Introducing Deep Time Detectives! 
Deep Time Detectives is an educational resource developed by CABAH on Australia's deep history, featuring a series of animated videos.
I drew a collection of original illustrations and animated elements for these videos
Happy #NationalScienceWeek !
https://emmarehn.com/portfolio/deep-time-detectives/
And check out the full resources here: https://epicaustralia.org.au/resource/deep-time-detectives/
what but imagination could have read
granite boulders back to their molten roots?
And how far back was back, and how far on
would basalt still be basalt, iron iron?
—Edwin Morgan certainly though so, and was inspired – by Burns & Hutton – to write “Theory of the Earth” (first published in New Writing Scotland 2, 1984)
3/3
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun…
James Hutton met Robert Burns in 1787. Later that year, Burns chose to visit some of the sites discussed in Hutton’s THEORY OF THE EARTH. Is there an echo of Hutton’s “deep time”—oceans evaporating, rocks melting—to be heard in Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (pub. 1794)?
2/3
https://sunnydunny.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/robert-burns-and-geology/
James Hutton (1726–1797), father of modern geology, was born #OTD, 14 June (NS; 3 June OS). One of the first European proponents of “deep time”, the conclusion of his 1788 paper “Theory of the Earth” has been called one of the most lyrical sentences in all of science:
The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—no prospect of an end.
1/3
Let's go further back into #deeptime.
Archaeological evidence from South Africa (160,000-200,000 years ago) shows #humans engaged in creating art, new tools, and beads.
How did those humans do #politics 140,000 years ago?
Who the hell knows. But they did, necessarily.
And that is something fascinating to keep in mind for later.
---
Source
Marean et al., “Early Human Use of Marine Resources and Pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene.”
#OTD the #Titanic sank in 1912. When I was a very small child, I knew an old woman who narrowly escaped this disaster. As the governess of a US millionaire's children, she was supposed to be travelling on the Titanic. They arrived too late in England and couldn't get tickets.
Shortly before her death, she gave me some old #yarn. I haven't dared to use it to this day because it's like travelling back in #deepTime. 113 years can feel so near.
@urlyman
Here's a powerful demonstration of these realities we put together that went viral on Facebook, before I left there 
#DeepTime
https://peertube-ecogather-u20874.vm.elestio.app/w/1rfTtyc7GrShYSfo9ss9kL
"Coming face to face with the lionfish in the warming waters of the central Aegean is a reminder that the present ecological catastrophe is also a catastrophe of colonialism, one which has been unfolding for centuries."
James Bridle for Emergence Magazine: https://longreads.com/2025/02/11/here-come-the-lionfish/
An important — but also surprising — study reports new climate estimates over the last 500 million years.
It estimates Earth's mean temperature has swung between ~10 °C and ~35 °C (~50 °F and ~95 °F), a much larger range than previously believed.
Season Two Episode Eight: 50 Million Years of Climate Change with Dr Christina De La Rocha
Have you ever thought about how dinosaurs lived on a warm, swampy Earth and how we live on one that’s cold enough to keep pretty much the entirety of Greenland and Antarctica buried under kilometers-thick sheets of solid ice and wondered, hmm, how did we get from there to here? The short answer is that it took 50 million years of declining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and dropping temperatures, not to mention building an ice sheet or two. For the longer story of the last 50 million years of climate change, including some of the reasons why, catch this episode of our podcast with Dr De La Rocha! You’ll hear about plate tectonics and continental drift, silicate weathering, carbonate sedimentation, and the spectacular effects the growth of Earth’s ice sheets have had on Earth’s climate. There are also lessons here for where anthropogenic global warming is going and whether or not its effects have permanently disrupted the climate system. Fun fact: the total amount of climate change between 50 million years ago and now dwarfs what we’re driving by burning fossil fuels, and yet, what we’re doing is more terrifying, in that it’s unfolding millions of times faster.
Bonus content: If you want to see sketches and plots of the data discussed in this episode, you can do so at our website
what but imagination could have read
granite boulders back to their molten roots?
And how far back was back, and how far on
would basalt still be basalt, iron iron?
—Edwin Morgan certainly though so, and was inspired – by Burns & Hutton – to write “Theory of the Earth” (first published in New Writing Scotland 2, 1984)
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #EdwinMorgan #poetry #DeepTime #geology
3/3
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun…
James Hutton met Robert Burns in 1787. Later that year, Burns chose to visit some of the sites discussed in Hutton’s THEORY OF THE EARTH. Is there an echo of Hutton’s “deep time”—oceans evaporating, rocks melting—to be heard in Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (pub. 1794)?
