The Human Condition

© 2015 Richard John Kosciejew. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/19/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5648-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5647-5 (e)

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CONTENTS

About the Author

The Human Condition

Chapter One Evolution

Chapter Two The Arriving Primate

Chapter Three Evolutionary Principles

Chapter Four Resolving The Plexuities

Chapter Five Keeping Pace With Time

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard John Kosciejew is a German-born Canadian who lives in Toronto. He was educated at Alexander Muir Public School and Central Technical School before attending Centennial College, the University of Toronto, and the University of Western Ontario. He is also the author of The Designing Theory of Transference.

RICHARD JOHN KOSCIEJEW

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the same was in the beginning with God. That all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made: In Him was the Life and Life was in the Light of man, which shone in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.

~THE GOSPEL OF JOHN~

THE HUMAN CONDITION

In anticipation of succeeding, especially for the better of manifesting the hope by which we are afforded upon the entrance and exit for being without description is placed in full view. As the basis of intervals are the amounts obtained by the addition to the sum.

The alternate in which the world of living things and the beauty of nature, reflecting upon a primitive state of fact of all that exists from which it seems to, specifically continue to exist. The presence in that which occurs, of a mode or manner of persistence, as to live in terms used of the smallest of amounts or degree. In that barely taken into account, from that which is extremely simplified, that form and the objectivity of a minimized possibility, can be extended by the use of basic shapes or primary colours. The fewer and barest of essentials is used in the arts, literature or design as providing for the preparation and hesitant anticipation upon subsisting conditions, especially of the sensory and the self-centred parameters of evolutionary time.

In that of, or relating to our inherently unchanging nature of things or class of things, such that this resemblance of an entity that is not or cannot be known by name. One that has or shows of a quality as if highly concentrated, and which of something that exists, especially of a spiritual or an incorporeal entity. In essence, the greatest importance, by which the properties existing are those qualities to be unknowingly essential. From which normal functioning, cannot be synthesized, but must include the essential properties, in that they are very difficult.

In some of the languages, essentially characterized by that of a person or of a thing, particularly as distinct by whose advantage to identify those owing to the undivided whole and contractually correlated by self-realization. At which point, we can fully enter the fruitful assemblage that self realization has flourished. That self-realization’s natural doubts as understood upon the certainty as given in mesmerising amplification, by way of the critic’s negative assessments.

In that of, or relating to the geologic scale of evolutionary times, that also lays upon the entirety of Earth’s history, from its origin to the present, as a continuing process within which of nutriments, a source of nutrition, a steady source of fulfilling nourishment and development, for which nutrients are to provide for the sustaining sustenance as composed in the digestive constituents that have become dependent upon it for its existence. The releasing constituents as by the components are such that reciprocal notions about it, especially to the extent or degree that of serving an emphasis upon the fields that embark upon our endeavours. That the significance through which reciprocity is intended by the significance for which is made known, as to convey of an idea which to make known, as that of an action. Its tendency toward a full lexical meaning as distinguished from relational meaning as a conditional character that is found of a propensity progressing by what to do. As favouring one rather than the other, amplifying a series as considered by events, as, perhaps, senses as very slight or gradually gained exemption or interest are from one thing rather than another. If to obey by convening considerations of rule, principle, or instinct can be found of our aspiring perceptions, of which the final acts can be found for an ascending of progress.

As an ascendant order can express direction with points of the compass, is underlyingly complete, in that of corresponding descriptions that have succumb to a well-mannered world. Only to be impediments of improbable possibilities, which we deter or evade any pressing of immediate needs. Since that compels a certain behaviour by territorial imperatives, we are determinately perceiving by the mind. Still, the probability is impossible or difficult or that the senses as very slight or gradually gaining exemption or interests are in a course of some bedevilling obligation.

The basis, from a normative manner, might that we obtainably achieve for purposes that one carries out an action of intent (as having to do with intention of one’s course to follow). Nonetheless, the cognitive, emotional, or behavioural functioning, as mental and emotional design, structure, or contours of form, style, or method, used as an archetype, or thing considered worthy of one’s pattern of behaviour. Exemplifying the patterns under which is usually unconscious, but found to make mention or reference to, have recourse upon matters in dispute.

