“Okay, picture this. You’re on the Scottish coast, the rocks next to the water are devoid of vegetation, and the waves are crashing. You look at the rocks and see that they are layered and that they have essentially two orientations: Some layers are tilted from the horizontal slightly and they overlie layers that are almost vertical. What’s going on?”
“Well, I didn’t have much geology, but I’m going to hazard a guess. The rocks are sedimentary. I say that because you said ‘layers.’ Then I’m going to guess that different processes shaped them. The almost vertical layers on the bottom were once horizontal layers….”
“Yes, good guess, and they were, in fact, once sediments in deep ocean water.”
“As I was saying, the bottom vertical layers were once horizontal. Obviously, they’ve been tilted, no doubt by tectonic activity as Earth’s crust moved about. So, let me think. Those layers were probably tilted and uplifted, and the uplift exposed them to the forces of erosion. Now, let me think. After having been eroded, the rocks were somehow lowered, probably also through tectonic activity, and new layers of sediments were piled on them, those layers eventually turning into hard rocks. Then, the underlying and overlying rocks were uplifted and once again exposed to the forces of erosion and a bit more tilting. How did I do?”*
“Great. That’s good detective work. You should become a geologist. So, to review: You discover these rocks that show two orientations, indicating two tilting and two erosion events, and also indicating uplifting and subsiding. You’re at Siccar Point, a site that Sir James Hutton, the Father of Geology, observed in the eighteenth century. Siccar Point and other places and rocks in Scotland made Hutton realize that Earth was old and had undergone many changes.
“His famous statement is that he could see “no vestige of a beginning, no prospect for an end” with regard to our planet. Think about that. Hutton didn’t know how old Earth is and had no means of verifying its age, but he realized it was old, too old for him to see its beginning. Nothing of Earth’s origin, as far as he knew, was left. And guess what. We still don’t have anything except some tiny zircon crystals that date from maybe 200 million years after our planet’s origin. Earth is 4.5 billion years old, maybe 4.6, give or take a week. That’s beyond our comprehension.
“Four point five thousand million. Every thousand is a millennium. Every million is a thousand millennia. Go back to the Vikings. That’s a single millennium. Go back to Julius Caesar, two millennia. Try the pyramids at over four millennia. The dinosaurs some 65 thousand millennia to 250 thousand millennia. Starting to get the point? The so called Cambrian Explosion when multicellular life proliferated in ancient seas? That’s 540 thousand millennia. Remember, the Vikings were sailing the seas a mere single millennium ago. Beginning to see why Hutton could see no vestige of a beginning? Those two sets of rock layers at Siccar Point were laid down as sediments 425 thousand millennia ago in a deep ocean and 325 thousand millennia ago in a desert. The older, underlying vertical layers, are only one tenth the age of Earth.”
“So, why are you bringing this stuff up? Okay, so Earth is old. There’s a lot of old stuff. I get it.”
“Hutton’s inability to find a vestige of a beginning pales in comparison with the Cosmic Microwave Backgound Radiation that puts the beginning of the universe at one million three hundred eighty thousand millennia ago.
“You won’t live to be one millennium. You will be lucky to make it to a tenth of a millennium.
“I hope you do live your tenth. Just remember that in all that deep time, all those millennia, much of the universe and much of Earth, its rocks, and life-forms left no vestige. And those rocks at Siccar Point? Well, they’re eroding as you read this. Eventually, they, too, will be part of an unknown past.
“You have a short-lived opportunity to leave what will ultimately be by comparison with Earth and the older universe, a short-lived vestige. Yes, as with the 100 billion humans who preceded you, you and the memory of you will fade into oblivion. Sure, we know about Ramses II, about Plato, about Caesar and Christ, Buddha, too, but on what time scale? Will you leave a vestige? What will it be? Do I need to reiterate the title of this website? This is NOT your practice life. Leave a vestige.”
*If you are unfamiliar with Siccar Point and geology, I suggest you look at the picture here: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=siccar+point+pics&fr=yhs-Lkry-SF01&hspart=Lkry&hsimp=yhs-SF01&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-ZJoyIl3Z_UM%2FT03TnkjNRfI%2FAAAAAAAAAwQ%2FxcsY8F9AQpU%2Fs1600%2FSiccarPoint_Unconformityannot.jpg#id=10&iurl=https%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-RclAaA_QjBI%2FWHFWKsZPt5I%2FAAAAAAAAKiE%2F_suRSRdJSVQc6b82IKKOJEfhTIgPC1biwCLcB%2Fs1600%2Fsiccar-point-annotated-by-ss%252B%2525281%252529.jpg&action=click
“Well, I didn’t have much geology, but I’m going to hazard a guess. The rocks are sedimentary. I say that because you said ‘layers.’ Then I’m going to guess that different processes shaped them. The almost vertical layers on the bottom were once horizontal layers….”
“Yes, good guess, and they were, in fact, once sediments in deep ocean water.”
“As I was saying, the bottom vertical layers were once horizontal. Obviously, they’ve been tilted, no doubt by tectonic activity as Earth’s crust moved about. So, let me think. Those layers were probably tilted and uplifted, and the uplift exposed them to the forces of erosion. Now, let me think. After having been eroded, the rocks were somehow lowered, probably also through tectonic activity, and new layers of sediments were piled on them, those layers eventually turning into hard rocks. Then, the underlying and overlying rocks were uplifted and once again exposed to the forces of erosion and a bit more tilting. How did I do?”*
“Great. That’s good detective work. You should become a geologist. So, to review: You discover these rocks that show two orientations, indicating two tilting and two erosion events, and also indicating uplifting and subsiding. You’re at Siccar Point, a site that Sir James Hutton, the Father of Geology, observed in the eighteenth century. Siccar Point and other places and rocks in Scotland made Hutton realize that Earth was old and had undergone many changes.
“His famous statement is that he could see “no vestige of a beginning, no prospect for an end” with regard to our planet. Think about that. Hutton didn’t know how old Earth is and had no means of verifying its age, but he realized it was old, too old for him to see its beginning. Nothing of Earth’s origin, as far as he knew, was left. And guess what. We still don’t have anything except some tiny zircon crystals that date from maybe 200 million years after our planet’s origin. Earth is 4.5 billion years old, maybe 4.6, give or take a week. That’s beyond our comprehension.
“Four point five thousand million. Every thousand is a millennium. Every million is a thousand millennia. Go back to the Vikings. That’s a single millennium. Go back to Julius Caesar, two millennia. Try the pyramids at over four millennia. The dinosaurs some 65 thousand millennia to 250 thousand millennia. Starting to get the point? The so called Cambrian Explosion when multicellular life proliferated in ancient seas? That’s 540 thousand millennia. Remember, the Vikings were sailing the seas a mere single millennium ago. Beginning to see why Hutton could see no vestige of a beginning? Those two sets of rock layers at Siccar Point were laid down as sediments 425 thousand millennia ago in a deep ocean and 325 thousand millennia ago in a desert. The older, underlying vertical layers, are only one tenth the age of Earth.”
“So, why are you bringing this stuff up? Okay, so Earth is old. There’s a lot of old stuff. I get it.”
“Hutton’s inability to find a vestige of a beginning pales in comparison with the Cosmic Microwave Backgound Radiation that puts the beginning of the universe at one million three hundred eighty thousand millennia ago.
“You won’t live to be one millennium. You will be lucky to make it to a tenth of a millennium.
“I hope you do live your tenth. Just remember that in all that deep time, all those millennia, much of the universe and much of Earth, its rocks, and life-forms left no vestige. And those rocks at Siccar Point? Well, they’re eroding as you read this. Eventually, they, too, will be part of an unknown past.
“You have a short-lived opportunity to leave what will ultimately be by comparison with Earth and the older universe, a short-lived vestige. Yes, as with the 100 billion humans who preceded you, you and the memory of you will fade into oblivion. Sure, we know about Ramses II, about Plato, about Caesar and Christ, Buddha, too, but on what time scale? Will you leave a vestige? What will it be? Do I need to reiterate the title of this website? This is NOT your practice life. Leave a vestige.”
*If you are unfamiliar with Siccar Point and geology, I suggest you look at the picture here: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=siccar+point+pics&fr=yhs-Lkry-SF01&hspart=Lkry&hsimp=yhs-SF01&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-ZJoyIl3Z_UM%2FT03TnkjNRfI%2FAAAAAAAAAwQ%2FxcsY8F9AQpU%2Fs1600%2FSiccarPoint_Unconformityannot.jpg#id=10&iurl=https%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-RclAaA_QjBI%2FWHFWKsZPt5I%2FAAAAAAAAKiE%2F_suRSRdJSVQc6b82IKKOJEfhTIgPC1biwCLcB%2Fs1600%2Fsiccar-point-annotated-by-ss%252B%2525281%252529.jpg&action=click
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