THE NOBLE (BUT NEGLECTED) HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AS A SCIENCE: A TRIBUTE TO ELDRIDGE MOORES

At the university level, geology is a vibrant science, pouring forth a stream of discoveries about the Earth. But at the K-12 level, geology is invisible, in an environment where “science” means physics, chemistry and biology. Eldridge Moores has long fulminated over the fact that geology is so disregarded. Perhaps we bring it upon ourselves, by accepting the traditional view that “geology is a young science,” dating back only to the “Geological Revolution” around 1800. By doing so, we neglect our ancient and noble heritage.

The real history of geology could be told as the achievements of many individual scientists. But I find it more coherent to tell it as a chronology of six great revolutions in the understanding of the Earth, which I prefer to treat in reverse chronological order: (6) In the Planetary-Science Revolution, currently under way, we are learning that Earth's mode of operation is only one of many possible behavioral modes for a rocky body, and that other modes are recognizable among other planets and satellites. (5) In the Plate Tectonic Revolution we learned that Earth's interior and solid crust are mobile and are constantly rearranging their configuration. (4) In the Geological Revolution geologists learned to read Earth history written in rocks, and recognized that the Earth's past extends back, not thousands of years, but billions of years. (3) In the Copernican Revolution around 1600, usually presented as a breakthrough in astronomy and physics, it was recognized that Earth is a planet orbiting the Sun, so this was clearly a geological revolution as well. (2) In the Portuguese and Spanish Voyages of Discovery of the 15th and 16th Centuries, the geography of lands and seas were mapped, along with the ocean circulation and the climate belts. (1) In the time of the Greeks, Earth was understood to be a sphere, its radius was determined, and its mapping was begun.

Most historians of science choose the mathematical achievements of the Copernican Revolution to mark the beginning of modern science. But the Dutch historian Reijer Hooykaas has argued that the fundamental characteristic of science is the choice to accept evidence over authority, and that the Portuguese explorers were the first to face this dilemma and to choose to rely on evidence, not on authority. We might therefore conclude that modern science began with geology.