July 2008 IssuE
Geo Beat
Serious Rock Collecting — Is That Our Common Background?
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BY TOM SNEDDON, P.GEOL.APEGGA Manager, Geoscience Affairs |
Yeah. I collected rocks as a kid. Did you?
A couple of months ago at a birthday celebration, my mother reminded me that I started bringing rocks home when I was about three and had a serious collection by the time I started school. There were several other geoscientists at the same function and one (hopefully!) geoscientist-to-be (GTB) who went on about how they too collected rocks from a tender age.
Climbing, hiking and exploring the world are also prescient indicators of GTBs and all present admitted to those traits. While intriguing, a sample of four is hardly conclusive.
About the same time, APEGGA sent me off to the Earth Ring ceremonies and related professional practice seminars. Over lunch, I asked the newly minted geoscientists how they got interested in rocks.
Most claimed the same attributes as my party guests, so maybe there is a principle at play here.
At the Calgary ceremony luncheon, Dr. Shelley Lissel, P.Eng., described the lot of us to a T, citing most of the same things. She seems to have a sound grasp of what geoscientists are about, even if she is an engineer!
That settled the matter for me: there must be a lithophyllic gene. Furthermore, the lithophyllic gene actively seeks out others with the same blessing. When encountering each other, lithophyles become animated and excited and begin exchanging experiences (with rocks) and relationship data (about other lithophyles). Beer is usually an exchange medium amongst over-18 lithophyles, although wines often produce the same results.
Under-18 lithophyles are equally motivated by various caffeine-containing beverages. Milk and cookies work for GTBs under 10.
One commonly occurring discussion relates to the lithophyle’s personal rock collection. Collections range in size from a few really pretty ones to carefully organized (or disorganized in the eyes of non-lithophyllic spouses and other family members) garages filled with really neat stuff that everyone must see. Age class is irrelevant when it comes to collection size and organization. The youngest GTB lithophyle’s collection I recall was organized by colour (“I like purfle [sic] the best”) and the most venerable belonged to an ancient gentleman of science who had a core collection in his garage to kill for.
Another common discussion item is the fossil component of the collection. Every year, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Paleontology Division and the Alberta Paleontological Society hold a joint fossil show and conference at Mount Royal College. That function allows professional geologists, amateur fossil and rock collectors and GTBs to mingle and do what they love to do best — indulge in geobabble.
GLOSSARY Geoscientist – A person learned in geology, geophysics, or anything else that involves rocks, reading and socializing about rocks. Lithophyle – a geoscientist who loves rocks. Which definition covers pretty well all geoscientists. Except of course those persons who are only in it for the money. Fortunately, there aren’t many of those. Not to be confused with a lithophile — which is a microbe that loves rocks and therefore must be a good bug. Geobabble – Discourse between geoscientists using incredibly erudite terms that can only be found in the Dictionary of Geological Terms — 3rd Edition (CON 5, edited by Robert L. Bates and Julia A. Jackson). Joe – A beverage resembling coffee in some respects. Usually served in camp before and after a long day in the field. |
Multisyllabic, Latin-like terms get bandied around with a heightened sense of uncertainty and thirst to learn (is that an Albertella? No, no it’s a Bathyriscus, a Middle Cambrian genus too! Look at that pygidium. Wow! Where’d you find that?).
Lithophyles love field trips. Both the spontaneous, let’s-go-fossil-hunting, one-off private affairs, and the big, planned-long-in-advance, CSPG-sponsored field trips associated with the convention or some other formal gathering that includes airplanes, helicopters and big entry fees. The best ones consist of 20 or 30 enthusiasts and involve a highway bus and a post-trip barbeque.
Field trips represent a good geobabble opportunity, a chance to increase the rock collection, an opportunity to share beer/wine/high-caffeine beverages with other lithophyles and to wander over the countryside to see New Stuff.
The biggest, arm-waving field trips are, of course, structural geology field trips. These are commonly led by a deeply tanned, wizened, sinewy officer of the Geological Survey who knows the ground like the back of the hand. The enthusiasm for the site exuded by the survey person is only exceeded by all the other assembled lithophyles enthusiasm to learn about it.
Beautiful examples of cylindrical folds. Great sweeping thrust faults. Dramatic reverse normal faults. All are there to be clambered over and enthused about.
All field trips begin on a bus of some kind, early in the morning with a colourfully clad group standing out in the parking lot with clinking packs and clutching car mugs brimming with joe. The excitement builds as the crowd grows until the Leader announces it is time to mount up. The chatter gets louder as the Field Guide Notes are handed out and the geologizing begins in earnest.
The bus fills with chatter until the leader begins the discussion of what we are going to see, where the stops will be, the safety protocol and emergency response plan, and what kind of post-trip festivities will ensue and where.
Each stop follows a similar plan.
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Leader announces Stop #n and advises what will be there.
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When the bus has come to a complete stop, everyone jumps up and pushes (politely, of course) to the exit.
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Leader steps up on a high point, delivers a brief description of what is there, followed by a question and answer period.
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Everyone takes out hammer, sample bags, field books, GPS, 10-power hand lens and camera.
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The discussion gets animated again, more Q&A.
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Everyone piles back on the bus and heads to the next stop.
And so it goes until the Lunch Stop. At the Lunch Stop, sandwiches and cold drinks appear from rucksacks and much earnest geobabble ensues. The only real difference between the Lunch Stop and Stop #n is the length (generally an hour) and the presence of food (briefly).
The return trip on the bus tends to be somewhat more subdued and is only interrupted occasionally by loud snoring.
The above is a broad outline of what outreach means to geoscientists. The blurring of lines between young and old, amateur and professional, everyone sharing a passion for rocks and the stories they tell.
If you have comments or questions for Tom Sneddon, P.Geol., reach him at
tsneddon@apegga.org or at the Calgary APEGGA office, 403-262-7714.