No vestige of a beginning,–no prospect of an end.

February 27, 2016 7:30 PM

An excellent short video from the British Geological Survey about Siccar Point. In the spring of 1788 James Hutton set off with John Playfair to the Berwickshire coast. They took a boat trip from Dunglass Burn east along the coast with the geologist Sir James Hall of Dunglass. In the cliff below St. Helens, then just to the east at Siccar Point they found what Hutton called "a beautiful picture of this junction washed bare by the sea", now known as Hutton's Unconformity, the birthplace of modern geology.
posted by Long Way To Go (8 comments total)

That is far and away the coolest thing i've learned today!
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:50 PM on February 27, 2016

This is really, really cool.
posted by teponaztli at 7:50 PM on February 27, 2016

Sweet, a post about Bad Religion's song, No Control.

(Reads Post)

Oh, I guess they borrowed that line.
posted by sideshow at 8:01 PM on February 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm not the type to watch videos when there are articles to be read, so I read the articles. The one with the picture that showed exactly where one kind of cliff-face ended and the other began and then explained why... after my brain stopped exploding, I quit reading the article and rushed back to the video, as the video does this and then layers on the history of science itself. With cool accents. NICE.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:09 PM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

You can read more about James Hutton in The Man Who Found Time by Jack Repcheck. I was a bit disappointed in the author's frequent recourse to "Hutton would have" and "Hutton could have", and "it is tempting to imagine Hutton ..."; but that's what happens when you're trying to write a biography of a historical figure who hasn't been well documented.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:39 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh God, you're such a kidder.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:07 AM on February 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

"The mind seemed to grow giddy, looking so far into the abyss of time. "

This happened to me in the Valle Caldera in northern New Mexico. It helped that I had my geologist SO there to explain the molten bubble I was but a scratch inside of..
posted by bird internet at 9:14 AM on February 28, 2016

If (like me) you're more a student of chocolate frosted cake than of geology, you may enjoy Chris Rowan's contribution to the Accretionary Wedge Bake Sale.

Some annotations show that the “Unconformicake” recreates at least the basic features of the outcrop at Siccar Point, even if I’ve yet to find a rock that weathers to buttercream.

posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:56 PM on February 28, 2016