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| An introduction to Geology |
The surface of the Earth is constantly changing, some changes have been sudden, because of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, while others have taken place gradually over thousands of years. The science of studying the Earth's surface and its changes is called Geology and scientists who study it are called Geologists.
Though geology has its origins in ancient India and ancient Greece, it was only in the 18th century that a Scottish scientist called James Hutton established geology as a science.
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The initial theories of Hutton were not accepted and later in the year 1912 a German scientist suggested that the continents were adrift, this fact was also contradicted and it was only around 1960 that these theories were established. Since then geology have used all kinds of methods to study the Earth's surface and what lies under it.
Today many modern techniques are available to help this study, satellites send in aerial photographs of large portions of the Earth's surface, while aero planes equipped with cameras, photograph the surface of the Earth in smaller pieces. Photographing the surface gives the geologists a bird's eye-view of a terrain and they are able to map the land. Out of these photographs they select areas where a detailed study of the surface is carried out.
In these areas they study the formation of rocks and what lies under them. Samples of rocks area taken from the surface or extracted from underneath with the help of rigs which drill holes into the ground. These sample are then tested for their composition and age which helps in oil and mineral exploration, construction, etc. Geologists also closely monitor the shiftion of the Earth's crust, with the help of special instruments as a result of which they are able to predict possible earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It is largely because of the work of the geologists that we know of the Earth's origin and its structure.
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