Episode 35 - "So often we disconnect these things" Why study geology?

This week we discuss how geoscience can enrich anyone’s life. Join the discussion and then learn about how much cosmic dust falls on us every day!

• John was on The Orbital Mechanics Episode 24 talking about SMAP.

Why Learn Geology

• Your World Rocked (Slate)

Spatial thinking/reasoning

• Thinking in 3D is hard… 4D is harder


• 3D Mouse

Resources

• We need resources for our modern lifestyle


• Earth is continuously changing (as pointed out in the article), so preserving it as is should NOT be the goal, but preserving a habitable planet.

Place based knowledge

• Connects you directly to the land. Everyone has a “place” and by further exploring it through geology it can create a deeper connection.

Time

• “Any good intro geology course is actually a course in time”


• Geologic time…it’s really big!


• Pale Blue Dot Photo


• Puts things in perspective. Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot commentary does a great job of showing spatial and temporal smallness. It doesn’t make you feel small though, it makes you feel free. Chokes me up every time; Watch it here

Fun Paper Friday

How much cosmic dust falls on the Earth everyday? Kilograms, tons? Find out on this week’s segment!

Gardner, C. S., Liu, A. Z., Marsh, D. R., & Feng, W. (2014). Inferring the global cosmic dust influx to the Earth’s atmosphere from lidar observations of the vertical flux of mesospheric Na. Journal of …, 119(9), 7870–7879. http://doi.org/10.1002/2014ja020383

Contact us:

Show - www.dontpanicgeocast.com - @dontpanicgeo - [email protected]

John Leeman - www.johnrleeman.com - @geo_leeman

Shannon Dulin - @ShannonDulin