Hutton's Arse

Martin Rider

Description

The extraordinary and beautiful scenery of the Northern Scottish Highlands has been created by a geological history lasting over 3 billion years. This is an illustrated geological history of those years, showing the rocks, visiting the places and introduces famous researchers and their theories that have been inspired by the Highlands.

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• Northern Scotland

Informations

• Publié par: Dunedin Academic Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780466088
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Hutton’s Arse

3 billion years of extraordinary geology in Scotland’s Northern Highlands
Second edition
Malcolm Rider and Peter Harrison
Contents
About the authors
Introduction
1. A RED EARTH
The enigma of the ancient Torridonian
2. DEEP SCAR: THE MOINE THRUST
The story of a bitter scientific controversy
3. THE FISH GRAVES OF ACHANARRAS
Devonian fish are human ancestors
4. VOLCANO
The Tertiary volcanic province and the Atlantic opening
5. THE COMING ICE AGE
Past and future climates in the Highlands
6. LEFT-OVERS
The Lewisian Gneiss and the creation of continents
7. HUTTON’S ARSE (1795)
Just another planet?
8. THE FUTURE
Index
About the authors
For over 30 years Malcolm Rider has been involved in the hydrocarbon industry, working first for a major company and then running his own consultancy business. He is still very much active in the industry, travelling the world presenting specialist courses and advising on oil exploration techniques. Peter Harrison has lived for 40 years in the north west Highlands working as a teacher and geoscience educator. He wishes to share the inspiration of this thought-provoking landscape; Peter leads geotours for the North West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark.
The cover photograph is of the statues of Ben N Peach and John Horne at Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. They played the foremost part in unravelling the geological structures of the North West Highlands, 1883–1897. The North West Highlands are a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Introduction
This book is about rocks – their science and its history – but also the people, the stories, the places and the secrets they hold. It is equally about the magical northwest Highlands of Scotland, still startlingly remote but long lived-in. All of them – place, land, rocks, history, people and science – are inseparable, none adequate without the other, all intricately part of each other. Beneath its surface of science this book also blunders into the many colours of emotion, ambition, jealousy and the arrogance of clever people. We have much to learn from this remote and sparsely populated area. It takes a while to absorb its offering, so why not come and see, listen and feel what it has to tell you, and let this book act as an introduction to a journey that has so much to offer.
The northwest Highlands of Scotland more than deserve to be the inspiration for a book on geology. The northern climate has created a mystical scenery of bare and barely covered rocks and crags and has long attracted geological researchers. The science in this book is serious and frequently at the forefront of present research, but it cannot and should not be separated from the place. Stand on any one of the peaks along the western coastal range and look into the wind, towards the Atlantic: what you see is the result of three billion years of geology. It is such a memorable panorama. Across your view a lacework plateau of land and water slips westwards imperceptibly into a sea studded with ragged promontories and small islands. It is as if the land is being slowly dissolved at its edges. On to this plateau Suilven, Cul Mor, Cul Beag, Stac Pollaidh and Quinag are placed like the last few pieces at the end of a chess game: abrupt, isolated, strangely distributed rock monuments, sloping and firm at the base but cliffed and sculpted above as the individual chess pieces they are: Suilven the King, Stac Pollaidh the Queen. For the others, come north and see for yourself.
Popular science books today often have an attitude problem. Some are written as entertainment and excessively dumbed-down. Some take the posture of teacher to pupil, superior to inferior, which is especially the case with books concerning environmental matters that tend towards sermonizing, threats and moralizing. ‘You must stop driving your car and eating meat or you will destroy the rain forests and cause global warming.’
It cannot be too extensively known that nature is vast and knowledge limited, and that no individual, however humble in place or acquirement, need despair of adding to the general fund.
This is how, in 1841, Highland geologist Hugh Miller viewed science; a general playground for all who were interested in it. He was quite right. Not only did Hugh Miller love looking at rocks and fossils but he wanted to share his pleasures with others – sentiments that would sit well in science today. This is not science that is only read in books or stared at in a video. This is science that can be touched and experienced, science that lets you do your own exploring, lets you take your own decisions and, especially, make your own discoveries: science as it should be. And this is the excuse for mentioning Hutton’s arse (which he himself also did, and on many occasions).