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #poetry #Enlightenment #18thcentury #Geology #DeepTime
2/3
https://sunnydunny.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/robert-burns-and-geology/
James Hutton (1726–1797), father of modern #Geology, was born #OTD, 14 June (NS; 3 June OS). One of the first European proponents of “deep time”, the concluding sentence of his 1788 paper “Theory of the Earth” has been called one of the most lyrical sentences in all of #science. It reads,
The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—no prospect of an end.
#Scottish #literature #Enlightenment #18thcentury #DeepTime
1/3
More #CitizenScience: Participants in DigVenturers' #DeepTime project identified 12,802 previously unknown archaeological sites and monuments in England.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/27/hobbyist-archaeologists-identify-thousands-of-ancient-sites-in-england-deep-time-digventures-national-trust via @guardian
Snowball Earth
Through many posts we have talked about the Great Unconformity (yes, you must capitalize it) and how it occurs worldwide in different rock sections. Why? Scientists believe that at several times in Earth’s history the planet was buried in a blanket of ice. Oceans were nearly frozen. This is what scientists call Snowball Earth, or sometimes Slushball Earth.
The last occurred sometime before 650 million years ago, during the aptly named Cryogenian period. In 200 million years, uplift and the giant erosive conveyor belts of ice eroded continents down to the roots of the ancient mountains and left the land at sea level. Think the Canadian Shield. This scraped bare land is the base of the Great Unconformity. As the glaciers melted, sea level rose and covered the land and deposition of sedimentary layers began. Variations of this happened worldwide. We can focus on the North American continent which looked much different at that time. Forget anything west of Idaho or so. It wasn’t there yet.
Wyoming Geologist Myron Cook does a much better job than I could of explaining Snowball Earth, the Great Unconformity, and why different gaps, between hundreds of millions to billions of years of time, exist across what was North America at the time in his great video published only 11 days ago. Throw in a master-class in Deep Time, and you have it all put together as only a master story teller can. And there are lots of rocks, yay! Watch this wonderful video. Yes, it’s long, but you’ll absolutely hate yourself if you don’t get to see the Mineral Fork Tillite and how the story ends. Trust me.
Follow it up with further findings on Snowball earth using thermochronology by Kalin T. McDannell, et. al. including our own @brenhinkeller as they work to help determine if glaciation or the recent hypotheses of tectonic influence had more impact on denudation of the continent. Spoiler alert: read the title of this post again.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2118682119
Another version here: https://eos.org/articles/erasing-a-billion-years-of-geologic-time-across-the-globe
Pinging @BoxcarMurphy who probably knows all about this already :)
#SnowballEarth #SlushballEarth #Glaciation #Cryogenian #TheGreatUnconformity #NorthAmericanContinent #DeepTime #MyronCook #HowSnowballEarthLeveledTheContinentsAndCreatedTheGreatUnconformity #WatchTheDamnVideo #geology #ScienceMastodon @geology
Frozen in time since the dinosaurs’ age
A story to tell in a single page
Written in stone formed from sandy shore
Of a Cretaceous Sea that is no more
Their impression, their orientation, providing clues
Of ancient environments, long passed views
Uplift and movement have delivered you here
To a place and time where we are near
A story of life, of death, and final rest
Written in stone to stand time’s test
#Geology #Fossil #Rocks #Paleontology #Sediment #DeepTime #FossilFriday #Poetry
#PNW #Oregon
Perhaps my all-time favorite book on #DeepTime, however, is Jason Chin's #GrandCanyon. This beautifully illustrated book celebrates both the modern #nationalpark and the fantastic #geologic record it contains. Following a father & daughter on a hike up from the canyon floor, they lead us through the progressive #biomes, #habitats, and #strata of the canyon. I love the gimmick of the occasional #fossils acting as LITERAL windows into the past! Truly inspired stuff. 
https://dinodadreviews.com/2018/08/11/grand-canyon-jason-chin/
Speaking of time, there sure has been a lot of it! How best to convey the idea of #DeepTime? I'm a fan of a good foldout #timeline, myself, and as far as I'm concerned, #paleoartist Clémence Dupont currently reigns queen over all others with her #ABriefHistoryOfLifeOnEarth. It's the largest single time chart I've ever seen, & it's double-sided, too! One side depicts the evolving earth and biosphere, while the other side has a proportional depiction of the various #eons!
https://dinodadreviews.com/2022/02/13/a-brief-history-of-life-on-earth/
“For deep time is measured in units that humble the human instant: millennia, epochs and aeons, instead of minutes, months and years. Deep time is kept by rock, ice, stalactites, seabed sediments and the drift of tectonic plates. Seen in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert. New responsibilities declare themselves. Ice breathes. Rock has tides. Mountains rise and fall. We live on a restless Earth.”
― Robert Macfarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey
