New directions in Geology

The cover of one recent and popular textbook on geology figures a splendid photograph of the earth taken from space. A riffle through its pages, or the pages of almost any current publication will show illustration after illustration of electron photomicrographs, infra red images, seismic reflection profiles, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectra; a seemingly endless catalogue of applications of modern technology. Books on fossils will lead the reader into the realms of applied statistics, books on minerals will require a passing knowledge of X-ray diffraction and crystal lattice parameters. In short the science presents itself as a client of modern technology. A far cry from the popular image of a geologist as a man with a hammer and knapsack wandering through the countryside tapping rocks, collecting fossils or minerals and making water-colour maps. Yet this evolution from simple observation to meticulous measure ment is not in itself a 'new direction'; geologists have always harnessed available technology to their needs. In the sense that analytical science involves experimental verification and testable prediction, geology has always stood a little apart from physics, chemistry, or part of biology since the rates of geological processes are generally measured in millennia. Even Methuselah would be unlikely to witness the full cycle of any geological process. Never theless the progressive application of fine-tuned instrumentation has provided the ability to identify the fundamental nature of these processes and establish simple models for the testing of their component parts. No, the application of technology is not a new direction but a continuation of an approach that is as venerable as the debate between neptunists and plutonists in the eighteenth century. A common present-day view regards geology as simply one aspect of earth science, a discipline in some way perceived as different from life science or physical science. It is a convenient grouping for academic institutions, supposed to provide a cross linkage between geophysics, geochemistry, geology, palaeontology and physical geography. Perhaps the notion that geologists should be brought up in such a family of disciplines is a change in direction, but it is not new. It is really only since the growth in importance of time consuming technologies that specialisation has become an apparent