Although he was a consummate theorist, Hutton was most definitely a field geologist and his backside went through discomfort because of it (the only way for him to explore the rocks was on horseback). His ideas came from what he saw. What Hutton saw, though, was not what others saw. He was the only one at the time to believe in the evidence of the rocks. Where some theorized water, Hutton observed fire. Where others wanted biblical convulsions and no time at all, he observed slow processes applied over a very long time. For his inspiration Hutton used the rocks, which he called ‘God’s little diaries’. So, although this book is about the science of modern geology, it is at the same time a guide to the rocks, the evidence and some of the history behind that science.
Discoveries and advances in science today are published in scientific journals. There are many; they are highly specialized and are read only by experts and academics. The articles are peer reviewed and extremely serious. There are strict rules as to how such scientific papers should be written. The first person is never used, emotional writing is not tolerated and even an exclamation mark will be removed! If a scientist is absolutely the only person to adhere to a particular idea, he or she is still not allowed to write ‘I believe’; it has to be the less exciting (and less truthful) ‘it is believed that’. The science may be good but the writing has become turgid, boring and difficult to read. To break out of these restrictions professionals are turning to writing books and publishing more personal and readable accounts of their work. We are returning to the days when scientists paid for their own works to be printed, just as James Hutton did in 1795 for his Theory of the Earth with proofs and illustrations .
It is impossible to live in Scotland today and not be influenced by Edinburgh, the country’s beautiful capital on the crags. Between 1750 and 1800 Edinburgh became the Athens of the North, the city of the ‘Enlightenment’, a ferment of intellectual activity and the time of James Hutton and his many illustrious friends. In 1997, 290 years after Westminster had taken it away, Edinburgh had a Parliament once more and even the Stone of Destiny returned to the north. The city is invigorated again, not thanks to its politicians but through its writers, artists, musicians, media people and even scientists. Edinburgh City in the early twenty-first century is a great and lively place to be and has been an inspiration. But there can be no doubt that the overwhelming influence on the formation of this book has come from the Highlands themselves.
The far northwest of Scotland has magic in its scenery, astounding geology, and is almost empty of people. For the moment it is a beautiful place in which to breathe, feel and think, and if we can share this, explain some geology and communicate some feelings, that will do.
To recognize the special quality of the area, the North West Highlands UNESCO Global Geopark was first established in 2004. Much of what lies within these covers is inspired by the story to be told from the rocks within and just outside the geopark boundary. The geopark aims to celebrate scientific understanding and progress whilst at the same time supporting the sustainable development of the area; for there is little point in a land of such wonders if there is no resident population to interpret the landscape and culture for the increasing numbers of visitors. The website www.nwhgeopark.com could be the starting point to explore the very land that has so much to tell us.
To understand how the Earth works is a challenge to us all. It is a journey, and a very enjoyable one at that. It should not just be viewed as a pleasure for its own sake, however, as the decisions we all need to take about our future tenure of the Earth rely on such an understanding. The people of the United Kingdom, and Scotland in particular, have a wealth of varied landscapes to help foster that understanding, and the northwest Highlands overflow with potential to test our powers of interpretation. Accept the challenge and find out more.
An excellent companion within the geopark area to explore the geology of the northwest Highlands is A Geological Excursion Guide to the North-West Highlands of Scotland edited by Kathryn M Goodenough and Maarten Krabbendam, published in 2011 by Edinburgh Geological Society in association with National Museum of Scotland Enterprises, ISBN 9781905267538. This explores the geology of the geopark area including maps, photographs and descriptions of identified localities. For a wider geographical area with a comprehensive account a recently published title is recommended: The Western Highlands of Scotland in the series Classic Geology in Europe 9, 2019, Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, ISBN 1903544 173 by Dr Con Gillen. This includes descriptions of localities to see the geology and an excellent further reading list.
A series of booklets has been written by Alan McKirdy called Landscapes in Stone. The Northern Highlands , ISBN 9781780276083, is the most recent to join nine others.
Chapter 1 A RED EARTH
The en