Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
People around the world tell stories to explain distinctive landforms and geological phe-
nomena. The global distribution of folklore associated with topography and great floods
makes me suspect that people are hard-wired to be fascinated by and to question the origin
of landscapes. I know I am. I think I was a geomorphologist before I knew what one was.
As a kid I could stare at maps for hours, examining geographical details of places I'd
never been. Seduced by the lay of the land, I grew up intrigued by how topography shaped
historic battles, controlled the locations and form of cities, and forged the character of civil-
izations.
As a Boy Scout I loved hiking in the Sierra Nevada and the coastal mountains of Califor-
nia. I would follow our treks matching map to landscape, tracking the progress we'd made.
Because I rarely got lost, my parents designated me navigator on family vacations through
the wide-open landscapes of the American West. Driving through country with rocks laid
bare or sculpted into cliffs, spires, and mesas held my attention. I would chart our route
on a map, carefully noting where we were, my head swinging from the map on my lap to
the landmarks out the car window and back again. What river were we following? What
range were those mountains on the horizon? My love of topography and maps—my topo-
philia—cultivated an eye for understanding landscapes.
It wasn't until college that I learned to recognize and name the processes behind why
Earth's surface looks as it does, and how to read the signature of erosion and deposition in
shaping landscapes. Most people see the land as static. I learned to see it as ever-changing.
Now, wherever I am in the world I look to the shape and arrangement of hillslopes
and valleys, mountains and rivers, to read the processes that shaped the land. There is
something inherently beautiful about topography, in the rhythmic rise and fall of rolling
hills, a soaring wall of rock rising to a rugged mountain peak, or the looping symmetry of
a great river meandering across a wide-open floodplain. Coming to understand the forces
that sculpt our world has nurtured the sense of wonder and beauty I find in nature. I've also
found in my travels and expeditions that, like me, people all over the world are enthralled
with and tell stories about topography.
Some of humanity's oldest stories are about the origin of the world and its landforms.
Why do volcanoes exist? How did the oceans form? When did it all begin? People have
wondered about such things for about as long as they've been thinking. How am I sure of