The doctrine that all natural phenomena are explicable by material and mechanical phenomena as construed by mental causes and mechanical principles (as one who believes in the doctrine of the mechanism). The branch of physics, is concerned with the analysis of the action of forces on matter or material systems, structured for the designing function and technological preliminary formations and the developmental opening to a closed condition

All and all, the geologic time scale or frame of referentially intermittent intervals applies to a particular content, as theoretically of a mechanical implication, as based upon its underlying abstraction or some methodological envisioning in the mind. These infractions as derived through the intervals of times references, which geologic time passes through specific path-intervals that are so governed. Such that, evolutionary principles, as this, are seen as ordering too secular rather than spiritual.

If what matters, to which of the facts are given to any ordinate point in space or in time, that in some ordering of direction that, we advance and go on for the purposes of specification. To put of an order, might that a functional, structured whole, be arranged in a coherent form, systematized or arranged by some correlated formality or pattern of some sortal structure.

Before radioactive dating, which of the measures is the summation for being responsible for the total of resulting implications, as amounting in direct representation upon those of the interpretations that have by indicating measurements for the rendering of available services. That these indications of radioactive elementarity are exemplified through metric dating, the measured amounts are ascertained by the results of metric dating, also measuring the sum-total of directed interpretations.

Radioactive elements reining of their constitutional components, similarly, as will an entity detect age. In which the estimates of the Earth’s age are covered within some ranging of possibilities, as extended beyond the property measurements of an interdependent ordering, of at least 4,000 years to hundreds of thousands of evolutionary years. A move made in opposition to another is measured to be represented by that of a valuing index or the arresting assumptions of an independently agreed personification of ideas. This, nonetheless, is the experiential value for reinforcing among such boundaries that have posited by means of which is positioned or placed is to be in or around 4.6 billion years of evolutionary time.

Currently, the geologic time scale is based on radiometric dating and the records of ancient life are preserved in layers of rock. Most boundaries in recent geologic time coincide with periodic extinctions and appearances of new species. Divisions in the older part of the records are based on dates provided by radiometric dating methods.

The longest interval in which time can be called an eon: Each eon of intermittence of geologic time, is taken to follow the International Union of Geological Sciences in 2004. Breaking or separating Earth’s history into distinct intervals of varying lengths is measured within intermittent legitimacy as accorded to the calendar year. Then subdivided, i.e., as a course of action, by choice or assented within the acceptance with time, as an instance of resolute standards or requisitely for holding a condition as necessarily needed or servicing as the basis for chronological arrangements. The instance of resolute standards or requisitely responsible for such a conditional manner, or results for being arranged - for such a composition is arranged. That instances, from the date as when a point that marks the beginning to such a state as the period is the longest of geologic times. For which of one or more periods from an era gives attributively to divisional periods as embraced by the geologic make-up. Whose attribution brings forward to make-up of evolutionary time - standing as the longest division of a geologic scale frame of divisional geological time?

Many of the periods for which of an era is made up of periods, as the contributive divisions for being attributive to the particularity addressed among such periods of history. The Earth’s age is contributively presented by the instance of coincided arbitrarity, that a celestially selected point of reference as measured by evolutionary time for its holding to space and time, as given to a remarkable and noteworthy significance for occurring inside of a single point of space and time. As fully eventful, the beginning to such a divisional separation that the beginning of such is the occurrence to that borne of an epoch.

