Geology programs on TV

[wobbler]

For the past few weeks I have been spending far too much time watching programs about how the Earth was made. Volcanoes, Glaciers, Subduction (it's not what you think). I'm sort of getting the hang of it all now, though I am sure there is more to it than they show on TV. I was wondering if anyone here as dabbled in geology, if you could recommend any books or websites. If it does not look too difficult (for me) I am going to join a local group, but would like to fill in the bits the TV people miss out before I get there.


Nat Geo tonight 9pm-11pm "The story of Earth". Woohoo! two hours! I'll pop back later.
Away to the kettle and some cheese and bikkies.

 

[Night Train]

Geology is great. Much more interesting then geography.

It can lead you into studying the origins of the Solar System and eventually to the theory of the Big Bang.

It is a big subject but I think the BBC cover it well for modern methods of education. No great depth but a good general understanding of it.

I have no books to recommend but if you have developed an interest then go with it and start reading anything. I started my geology study back in 1972 with an Encyclopidia my Dad got for me when I was 7. It lead me to studying dinosaur archeology, eveolution of life, human development, industrial archeology, and eventually cosmology.

I am still fascinated and have recorded a lot of the BBC stuff on recently as there is new stuff even though not in great depth.

ETA: If you ever get down to London then you should visit the Geological Museum in Kensington, it is between the Natural History and Science Museums, both of which are also worth looking at in relation to goeology, evolution of life and mineral ores. All interconected to get to where we are now.

 

[Arch]

I guess like any science, or natural history, TV programmes vary - some are dumbeder than others. I've always enjoyed anything presented by Dr Ian Stewart, who seems to have the same enthusiasm for his subject as Attenborough does for his.

If you find a good group, I suspect it won't matter how much you know - what matters is how much you WANT to know.

<minor pedantic point BTW Night Train> Dinosaurs aren't archaeology. Archaeology has to have a human factor in it. Dinosaurs are paleontology. Just as fascinating of course, and I'm only showing off after 10 years in archaeology.

And geology is the basis for so much of human history and life - what sort of rock and soil you live on affects what you can grow, how you make tools, what materials you can find.

Good luck with your interest! If you really want to take it further, the Open University do geology courses, and they should have courses tailored to complete beginners.

On a side note, a friend of mine has one of those geological maps of the UK, that shows all the different rockk types, framed on the wall. It's a beautiful thing, even without the interest of the geology.

 

[Night Train]

<minor pedantic point BTW Night Train> Dinosaurs aren't archaeology. Archaeology has to have a human factor in it. Dinosaurs are paleontology. Just as fascinating of course, and I'm only showing off after 10 years in archaeology.

I know that.
There was an s, at the end of dinosaur but I edited, lost it and forgot to put it back. It should have been 'studying dinosaurs, archeology, evolution of life,...'

There are other typos that I forgot to change when I edited.
I blame the meds.

 

[Arch]

I know that.
There was an s, at the end of dinosaur but I edited, lost it and forgot to put it back. It should have been 'studying dinosaurs, archeology, evolution of life,...'

There are other typos that I forgot to change when I edited.
I blame the meds.

Ah, now I'm embarrassed....

Actually, of course it doesn't really matter. Having an interest matters. But it used to amuse us on digs, when the two questions people asked were "have you found an dinosaurs" and "have you found any gold?".

I did once go on a dig that was on the archaeology/paleaontology cusp - a site that dated from the some of the very earliest periods of humans in the UK, although no human remains, or signs of humans were there. There were, however, bones from hippos, lions and elephants. Humans were around, just not leaving any trace.

 

[Headgardener]

Ah, now I'm embarrassed....

Actually, of course it doesn't really matter. Having an interest matters. But it used to amuse us on digs, when the two questions people asked were "have you found an dinosaurs" and "have you found any gold?".

I did once go on a dig that was on the archaeology/paleaontology cusp - a site that dated from the some of the very earliest periods of humans in the UK, although no human remains, or signs of humans were there. There were, however, bones from hippos, lions and elephants. Humans were around, just not leaving any trace.

Must have been early cyclists then.

 

[Noodley]

But humans and dinosaurs did exist at the same time, I have seen the Flintstones and Raquel Welsh in her furry bikini.

 

[DTD]

I generally prefer reading to watching – TV programmes are edited to fit a time slot. Also they have a tendency go with what's visual rather than what's important and producers are terrified of giving you a moment to digest something in case you switch over.

I quite like some popular science books – 'The Map That Changed The World' by Simon Winchester is a really readable book about one aspect of geology.

