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Geology—Past & Future

REVISITED

Editor’s note: The following is the eleventh and final installment of our encore presentation of articles that highlighted the
10th anniversary of the first issue of Geology, as published in Geology in Dec. 1983 [v. 11, no. 12, p. 679–691,

doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(1983)11<679:GAF>2.0.CO;2]. Each section was written by a different author (author affiliation notations are
as originally published in 1983). See the August 2013 GSA Today (v. 23, no. 8, p. 18–19) for the first installment and table of contents.

In this issue: article 22: “Perspectives from Earth,” by Ivo Lucchitta; and article 23: “Epilogue,” by E.M. Moores.

GSA TODAY | AUGUST 2015 Perspectives from Earth from our increasing familiarity with the solar system. This expan-
sion has been both projective and reflective. It is projective in that
Ivo Lucchitta, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 we have found that concepts and techniques laboriously developed
during the centuries on Earth can be applied with equal success to
Ten years ago, geology was in the midst of a remarkable change other planets. It is reflective in that knowledge of the planets helps
of perspective and temperament. The fusty and dusty image was us understand Earth, especially its obscure history, and in the
disappearing, replaced in the eye of public and practitioner alike concept of limits and finiteness. One of the most moving images
by a perception of dynamic success, a science on the go. Those yet seen is the Apollo picture of Earth, a lonely sphere glowing
were the heady days of space exploration and of geologists on TV bluish against the deep velvet of space. Earth may no longer be
news, explaining some awesome spectacle of nature. The energy unique in the eyes of the scientist, but it remains unique to the
crisis helped geology’s image too—natural resources were scientist-as-human-being. There is no other Earth.
becoming scarce or unavailable, and the geologist held the key to
finding more. As far as anyone could see, the future was golden for This perspective from space merely symbolizes, in a particu-
the earth sciences. larly elegant way, the view that is still not adequately evident on
Earth—of limitation, constraint, and exhaustion of resources.
The geologist’s perspective of the science has been changing The decade that seemed to usher the (geologists’) millennium is
apace. Contrary to earlier ideas of stability, it now is clear that ending in rags. Jobs and money are scarce, anti-intellectual
nothing is in place, everything moves. Terranes, if not suspect, are rumblings on the rise. Resources are not infinite; demands
at least detached. Even ancient continents, the last bastion of reli- outstrip availability, and the resulting competition unavoidably
able stability, can split apart, the divorced pieces drifting off on entails tradeoffs and painful choices. Geologists hold much
separate journeys. Parmenides is out, Heraclitus in, Wegener knowledge that can lead to wisdom in dealing with resources and
vindicated. Plate tectonics, once a theory, now a doctrine, with its environment; this knowledge will be increasingly in demand. In
wonderful ability to explain things that we could only describe the coming decade, geologists will be asked to do more things of
before, has seen to that. societal import, and they will find themselves entrained ever more
by the conflicting currents that agitate society. Geology, and
The idea that sudden events may shape the world as effectively science in general, must reexamine and redefine their relationship
as the slow grind of evolutionary processes received a great boost to society more closely and carefully.
from contemplation of the old, scarred surface of the Moon, each
scar produced by an awesome catastrophe. Could such events, The issues are many. To what extent, for example, should
occurring on Earth, be responsible for the peculiar mass extinc- science have a direct voice in shaping public policy? To what
tions that punctuate the geologic record? Time—as measured by extent should scientists be active in public affairs? How should we
events and by change—clearly does not flow at a constant rate. reconcile the probabilities and uncertainties of science with the
need of society for concrete information on which to act?
Mobility and catastrophism were joined in the collective Formerly, we could indulge our illusion that science is separate
consciousness by an expansion of conceptual horizons derived and insulated from the rest of the world. In the future this may
not be possible and probably would not be wise, given the

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