There are three Eons: The Archaean, the Proterozoic, and the Phanerozoic. The Archaean, the earliest of diversification was the division for which had undergone by such a divided base, forming distinct quantification. The participles of division are indefinitely long in time. As placed within the order of specific adaptations for which a long period of geologic time contains two more representational eras. These are the eons of time, an indefinitely long period of evolutionary geologic time. As were controlled by 3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years before evolutionary time. The time before the Archaean Eon, simply called pre-Archaean, is marked by the formation of the planet, that the earlier of th two divisions of Precambrian time, from approximately 3.8 to 2.5 billion years. This is marked by an atmosphere with little free oxygen and the formation of the first rock and oceans made a mark on an atmosphere with little free oxygen. Which the formation of the first rocks and oceans, and the development of unicellular life. The appearance of the first multicellular eukaryotic, or called eucaryote, such that of a single celled or multicellular organism whose cells contain a distinct membrane-bound nu organism whose cells contain a distinct membrane-bound nucleus life form. The archaean and Proterozoic eons opened the view or a place or location, as relates to the circumstances from approximately 2.5 billion to 570 million years ago. Taking the appearance of the first multicellular eukaryotic life form, were born from 2.5 billion to 579 million years ago, and marked by the building of a collectively called Precambrian time. An explosion of invertebrate life marks the end of the Proterozoic and the beginning of the Phanerozoic.

The Phanerozoic Eon started in relation to fixed points of reference, a degree. Outlines of times formally characterized effects described with designed descriptions, usually specified within sources of information as governed by the evolutionary principles and stationed of about 542 million years of evolutionary time. Perpetually continued into the present, as the divided total recount to things that lead to traitful organisms for which to reproduce, especially by the controlled mating and selection, chiefly through the selective offsprings with derivable traits. In which of the traits distinguish in features as if with quality for its assembly of various stages or preforming services spanning from at least, for more than three Eras: The Paleozoic (542 million to 251 million years of evolutionary time) as designating the era of geologic time that includes the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvania Periods and is characterized by the appearance of marine invertebrates, primitive fishes, land plants, and primitive reptiles, as designating the latest era of geologic evolutionary time, which include the Tertiary Period, in that which of or be the first period of the Cenozoic Era, and characterized by the appearance of modern flora and of apes and other large mammals. The Cenozoic Era of geologic evolutionary time, is characterized by the formation of the modern continents, glaciation and the diversification of mammals, birds, and plants.

The Quaternary Period has become the major division of geologic time. Within the Cenozoic Era, no longer officially recognized, but the period that began at the end of the Tertiary Period, about 1.8 million years ago, and continues to the present time. The Quaternary was divided into the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the Ice Age was the earliest and longest part of the period. The recent Epoch, also known as the Holocene, which extends to the present of two epochs at the Quaternary Period, beginning at the end of the last Ice Agee about 11,000 years ago and is characterized by the recent development of human civilization. At most, which scientists now consider the epochs of the Quaternary to form the most recent portion of the Neogene Period, but the Quaternary still appears in some scholarly literature.

This is the Neogene Period, a major division of the Cenozoic Era, extending from about 23 million years ago up to the present day. Scientists redefined and expanded the use of the term Neogene, and made it an official geologic period when they revised the geologic time scale in 2004. Epoch, division of geologic time shorter than a geologic period and longer than a geologic age, Epochs is a particular period of history, especially one considered remarkable or noteworthy, such a period covering units of geologic time that is a division of a period, as selected as a point or frame of reference. Extended over time, generally spanning from about 5 million to 30 million years of evolution or evolutionary time. This is the largest division consuming geologic time and called an Eon. As having an indefinitely long period of an age with the longest division of geologic time and contains more eras as related or constituting an Eon. Such that an Eon is divided into eras, which are divided into periods, which are further divided into epochs. The Scottish geologist Charles Lyell was the first to subdivide a period into epochs.

The boundaries of an epoch are often set according to a series of rock layers with a distinct fossil content. Scientists rely on radiometrically dating—measuring the amount of decay of radioactive elements in a sample—and other dating techniques to set the dates of the boundaries of geologic time divisions.

Geologists are most concerned with the epochs of the Cenozoic Era, which is the era we live in today. The Paleogene Period (earliest period of the Cenozoic, from about 65 million to 23 million years before the present) is divided into three epochs: The Paleocene (about 65 million to 56 million years before the present), Eocene (about 56 million to 34 million years before present), and Oligocene (about 34 million to 23 million years before present).

The Paleocene (Greek for ‘ancient’) Epoch of the Paleogene Period is the earliest epoch of the Cenozoic Era. A layer of rock that contains an unusually high amount of iridium and evidence of a catastrophic collision between Earth and an asteroid marks the beginning of the Paleocene Epoch. This rock layer can be found worldwide. Radiometric dating estimates the time of formation at 65 million years before the present. Mammals began to evolve and dominate life on Earth during the Paleocene.

