Category: 2017 Events

11-15-2017 Tom Williams: James Hutton

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About the Talk

James Hutton—Founder of Modern Geology

Tom Williams will examine the incredible legacy of James Hutton—the Founder of Modern Geology as part of the Jefferson Land Trust’s Geology Lecture Series in November.

James Hutton was one of a truly remarkable group of intellectuals including philosopher and historian David Hume, economist Adam Smith, chemist Joseph Black, and poet Robert Burns who, during the second half of the eighteenth-century, collectively participated in what is known as the “Scottish Enlightenment.” Can you imagine the excitement of joining them to deliberate and unwind at the Oyster Club in Edinburgh. Collectively, they provided the foundations for the modern study of philosophy, economics, and the physical sciences and made Edinburgh the focus of exploring radical new ways of understanding our world.

None made a more original contribution than Hutton to our understanding of the Earth. Until this time, it was assumed that the Earth was only about 6,000 years old. Archbishop James Ussher wrote in 1658 that the Earth had been created on October 22, 4004 B.C. This date was included in the English Bible and was accepted as part of Scripture itself. Hutton provided unequivocal evidence that the Earth was far older than generally believed and in doing so laid the foundations of geological science.

Amongst Hutton’s numerous contributions were:

  • The concept of “deep time” describing geologic processes operating over immense periods of geologic time. In 1787, Hutton wrote, “…we find no vestige of a beginning, – no prospect of an end.”
  • Describing fundamental geologic processes such as the realization that the surface of the Earth is a dynamic system subject to renewal by mountain building and decay by erosion.
  • In his 1785 publication Theory of the Earth, Hutton provided the basis of the geologic principle of uniformitarianism, later summarized by Lyell as “The Present is the Key to the Past”.
  • Recognized the Earth as a heat engine. Internal heat converted sediment to sedimentary rock and raised material from the ocean floor to make new land.
  • Developed a method of geologic inquiry that combined theory with critical field-based observations.

About the Speaker

For the past five years, Tom has co-lead geology field trips exploring the landscapes and geology of Scotland. These trips follow in the footsteps of Hutton and other pioneering Scottish geologists and visit localities such as Salisbury Crags, Siccar Point, Isle of Arran, and the Moine thrust, where significant geologic discoveries were made.

Thomas Williams is a retired Engineering Geologist with the California North Coast Regional Water Board in Santa Rosa. He has taught earth sciences at eight San Francisco Bay Area colleges and, for the past 13 years, has been a geology lecturer at Sonoma State University about one hour north of San Francisco. Since establishing his travel adventure business, Williams GeoAdventures in 1997, Tom has led 34 geology field trips to the Western U.S. and to Scotland, Italy, Iceland, and New Zealand.

12-16-2017 Ralph Haugerud: All about Lidar

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About the Talk

Shape shows more than Pictures—An Introduction to LiDAR

We sense the spatial world through a combination of touch, our kinesthetic sense, and sight, with most of the details provided by sight. Traditional mapping technology mimics this, with details provided by photos draped over sparse topographic control. As a consequence, we tend to assume that the world is to be understood by its color and that environmental mapping data are raster (bitmaps).

Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) has changed all this. LiDAR combines differential GPS, an inertial measurement unit, and a rapid-fire scanning laser rangefinder to generate thousands of positions per second with accuracies of about 1 inch (Z, elevation) by 1 foot (X, longitude; Y, latitude). Combined, these positions describe the shape of the landscape with unparalleled precision.

These shape data are revolutionizing the study of the Earth’s surface. We’ll discuss some examples that include the discovery of numerous Holocene fault scarps in NW Washington, automated timber-stand mapping, investigation of a possible Clean Water Act violation, and the response to the 2014 Oso landslide.

However, LiDAR is blind. To determine what kinds of trees cover a hillside, whether the cows are Herefords or Holsteins, or where there is snow, a picture is an appropriate tool. But if you want to know how tall the trees are, whether that brown thing is a cow or a dog, or what part of a snowy landscape is ice-covered, shape data (LiDAR) are far more useful.

About the Speaker

Ralph is a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Dept. Earth & Space Sciences, University of Washington. He grew up in Seattle and product of local education, first getting his B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Geology at Western Washington University (Bellingham) and then his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences in 1985 from the University of Washington in Seattle. He was a post-Doc with the USGS in Reston, VA from 1985-87, then was hired by Branch of Western Regional Geology and moved to Menlo Park in 1988. He escaped CA in 1990 by being transferred back to Seattle and the homeland.

His work has involved geologic mapping in the North Cascades (1978-1997), Salish Lowland (1996-present), and central Washington (2014-present). Got interested in digital topography in the early 1990s and as a result of his technical skills became the lead scientist for the Puget Sound LiDAR Consortium (1999-2017). However, he considers himself a structural geologist—He watches the Earth move.