d thought of it at the time).

So that’s it for this brief summary of what got me interested in geosciences. I don’t know if it makes a particularly good read, but I greatly enjoyed writing it and reminiscing about what got me started on the path into this fascinating field.

Tags: Accretionary Wedge, Geology