The Paleocene gave way to the Eocene (Greek for ‘dawn’) Epoch about 56 million years before the present. Ash layers in Denmark and changes in planktonic foraminifera (marine microfossils) elsewhere in the world mark this boundary. North America and Europe were warm and moist during the Eocene. Recognizable relatives of today’s mammals appeared during this epoch.

The Oligocene (Greek for ‘little life’) geologic Epoch time came quickly into view, life or activity and sprang forth a startled reaction or movement as a position of advantage over activity or movement above others, as a course of actions, happening about 34 million years before the present. The first primates emerged during the Oligocene.

The Oligocene Epoch, is the third and final division of the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era, spanning an interval from about 34 million to 23 million years ago, and like the Eocene Epoch, which preceded it, and the Miocene, which followed, the Oligocene (Greek, ‘little life’) was originally defined by the percentage of modern species of shellfish (10-15 percent) found in strata of this age.

Collisions between the plates of Earth’s crust continued, as intensified from Eocene time. In the eastern hemisphere, the Afro-Arabian and Indian remnants of the former supercontinent Gondwanaland, colliding with Eurasia to the north, pinched shut the eastern end of the Tethys Sea, leaving in its place a much shrunken remnant of the Mediterranean Sea, for which of the compressional forces generated by the collision helped to push up an extensive system of mountain ranges, from the Alps in the west to the Himalayas in the east. Meanwhile the Australian plate collided with the Indonesian, and the North American plate had begun to override the Pacific. As a result, the seafloor-spreading process originating at the East Pacific Ridge was diverted to a direction perpendicular to the ridge axis. The shifting fault-as the earthquake-producing San Andreas Fault of California—developed to adapt to this shift in motion between the plates. Other effects of the collision included the creation of the Basin and Range structure of the southwestern United States, the continued uplift of the Sierra Nevada, and the outpouring of massive basalt flows that built up the Columbia Plateau. The climate remained subtropical and moist throughout North America and Europe, but a gradual, long-term cooling trend had begun, culminating in the Pleistocene ice ages.

Mammals were firmly established in the Oligocene as the dominant form of terrestrial life. The horse, a native of North America, continued to evolve there. Three groups of rhinoceroses inhabited both the Old World and the New World; one, now extinct, included the central Asian Baluchitherium, 5.5 m. (18 ft) high and 7.6 m’s (25 ft) long—the largest land mammals of any age. Another extinct mammalian tribe, the Rhinoceroslike titanotheres, included Brontotherium, North America’s largest land animal of that time, which stood 2.4 m’s (8 ft) high at the shoulder. The extinct chalicotheres group, of North America and Asia, were characterized by horselike skulls, camel-like bodies, and long, narrow claws.

Oligocene camels, which were then the size of sheep, became extinct in North America, but some migrated to South America with the peccaries and tapirs. Meanwhile vast herds of oreodons (piglike cousins of the camel) grazed across the plains of North America, as did the enteledonts (even-toed, giant ‘pigs’) that were also native to that continent; both groups became extinct in the Miocene. The first elephants—short, semiaquatic forms lacking either tusks or trunk—gave rise, in Africa, to the mastodons, which were as yet only a little more than 1.5 m’s (5 ft) high. Rodents were well represented by this time, and primates included the tarsiers and lemurs. Finally, Oligocene strata have yielded bones of the first Old World monkeys, as well as a single species of great apes.

Geologists divide the later period of the Cenozoic Era, the Neogene Period (about 23 million years before present to the present) into four epochs: the Miocene (about 23 million to 5 million years before present), Pliocene (about 5 million to 1.8 million years before present), Pleistocene (about 1.8 million to 11,500 years of evolution), and the Holocene (11,500 years of evolution). This geologic time of referential frames is most recent of two Epochs, the Quaternary Period, beginning at the end of the last age about 11,000 years ago and characterized by the evolution of human civilization.

