The One - William Smith 1815 - A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland
Development of concept of Geology as applied science
Introduction:
The very first observation and conceptualization of Geology was started around 2500 years before present. It was by Herodotus who, from his observation of shells far inland of Egypt and Libya, inferred that the land was once under water now on the surface. But whatever the advancement in the field of geology, what we see now was formalized just some decades ago. So, what happened to the dormant subject to become active all of a sudden, and who made the first step towards the application of the concepts? This post is all about that. Hey folks, welcome to my blog post where I will share some of my understandings in geology.
The very first record:
It was Herodotus (484–420 BCE), considered to be the father of history, made some geological observations. He observed that the deposition process of the river and the formation of a new landform named by him as Delta, which appears to him like the Greek word Δ. And also, there is a famous statement from this observation, 'Egypt is the gift of the river'.
He also made some notion of sea level changes and land evolution processes. The idea of mountains formed due to earthquakes were from by him.
Further Development:
Ibn Sina (980–1037) was the first to explain the origin of mountains under two categories: upliftment of ground due to earthquakes & differential erosion. He apprehends the erosional process of the river and its power and the difference in rock strength to various geomorphic processes.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) is the first one to record the rock deformation. He also made a sketch of the details of folded strata in the mountains of Italy. He is the first to apprehend the deformation of a large body of rock, which led to further development of a subject called structural geology.
The Neptunist school of thought:
Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817), a Wernerian Neptunist, believed that once the Earth was covered by a vast ocean and all the rocks and minerals that we see now were precipitated from it. They emphasize layered formation, which supports their idea. At that time, human understanding about the earth and its processes accepted this hypothesis.
The Plutonist school of thought:
led by James Hutton, were against the Neptunist view. Igneous processes lead to the formation of igneous rocks as well as ores. They emphasize igneous bodies and volcanic activity as evidence. There were conflicts between these two groups.
As the human understanding about the other branches of science evolved, some of the old concepts were left behind, and some new ideas were followed. But up to this time, the ideas, concepts, and conflicts were all about theory. Not much development about the application of geology is done. There comes "The One" who changed the focus of the researchers towards the application of geological studies and theorized it with practical proof.
The One:
It is William Smith, an English geologist, who made the very first detailed map of England in 1815, titled 'A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with part of Scotland.'
In a geological map, the very first difficulty is to fix the rock boundary (the end of a particular rock and the stating of a new rock on the surface). He did it to near perfection with the reference to the streams and other marked features on the map. he also worked more than 6 years in coal mines to record the thickness and succession of the rock units.
Finally, after 26 years of detailed work, the very first complete geological map of England was published by him.
With the help of his map, he explained the application of geological maps in engineering work and other mining projects. He successfully predicts the rock type and thickness at an excavation at a particular location on the map.
This explains the importance of preparation of a geological map, in the prediction of the depth of a rock. The orientation, as understood from a geological map, will help in solving basement problems in engineering work.
This was the first proven application of Geology in the engineering field. From the study of his map, men began to think of many other economic applications of Geology.
Reference:
- Principles of Geology – James Gilluly, Aaron C. Water, A. O. Wood Ford
- Principles of Geomorphology - William D Thornbury
- Economic Mineral Deposits - Alan M Bateman
- Mineral Deposits - Waldemar Lindgren
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