NOT JUST OFFICIAL GEOHERITAGE SITES!

A man (geologist ironically) in 1972 takes a hammer to Michelangelo’s Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica and badly mars the famous marble statue. It has been repaired and is now protected behind a Plexiglas shield. Fires, set intentionally or otherwise have destroyed some important books and other documents at various times throughout history. These occurrences tend to generate broad outrage at the loss of precious cultural treasures.

A spectacular and controversial exposure of quartzite and intruding granite were rediscovered in south-central Wisconsin during research in the 1980s. This Hamilton Mounds outcrop area revealed evidence of complex and intriguing relationships between rock units involving the “Baraboo Interval” of Proterozoic history. The isolated hard-rock hills represented a window through Paleozoic and glacial cover. Within twenty years of its published existence, the entire exposure was reduced to crushed road material. The State of Wisconsin and specifically, The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, was quite aware that the land was being leased for industrial exploitation. Lost is a treasure of natural history more rare and instructive than a Renaissance statue and yet apparently without any status for preservation. This example is of course, not an unusual event throughout the globe. Not only are ‘rocks” or most other geologic features underappreciated, they are even less protected than most anything in the biological realm.

There are some good examples of geological-site curation to note. Parks of scientific and natural features exist in many contexts. The recent effort to elect and describe 100 special sites in the United Kingdom is a worthy endeavor. However, until the geoscience community can make its influence more effective, we will continue to see the loss of irreplaceable treasures both academic and aesthetic.