Northern Ireland geology website (BBC)
I just got an e-mail from Alan Watson, of Belfast, who read my article in Geotimes about geological travels in Northern Ireland. (This was one of my first topics on this blog, so newcomers may be interested in revisiting some of those old posts in the December and January archives.)
Anyhow, Alan clued me in to a new series from the BBC called "Blueprint," wherein they examine the natural history of the Emerald Isle. There's a cool interactive aspect to the website where you get a map of Ireland and a choice between "Plants/Animals," "Humans," and "Land." Choose "Land" and then select what you want to learn more about. Then you get a series of images, conversations, or videos about different aspects of Northern Ireland's geologic history. It's pretty cool -- there's a really enthusiastic dude (William Crawley) talking about the eruption of the Giant's Causeway, and also examinations of "the Chalk," graptolites, and granite gneiss. They even mention the Iapetus Ocean! (Which was a big focus of the field trip I led today!)
Anyhow, Alan clued me in to a new series from the BBC called "Blueprint," wherein they examine the natural history of the Emerald Isle. There's a cool interactive aspect to the website where you get a map of Ireland and a choice between "Plants/Animals," "Humans," and "Land." Choose "Land" and then select what you want to learn more about. Then you get a series of images, conversations, or videos about different aspects of Northern Ireland's geologic history. It's pretty cool -- there's a really enthusiastic dude (William Crawley) talking about the eruption of the Giant's Causeway, and also examinations of "the Chalk," graptolites, and granite gneiss. They even mention the Iapetus Ocean! (Which was a big focus of the field trip I led today!)
Labels: chalk, giants causeway, northern ireland, websites
2 Comments:
We've just viewed number 2 of 3 (plants and animals) so more stuff will soon be available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blueprint/
there is a also lot of controversy here between Humanists and Young Earth Creationists
see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2008/03/blueprint_the_season_begins.html
We would love to hear the views of Virigians on this.
Thanks for your comment, Gallybalder.
While I doubt you'd get all Virginians to agree about much of anything, this is one issue that's alive and well here in the U.S. and generates a fair amount of vitriol every day.
The scientific community reaches conclusions about the past by being skeptical, empirical, and logical, operating under the (very reasonable) assumption that the ancient Earth operated according to the same physical laws as the modern world (the principle of uniformity over time).
There are plenty of people who approach understanding the world with pre-conceived notions of how the planet works, and they're welcome to do that. But if they're not being rigorously skeptical and logical, and if their ideas aren't supported by empirical evidence, then I have little time for them.
There are always going to be fringe groups and crackpots out there.
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