The Miocene (Greek for less recent) Epoch is the earliest epoch of the Neogene Period. The Miocene boundary begins at about 23 million years before the present. Changes in the fossil record in northeast Italy define the start of the Miocene. During the Miocene, animals and plants began to look much more like their modern relatives. Many of the more exotic plants and bizarre animals of the early Paleogene had vanished.

The Pleistocene (Greek for ‘more recent’) presents itself with rock series or sedimentary deposits of the earlier of the two epochs the Quaternary Period, characterized by the alternate appearance and the northern glaciation, the appearance and worldwide spread of hominids and the extinction of numerous mammals, such as the mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers, even so, the Pleistocene Epochs was a system deposit. The Epoch started about 5 to 1.8 million years before the present. Changes in marine microfossils in rocks near Calabria, Italy, mark the beginning of this epoch. Glacier ice covered about one-fourth of Earth’s surface during the Pleistocene, drastically changing the topography of much of the world. Modern humans evolved in the late Pleistocene.

The last epoch of the Cenozoic Era is the Holocene, or Recent. No boundary section has been established for the Holocene Epoch, but geologists recognize the epoch as beginning about 11,500 years before the present. Humans created agricultural and village societies in the Holocene, an epoch that continues today.

The Neogene period showed of a major division of the Cenozoic Era, extending from about 23 million years ago up to the present day. Scientists redefined and expanded use of the term Neogene, and made it an official geologic period when they revised the geologic time scale in 2004. The Neogene was formerly only a subperiod of the Tertiary Period, which is no longer officially recognized. The Neogene is now considered to include with what was or in place of the upper part of the Tertiary Period (Miocene and Pliocene epochs) plus the entire former Quaternary Period (Pleistocene and Holocene epochs). The name Neogene means ‘newly born’ and refers to the appearance of more modern types of animals. The Neogene Period follows the Paleogene Period (which stretched from about 65 to 23 million years ago), when more primitive types of animals were common.

The Age of Mammals reached its peak during the Neogene Period. Horses, elephants, monkeys, apes, and advanced carnivores such as cats, dogs, and bears spread around much of the world. The earliest hominids developed in Africa during the Pliocene. The first grasslands appeared during the Miocene and a major ice age cycle began during the Pleistocene. A widespread extinction of large land animals (megafauna) occurred around the end of the Pleistocene, most likely from a combination of climate change and the impact of modern humans

The Neogene was formerly only a subperiod of the Tertiary Period, which is no longer officially recognized. The Neogene now takes in part of what was the upper part of the Tertiary Period (Miocene and Pliocene epochs) plus the entire former Quaternary Period (Pleistocene and Holocene epochs). The name Neogene means ‘newly born’ and refers to the appearance of more modern types of animals. The Neogene Period follows the Paleogene Period (which stretched from about 65 to 23 million years ago), when more primitive types of animals were common.

At the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, the second era of the Phanerozoic Eon, all of the world’s continents were combined into the supercontinent Pangaea. Because Pangaea was so large, a great deal of its interior, a long distance from the ocean, was dry. Life in the early Mesozoic was recovering from the Permian extinction. The animals that survived evolved and diversified to produce the first large reptiles and the first birds. As the Mesozoic Era went on, dinosaurs evolved and took over many environmental habitats and roles. Mammals also appeared during this era. Pangaea broke apart again into the precursors of the present continents. The Mesozoic Era is made up of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.

Dinosaurs appeared in the early Triassic Period and expanded their habitats throughout the oceans, air, and land during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. They became completely extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Mammals evolved at the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic Periods. Flowering plants diversified and flourished in the late Cretaceous Period.

The breakup of Pangaea gradually opened the ocean basins present today. The separation of Gondwanaland and Laurasia took place in about 210 million years ago in the Triassic and Jurassic when an asteroid in what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, spreading a layer of the element iridium throughout the world and probably contributing to the last mass extinction of the Mesozoic Era.

In the beginning of the last era of the Phanerozoic Eon, the Cenozoic, mammals rapidly evolved and diversified after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The mountain-building events that created the major ranges present today occurred during the Cenozoic. The earth, and life on it, changed to resemble the present. The Cenozoic is made up of the Paleogene and Neogene periods.

