ambience: earthquake
We’re listening to a time-lapse recording of an earthquake, one of Mother Nature’s reminders that the Earth is a dynamic and ever-changing place. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.
Scientists who study the workings of the Earth are finding that all of its dynamic processes seem to be interrelated. Charles Langmuir is a Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at Columbia University.
“When I first learned about geology, you learned about the different kinds of rocks that there are. You learned that there were volcanoes. You leaned about earthquakes. You learned about these things in isolation. But starting in the 1970s, with the revolution of plate tectonics, gradually it came to be realized that everything on the Earth, every process, was linked, was connected together as part of a single operating system.”
Plate tectonics tell us that the surface of the Earth is divided up like a giant jigsaw into what scientists call plates. And these enormous plates can be the size of an ocean or a continent. Now the plates are in constant motion and it’s along the lines of their intersection that we often find earthquake and volcanic activity.
“So now, instead of there being all these diverse subspecialties, you have a situation where all Earth scientists are interacting with each other, realizing that volcanoes may be connected with the origin of life, that climate is connected not only to the ice ages, but also to volcanism and uplift of mountains – that everything is related. And this view, which permeates the scientific community, is something, I think, which hasn’t yet really reached the wider public.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.