This subject seems a Pandora's box.
Maps & reports are the data theories
evolve from. Yet, as mentioned, the mind
needs a theory with which to see:
relation and class are equivalent
concepts.
A quick check of an outcrop on a
published map (as opposed to the working
map) will show that many features are
not visible, but interpolated from the
geologist's dynamic picture of the
region and inferred (often in very
clever ways, probably lost with the
individual). The theory used for this
mental picture varied with the decade
one graduated, and even one's
university.
Survey maps reflected the beliefs of the
geologist in charge, and many held the
popular opinion that we should all use a
common, ideal classification of rocks
(as botanists classify plants). The
search for this holy grail has taken
geologists through many classifications.
(Just as one should have a dictionary of
the period a novel was written, one
should probably know the field
classification of the day.)
To my knowledge, mapping (as techniques
in other fields of study) had been
taught by the employer, not the
university. This is proper. A professor
could not really supervise an individual
for the time needed, and many professors
were only comfortable preparing maps &
reports in their specialty. With the
reduction in survey mapping, however,
the new geologist hasn't the opportunity
to receive two or three years of survey
experience.
As geologists specialize earlier to
acquire the advanced knowledge required
for graduate degrees, those proficient
in the art of general mapping will
become fewer in number.
What will happen to the primary data of
geology and the art of acquiring it?
Bruce
PS. It is my feeling that if university
departments coordinated the content of
their geology courses to motivate and
apply immediately that more general
theory just learned in other
departments, structural geologists need
not teach as much tensor calculus,
sedimentologists as much fluid
mechanics, and petrologists as much
thermodynamics. Early specialization, at
least, could be reduced.
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