 

[Wobblers]

Ian Stewart seems to be good. When I watch any of his programs I find myself wondering just when we're going to see him jump in a swimming pool / ocean / loch - it always seems to happen! One of the satellite documentary channels (UK History?) sometimes runs repeats of the BBC's "Earth Story". That's well worth watching if you get the opportunity - just about the whole of geology from plate tectonics through to ice ages and the interplay between life and planet is covered.

None of the programs are going to go into great detail - but then few people are really interested in knowing what the magnesium number of a basalt tells us. For that you need books - or some of the Open University's geology courses (well worth doing if you really want to know more).

 

[fimm]

My sister gave me a book called something like "Land of Mountain and Flood" which is about the geology of Scotland - it is really good, and quite detailed - I need to re-read it at some point to have another go at getting my head round it all. Accessible to a non-specialist (I'm a chemist turned computer bod) but (according to a friend who works for the British Geological Survey) not too dumbed-down.

 

[XmisterIS]

When I was younger, those programs used to be informative and required some concentration to be understood! Now, it seems, they have been reduced to a pretty female presenter who gallops around the place and occasionally picks up the odd stone while excitedly exclaiming to the camera, "Look! I finded a rock!"

 

[Arch]

But humans and dinosaurs did exist at the same time, I have seen the Flintstones and Raquel Welsh in her furry bikini.

One of my colleagues is doing her PhD on the use and trade of fur (as evidence by the bone remains of fur bearing animals). One of her findings was that a population of foxes had probably been maintained (if not actually farmed) on Orkney - where they are not native - and that their fur was the most likely 'product'. This little snippet got picked up by the Orcadian newspaper, and then, by the Sunday Times, who rang her for an interview, and could she suggest a suitable photo. So she listed a few key sites, they might use a shot of, Iron Age brochs, roundhouses etc. What did they go for?

Yes. Raquel Welch in that bikini.

 

[wobbler]

Ian Stewart (Men of rock?) he's the fella, if I could find a course run by someone like him I know I could cope. I have always ended up with teachers who just want to race through text books, babbling on about stuff and not making any sense.
Now then this geology museum I am guessing it is bigger than the average museum so will I need more than one day to look around it?
If I do, can anyone recommend somewhere to stay please? Think Premier Inn or B&B type places. I may make a bit of an expedition of it and stay the whole week. I've heard there is quite a lot to see in London.
Thanks all

 

[summerdays]

I did a geology during the first year of my degree, I've forgotten most of it now - but one lecturer stands out in my mind (can't remember his name), but basically his lectures were a whole load of slides shown in the dark. To stop us going to sleep he always had some humorous slides in amongst the others - the one I remember the most was the smoking flat fish.

 

[Fiona N]

Now shall we have a comment from a geologist ?

I only see the BBC programmes (iplayer - don't have a telly) and the geology ones a quite good. I saw the first 'Men of Rock' and that was good on the early history of the science when men (mainly, as usual) could think big.

I was totally into geology as a kid and thought I was going to be too late - all the great problems would have been solved by the time I got to uni - as plate tectonics was moving a pace and putting the evidence in place to support Wegener's original hypothesis (he was a meterologist but the first to describe 'continental drift' - he didn't know quite how it worked but he came up with a pretty coherent hypothesis for floating continents around and bashing them into each other to create mountains although he didn't know about the other half of the system - the mid-oceanic spreading zones).

When I got to uni I found that you needed to be more of a physicist than a geologist to get involved at that time as geophysics (basically measuring stuff remotely instead of taking rock samples) was where the evidence was coming from to a large extent. A lot of geology is kind of like that - you need to know some other science(s) to bring to bear on the geological problems - in my case chemistry (geochemistry) and fluid transport modelling (hydrogeology and hydrogeochemistry) help to understand the origin of ore bodies (like gold, copper, uranium and what not). So what's on the telly tends to be the distilled geology from which a lot of the detailed science has been striped - the exception to this seems to be evolution of life where there's almost an assumption that the viewer has a working understanding of biological evolution.

Anyway, to the OP - any books by Richard Fortey are excellent and don't assume too much knowledge. He has a total passion for both fossils (particularly those lovely wood lice-type things known as trilobites which featured in one of Attenborough's recent programmes about the evolution of really early life using the fossil record) and earth history. "The Hidden Landscape" looks at the evolution of the geology of the British Isles and because we have quite a lot of geology, it pretty much takes you on a trip through time. "Earth" is similar but wider and "Life - the unauthorised biography" is a good run through the evolution of life from the fossil record. The Attenborough programmes were more upto date in terms of understanding the very earliest fossil record - some of the locations in the programmes weren't even discovered when Fortey wrote about 10 or 15 years ago.

For a more technical but still basic understanding of plate tectonics, the Open University text book called "Understanding the Earth" is an absolute classic.