Paleogene Period, major division of the Cenozoic Era, spanning the interval from about 65 to 23 million years ago. Scientists made the Paleogene an official geologic period when they revised the geologic time scale in 2004. The Paleogene Period includes the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs, and corresponds to the early part of the Tertiary Period, a formerly used division of the geologic time scale that also included the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (epochs now included in the Neogene Period). The Paleogene Period precedes the Neogene Period (23 million years ago to present day), when more modern types of animals became dominant.

The name Paleogene means ‘ancient born’ and refers to the more primitive character of the animals that lived during the period. The Paleogene began after a mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period that killed the dinosaurs, and marks the beginning and early development of the Age of Mammals. The top carnivores of the period came from two primitive extinct groups called creodonts and mesonychids, while the large hoofed plant-eaters included the extinct dinocerata, titanotheres, and arsinoitheres. The earliest whales, bats, rhinoceroses, and primates also appeared. One of the warmest periods in Earth’s history occurred during the early Eocene Epoch, followed by a major cooling during the Oligocene Epoch. A mass extinction event affecting mainly marine life and land mammals marked the end of the Eocene.

Mammals rapidly evolved and diversified, beginning about 60 million to 55 million years before the present. The first primates appeared about 60 million years ago. The first horses appeared in or a round 55 million years age, shortly after the first grasses, as-well as the first rodents appeared in around 47 million years ago. Early anthropoids (members of the human ancestral line) appeared about 41 million years. Hominids appeared about 15 million years ago. Humans were to develop or achieve gradually by evolutionary processes or arise through the characteristic belief in biological evolution. The resulting, or charged over a designated limit of approximately two million-years in referential frames. That as having a place or locality as considered with regard to make known and connecting, as to point of this continuum. As something necessary or available for or for any given point of distinct intervals covering the earth and its surrounding surfaces. Time, as the sustaining constant or the quality to maintain position or durability makes up the normal or ideal compatibility as a source of power or supportive mainstays in its basis of properties, such that time, as measured or indicated by units as regarded of other entities of some elementary but functionally constituted, an existing entity of an idea or a quality perceived as known or thought to have its own existence. All of which is actively occurring in the point of direction, as to have or formulate in the mind, specifically, to reason about or reflect on or pondered about: Thinking what to expect or believe this instant as an imperceptible space of time. Detailed activities or in the fated moments, especially in which has been given or took of its nonspatial temporality, all for which the continuum of events occurs in apparent irreversible succession that call to mind.

An article taken from Discover Magazine discusses some of the recent discoveries made by marine geologists about hydrothermal vents and their impact on undersea life. American scientists continue to use the submersible Alvin to observe changes deep below the ocean’s surface.

The midocean ridges play a key role in plate tectonics (movements in the earth’s crust), for it is from the inner troughs of these ridges that molten rock upwells from the earth’s mantle and spreads laterally on both sides, adding new material to the earth’s rigid crustal plates. The plates are moving apart, currently at the rate of 1 to 10 cm (0.39 to 3.9 in) a year and are being forced against adjacent plates. From the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the continents, which rest on the plates and which once were joined, have moved away from one another. In the Pacific Ocean, plates are also moving apart from the East Pacific Rise, but the bordering plates are overlapping them and forcing them under at the edges. At these places, along almost the entire rim of the Pacific, deep trenches are formed as crust is subducted and returned to the mantle. The Pacific trenches commonly reach depths of more than 7 km (4.3 mi); the deepest known point, in the Mariana Trench east of the Philippines, lies 11 km (6.9 mi) beneath the surface. Deep furrows or ditches embarked with its own soil and used for concealment and protection as trenches they encroach upon and seize its possession, as, to trenchant areas given to the advancement beyond any proper or former limits. These, nonetheless, are characterized by volcanic and seismic activity, indicative of the motions and stresses of the earth’s crustal plates

Seismology, basically, the science of earthquakes, involving observations of natural ground vibrations and artificially generated seismic signals, with many theoretical and practical ramifications. A branch of geophysical science, seismology has made vital contributions to understanding the structure of the earth’s interior.

