Geology and Art
How can we relate to the most basic forms of nature? Say, a rock…
Note: I studied the natural sciences in college, specifically geology. This loose description of earth’s history, human history, the geologic and hydrological processes is derived from my academic understanding and continual personal study in these fields. It is surely imperfect. If there are any errors in the scientific information I have written please comment!
What is the connection between a human and a mountain other than some crafted poetic symbolism?
To attempt to crack such a cosmic question it is worth looking to the intimidatingly obscure concepts of geology. Although the beauty of the science is in its complexity, it can be roughly deciphered on a simplistic level. But, there is a necessary prerequisite to the study of it. First, one must recognize humanity’s absolute insignificance in its process.
We are a roughly several hundred-thousand year old species who only began society-forming around 12,000 years ago with the discovery of agriculture, and we are dwelling on a continually turning four billion year old tectonic treadmill.
Tectonics.
The earth’s crust is an unstable mosaic of irregular tiles floating on a molten ocean. Our planet core’s deep heat currents shuffle the rocky surface tiles, or plates, which act as diced vegetables dancing around the surface of a bubbling stew over fire. The collision of plates builds mountains and the separation of plates forms basins of thin crusts in which rests our oceans. Earth’s internal magma creates new rock when it seeps out to the surface in volcanic eruptions. Its heat morphs existing rock deep underground closer to the viscous mantle. Old rocks that are thrust under other adjacent continental plates are swallowed back into the subterranean interior furnace becoming magma again. It is a continuous cycle. On this shifting marble of simultaneous creation and destruction there is not one place that is static or permanent.
Sedimentology.
The sedimentary rocks in the mountains and canyons we see today are episodic remnants of the turmoils of past earth’s surfaces. Many forgotten mountains, seas, and landscapes existed as flowers; first blossoming to fresh magnificence, then achieving a peak of matured boldness, and finally diminishing. The land withers away to then be scattered and deposited in basins; the sea floors with its reefs are covered over by differing materials, and all of it is buried. The remains reside in layers deep underground pressed and hardened into rock. At some future time the tectonic treadmill may shift them back up to the surface. Those with eyes may see it and wonder. Life, that which breathes, has been scrambling about in its many forms on this precarious surface for hundreds of millions of years, shifting, adapting and evolving so as not to be buried under the tumbling masses.
Erosion.
Erosion is the guilty sculptor, checking the upward thrusting mountains with the assistance of gravity. The mystifying reality of wind, water and ice’s ability to compete against rock depends upon its comparative speed. Erosion is the inexhaustible hare racing against the crawling tortoise of tectonics. Since the race never ends their is no definitive winner or loser. The battle is eternal and its form is earth’s magnificent shapeshifting landscape.
Time.
It is forgivable that we are often unable to appreciate the landscape-forming processes. Geologic forces are just barely tangible in our short lifetimes. An individual may never feel an earthquake or see an erupting volcano, but most everyone knows they happen. What we do experience are the active forces of erosion. Everyone has been rained on, and most everyone has directly witnessed some form of landscape carving. A washed out road, a shifting riverbank, maybe even a life-altering flood. Almost every occurrence of land moving around is a nuisance to us. We have to repair or sometimes be displaced because of it. It can even kill us. Despite all the problems created, it’s long-lasting results which is the culmination of all the episodic dramas is our topographic world. We can dam rivers, build levees, even melt glaciers, but all these halting effects are just temporary blips on the earth’s past, present and future timeline. We are nothing against nature’s treadmill.
Life.
We owe everything to this fluid world. The great gyrations have gifted us our cradles of existence called valleys, and the accumulated concoction of ground up rocks, the life-giving substance we call soil. Where life itself came from, that is its own mystery. But what we do know is what life needs, and that is a home where it can grow.
There is an enigmatic chasm between the that which lives and dies, such as us, and what is more or less ever present, such as a mountain. Yet, if you take the time to consider it all, to step back and observe the grandeur, it is not so incomprehensible to find a thread between something like a tree, a river and a rock. By any means you can contemplate; whether through walking in the woods, sitting on a beach, standing on a look out, or simply turning inwards in a way where you can sense more than yourself, there is a nurturing benefit to this. The benefit is the comforting feeling of an undeniable connectivity between everything. Human to mountain. Mountain to river. River to tree. Tree to human. Human to human. Art can help in this exploration of wonder.
Thoroughly enjoyed this, I’m a huge fan.