After 43 years as a consulting hydrogeologist, it dawned on me that I had/have lost touch with geology.
I had the extreme good fortune to have had both an excellent primary education in the Catholic schools and then in (of all places) the Newburgh, NY public school system. There was one high school for the greater Newburgh area, Newburgh Free Academy (NFA). I think that this allowed the powers in charge to concentrate funding there. When I started my sophomore year there was a relatively new addition to the hallowed halls of NFA that among other things housed the science and math departments including a planetarium. While drawn to astronomy, the guy that taught it was a smoker and I had enough of that at home ( in the early ’70s most teachers that were smokers did so in class also — particularly social studies teachers — but I digress). I took earth science with Jeff Callister in my sophomore year and that hit a note with me. Jeff was the penultimate high school teacher, young, enthusiastic, smart, a great instructor and just an all around nice guy. He convinced me to take his geology class when I was a junior and I was hooked. One of his previous students had gone on to the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and because I was pretty geeky and had been exposed to a lot of mining and engineering growing up, he suggested that as a destination.
Out of CSM and into the work-a-day world, I had the good fortune to become involved with several hydrogeology and engineering geology projects that were largely driven by geologic observations and interpretations. As time went on and economy and other demands moved me more into environmental applications of hydrogeology, I migrated into techno-geek applications. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that! For me, computers and their application to solving real world problems were intoxicating. Without even realizing it, I became less of a “geologist” and more of a “technologist”. That was with living in California, which is certainly one of the primary centers of geologic diversity in the world. Sometime in 2017 or 2018, I heard or noticed the term exotic terranes in a geology article or podcast. Other than being offended by what appeared to be a wild spelling error and then being intrigued by the “exotic” modifier (geologists can be a little base) I was curious. In researching a little I became fascinated by this whole concept. Remember that in the 1973-1978 period at CSM, plate tectonics as a serious theory was relatively young after a very slow start in gaining general acceptance among the geologic community.
Bringing me to today. I am now regularly devouring geology articles, podcasts and maps and driving to or modifying driving routes to see geologic features and even taking geologic themed photos. For me it is a very refreshing and rejuvenating experience and an homage to my high school years when I fell in love with geology.