A seismograph produced this record of a California earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale. The finger points to a heavy sweep on the seismogram created by the seismograph’s needle, or stylus, which is designed to respond to horizontal or vertical vibrations, but not both. The machine cannot record both kinds of waves because the different orientation of the wave types requires separate balance systems.

Different kinds of seismic waves are produced by the deformation of rock materials. A sudden slip along a fault, for example, produces both longitudinal push-pull (P). Transverse shear (S) waves, compressional trains of P waves, set up by an abrupt push (or pull) in the direction of wave propagation, cause surface formations to shake back and forth. Sudden shear displacement’s move through materials with slower S-wave velocity as vertical planes shake up and down.

When P and S waves encounter a boundary such as Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho), which lies between the crust and the mantle, they are partly reflected, refracted, and transmitted, breaking up into several other types of waves as they pass through the earth. Travel times depend on compressional and S-wave velocity changes as they pass through materials with different elastic properties. Crustal granitic rocks typically show P-wave velocities of 6 km/sec (3.6 mi/sec), whereas underlying mafic and ultramafic rocks (dark rocks containing increasing amounts of magnesium and iron) show velocities of 7 and 8 km/sec (4.2 and 4.8 mi/sec), respectively. In addition to P and S waves—body-wave types—two surface seismic waves are the Love waves, named for the British geophysicist Augustus E. H. Love, and Rayleigh waves, named after the British physicist John Rayleigh. These waves travel fast and are guided in their propagation by the earth’s surface.

Longitudinal, transverse, and surface seismic waves’ cause vibration’s sections at which points they reach the earth’s surfaces. Seismic instruments have been designed to detect these movements through electromagnetic or optical methods. The main instruments, called seismographs, were perfected in following developments by the German scientist Emil Wiechert as the horizontal seismograph, as launched set up functions about the turn of the century.

Some instruments, such as the electromagnetic pendulum seismometer, employ electromagnetic recording; that is, induced tension passes through an electric amplifier to a galvanometer. A photographic recorder scans a rapidly moving film, making sensitive time-movement registrations. Refraction and reflection waves are usually recorded on magnetic tapes, which are readily adapted to computer analysis. Strain seismographs, employing electronic measurement of the change in distance between two concrete pylons about 30 m’s (about 100 ft) apart, can detect compressional and extensional responses in the ground during seismic vibrations. The Benioff linear strain seismograph detects strains related to tectonic processes, and those associated with propagating seismic waves, and tidal yielding of the solid earth. Still, more recent inventions used in seismology include rotation seismographs; tiltmeters, wide-frequency-band, long-period seismographs; and ocean-bottom seismographs.

The phenomena involved in earthquakes were a frequency of magnitude of earthquake activity in a given area, seismological research concentrating on better understanding of the origin and propagation of earthquakes and the internal structure of the earth. According to the elastic rebound theory, strain that has built up over many years is suddenly released by fault movements as intense or caused earthshaking demolition, this in association to an unbalanced affectation was tended by the issue of seismic propositions and ramification.

Strong tremors can reduce structural edifices to rubble in seconds; geologists and engineers therefore consider a variety of quake-related factors in building design, because dams, nuclear power plants, waste disposal sites, roads, missile silos, buildings, and other structures that are constructed in seismogenic provinces must be able to withstand specified ground motion.

Seismic prospecting methods initiate artificial seismic waves at a given point by such means as explosives; at other points, using geophones and other apparatus, they determine the time of arrival of the energy that is refracted or reflected by discontinuities in rock formations. These techniques produce seismic refraction or seismic reflection profiles, depending on which of the two kinds of phenomena is being recorded. In seismic exploration for petroleum, advanced signal-generating techniques are combined with sophisticated magnetic-tape and digital-recording systems for enhanced data analysis.

Seismic reflection profiling, developed in the 1940s as a petroleum-exploration technique, has been used in recent years to conduct basic research. In an unprecedented program to decipher the structure of the hidden continental crust, COCORP (Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling) has used this technique to probe rock tens of kilometres deep, thereby resolving many of the enigmas of the origin and history of the crust of North America. Among COCORPs major discoveries was a nearly horizontal fault (see Fault) with more than 200 km (125 mi) of displacement. This structure, in the southern Appalachians of Georgia and South Carolina, represents the surface along with a great sheet of crystalline rock that was forced up over sedimentary rocks as a result of collision between North America and Africa during the Permian Period, of some 250 million years of evolutionary time.

