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Home » Space/Science

Yo, Pod--Re Catastrophism Nostalgia December 12, 2021 11:01 am ER

Building on the thread below…

Geologists seem to have an aversion, if not a downright revulsion to catastrophism. I can see why, for far too long geological events and formations were explained as the Hand of God or The Great Flood. It is clear today that the Earth evolves slowly, and its features are mostly the result of processes which are currently underway now, just as they were in the past and will continue into the future. These processes are violent and dramatic, but they are extremely slow on a human scale.

Still, sometimes things happen suddenly, and this reluctance to admit that seems to have made it difficult for any short-term explanation or theory to escape ridicule from the geological establishment; witness the knee-jerk resistance to the Cretaceous meteor strike. Did the Mediterranean and the Black Sea really fill up over a matter of a few weeks or months? Do great tsunamis occasionally sweep giant waves hundreds of miles inland?

  • Excellent question. by podrock 2021-12-12 11:51:50
    • Musings by podrock 2021-12-12 16:37:31
      • Sedimentary, my dear Watson. by ER 2021-12-12 20:48:42
        • Humanite by podrock 2021-12-12 21:08:22
          • Perhaps I greatly underestimate the power of time's eraser by RL 2021-12-13 08:29:38
            • depositional verses erosional by podrock 2021-12-13 08:50:12
              • Right- and I remember exactly when that was discussed in the geology camp... by RL 2021-12-13 08:53:25
                • Additionally... we identified a nuclear reactor that formed naturally 2 billion years ago by RL 2021-12-13 08:59:29
                  • Time and place by podrock 2021-12-13 09:07:31
                    • As a minor sub-plot point, in the Arthur C. Clarke book "Light of other days" by RL 2021-12-13 18:06:16
                      • However, there are other opinions by podrock 2021-12-13 18:46:14
                        • Yes. by podrock 2021-12-13 18:38:47
                          • What do you think would happen with objects like ceramics? by RL 2021-12-15 08:47:17
                            • I'm still thinking about that by podrock 2021-12-15 19:54:47
                              • Dinosaurs, as far as we know, didn't have mass production... by RL 2021-12-17 10:36:05
                                • 100 ma? by podrock 2021-12-17 14:55:26
                            • Civilization does not necessarily mean technology. by ER 2021-12-13 21:31:28
                              • Excellent point by podrock 2021-12-14 11:23:14

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