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Them: “If your Mom and Dad went to visit a place and thirty years later you and I went to that place, would it basically be the same geologically as when your parents went?” Me: “You mean, would the rocks or mountains or sand look the same, physically? Yes.” Them: “Ok.” It’s a good thing I have never needed to have that conversation for real. The other person would have gone away very unimpressed. It turns out that basically all my assumptions about the Earth were wrong. But then again, people have been making wild guesses about the Earth ever since there were people on the planet to think about this stuff.A friend of mine, who actually understands the structure of the Earth, recently told me some stories to help me understand some of the bigger changes the Earth has been going through over a very long time. She said that earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and high ocean waves (called “tsunamis”), show us how the Earth works. It amazes me to think about how dramatic events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have changed the lives of people in the past, how they could change the lives of people in the future, and what they could mean for people like us, right now. This book is about some of the more interesting things I have recently learned, but it is mostly about some intense volcanoes. |
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