It's hopeless... but that's okay!

Humans are pretty amazing creatures. We’ve tamed fire and managed to bend metal to our will. We’ve learned to manipulate the soil and constructed sprawling cities over it. And even though humans can destroy entire cities at will, we still possess the power to engineer new organs and save numerous lives with new medical technologies. And yet, humans are completely insignificant when it comes to the grander geological forces at work.

Hutton's Section of the Salisbury Crags--- look at those layers!

During our visit to Edinburgh, we managed to hike up Arthur’s Seat—which was once an active volcano during the Carboniferous Age. What’s really special about Arthur’s Seat, however, is the glacier that came by sometime in the last two million years, leaving behind a classic crag and tail geologic formation. Nowadays people talk about the world’s glaciers melting (which is definitely a problem), but when I think about the power it took to carve out the Salisbury Crags it makes me wonder whether the glaciers can win this battle on their own. Even more mindboggling is the fact that these processes are still taking place, but this time its happening under cities and the homes of small furry creatures. Will humans be able to stand up to the forces of glacial shift?

Hutton’s section of the Salisbury Crags is named after James Hutton, a Scottish geologist and Enlightenment thinker. According to Hutton, rock formation was a part of an ongoing process of transformation of sediment into rock under the immense pressure of the ocean and its subsequent elevation. And in his section, you can see what he means. The stratified rock at the bottom must have formed under enormous pressure to solidify in such a layered fashion. However, the igneous rock at the top is formed by the cooling of volcanic material, which is better explained by modern plate tectonics. Together, the types of rock have melded into one superstructure.

The view of Edinburgh from atop Arthur's Seat

What chance do humans stand against the unstoppable forces of plate tectonics and the shifting of the very earth we have settled upon? We have built entire civilizations upon masses of hot rock floating on more melted rock, and I’m pretty sure it’s not going to stay that way forever. The panoramic views from atop Arthur’s Peak were breathtaking, but it was alarming to see just how close civilization is to a known site of glacial butt-kicking. Maybe fear of these incredible geologic forces goes in the same category as getting hit by an asteroid and abduction by aliens, but I do think humans need to better respect the planet we’ve got. Its resources are finite and ultimately we are powerless against even the friendly oceans we play in during the summer months.

Mostly though, I think Carl Sagan is right when he says "It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."