“WHY I WANT TO BE A GEOLOGIST.” Jonathan Valentine, SA-7526, Southern Florida University
I once thought that geologists only study rocks. However, a quick study of the word, geology, reveals that the prefix geo- comes to us from the ancient Greek, literally translated as ‘earth’. Therefore, a geologist is some- one who studies the earth and all the processes that revolve around it, not
simply rocks.
And before there were the first cities, there were geologists. Ancient hunter-gatherer societies had to have an intimate working knowledge of the earth. They needed to ask questions such as what stones make good tools, what areas and soils grow the best fruits and berries, where does the river flow and how will the seasons change its hydrology? I asked myself similar questions growing up. Why were the creeks full of little shark teeth, how do mountains grow, and where did the moon come from? These were all questions on my mind.
Humans have been studying the earth and nature ever since we had the cognitive ability to do so. St. Augustine the Great argued that there were two good books, the Holy Bible and the Book of Nature. Both revealed the magnificence of god, but you could only read the latter by studying the world, reading the dynamics of earth, and learning her language. I am not a religious man, but if there is something that could be called religious in me, it is my love for the earth and what St. Augustine saw as the good Book of Nature.
We have had our hiccups over time. Today, ideas such as the geocentric model are laughable. However, on a practical level, believing as Ptolemy did that the Earth was the center of the universe makes sense. At times, it feels like the center of my own life. There is a Latin phrase called Amor Fati which means the love of fate, and I love mine as there is not a day that goes by where I’m not reminded of the beauty that lies in understanding the earth.
The earth is our first mother, in fact, it is what sustains our lives. To undertake an understanding of the earth and to become a geologist means to undertake the most human of all studies. I want to become a geologist for the same reason
as Muir did when he said, “I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.” (John Muir, 1896). Geologists are those who translate the language of the earth, so that they who are too busy or deaf to hear her directly can be reminded of something greater than themselves and of the reasons why we should understand, study, and protect the natural environment.
I first began to interpret the earth through my involvement in undergraduate research which taught me to communicate scientifically while changing the way I viewed the natural environment. My research in Dr. Herbert’s Paleoecology lab at the University of South Florida compared biodiversity indices of mollusk specimens dredged from the Gulf of Mexico, and it highlighted how delicate ecosystems are. Even slight anthropogenic changes in climate can have serious effects on biodiversity.
The naturalist Henry David Thoreau once said in his essay Life Without Principle, “The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get ‘a good job,’ but to perform well a certain work… Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.” (1905). This is the advice I seek to follow, I know that I will not be satisfied simply working a regular job within the geosciences even if it is related to my passion, I want to grasp the reality that best allows me to act on what I value. And what I value is protecting the natural environment through education, litigation, and scientific discovery. I have already built my castles in the air, now to follow Thoreau’s suggestion I must, “Put the foundations under them.” (Thoreau, 1854, ed. by Shanley, 1971).
Work Cited
Muir, J. (1896). The national parks and forest reservations. Sierra Club Bulletin 1(7) , 271-284.
Thoreau, Henry David. Life without principle. No. 18. Arthur C. Fifield, 1905.
Thoreau, Henry David. “Walden. 1854.” Ed. J. Lyndon Shanley. Princeton: Princeton UP (1971).
Xiangming Zhao, SA-6433, Kent State University
Born in a small village sitting at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains (North China), I was gifted with a sharp perception of geographical fea- tures and biological activities. My first impression of the “world” was a composite landscape of farmland, pear orchards, a surrounding river, a cross-
ing railway, the mountains to the west, and the “bowl-shaped” sky above. As I was growing up, I was fascinated with the natural environment and enlarged my exploration further and further. At the age of ten, I took my first hike to the western mountain with five other kids, walking over six miles a day, equipped with only water and snacks. I still remember there
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was a 30-feet-high vertical “bedding” of limestone standing on the top of a horizontal limestone platform. We wondered how this could be here with multiple silly ideas. Ten miles south- ward from this standing limestone, a shepherd accidentally discovered a karst cave full of speleothems when I was an elementary student. It was a headline event in my province. My father took the kids to view this marvelous underground cave, which was later confirmed the biggest karst cave with the similar latitude in the world. The various form of cave stones made me wonder more about the natural mysteries. I also spent many after-school afternoons watching how people drilled a borehole and cased it, and then pumped water out of it. I also noticed the construction sand from two nearby rivers are very different in size and tried to figure out why,
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