Investigations conducted in the North Sea, north of Scotland, by a British group called BIRPS (British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate), have delineated even deeper structures, some extending below the crust into the earth’s mantle, almost 110 km (70 mi) deep.

Geology is yet anther important way of understanding the world around us, and it enables scientists to predict how our planet will behave. Scientists and others use geology to understand how geological events and the earth’s geological history had affected people, for example, in terms of living with natural disasters and using the earth’s natural resources. As the human population grows, ever more people live in areas exposed to natural geologic hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides. Some geologists use their knowledge to try to understand these natural hazards and forecast potential geologic events, such as volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. They study the history of these events as recorded in rocks and try to determine when the next eruption or earthquake will occur. They also study the geologic record of climate change in order to help predict future changes. As human population grows, geologists’ ability to locate fossil and mineral resources, such as oil, coal, iron, and aluminum, becomes more important. Finding and maintaining a clean water supply, and disposing safely of waste products, requires understanding the earth’s systems through which they cycle.

How has the Earth remained hospitable for life for billions of years? This question remains one of the most important in 21st-century science because the answer could help scientists understand the long-term consequences of human activities on the environment. In this Point/Counterpoint Sidebar, scientist James Lovelock presents his case for Gaia theory. The theory maintains that Earth is an interrelated system in which living things, together with Earth’s surface and atmosphere, evolve as a single entity. Further, Lovelock argues that this system functions to make the planet habitable for life. Earth scientist James W. Kirchner agrees that life on Earth is part of an interrelated system, but he argues that the factors regulating the environment are more complex than can be accounted for by Gaia theory.

The field of geology includes subfields that examine all of the earth’s systems, from the deep interior core to the outer atmosphere, including the hydrosphere (the waters of the earth) and the biosphere (the living component of earth). Generally, these subfields are divided into the two major categories of physical and historical geology. Geologists also examine events such as asteroid impacts, mass extinctions, and ice ages. Geologic history shows that the processes that shaped the earth are still acting on it and that change is normal.

Many other scientific fields overlap extensively with geology, including oceanography, atmospheric sciences, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and microbiology. Geology is also used to study other planets and moons in our solar system. Specialized fields of extraterrestrial geology include lunar geology, the study of earth’s moon, and astrogeology, the study of other rocky bodies in the solar system and beyond. Scientific teams currently studying Mars and the moons of Jupiter include geologists.

Geologists use three main principles, or concepts, to study earth and its history. The first concept, called plate tectonics, is the theory that the earth’s surface is made up of separate, rigid plates moving and floating over another less rigid layer of rock. These plates are made up of the continents and the ocean floor as well as the rigid rock beneath them. The second guiding concept is that many processes that occur on the earth may be described in terms of recycling: the reuse of the same materials in cycles, or repeating series of events. The third principle is called Uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism states that the physical and chemical processes that have acted throughout geologic time are the same processes that are observable today. Because of this, geologists can use their knowledge of what is happening on the earth right now to help explain what happened in the past.

Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of geology. It was established in the 1960s, making it one of the most recent revolutions in all of science. The theory describes the lithosphere (the outer rocky layer of the earth) as a collection of rigid plates that move sideways above a less rigid layer called the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is made up of rock that is under tremendous pressure, which softens it and allows it to move and circulate slowly. Plate tectonics is useful in the field of geology because it can be used to explain a variety of geologic processes, including volcanic activity, earthquakes, and mountain building.

A second guiding principle of geology is the principle of recycling materials, or using materials many times. All processes in geology can be viewed as a series of mostly closed cycles, meaning the materials of the cycles are found on earth, and very few materials from outside our world are introduced into these cycles. The energy that drives geologic recycling comes from two sources: the sun and the earth’s interior. Two examples of geologic cycles are the rock cycle and the water cycle.

The rock cycle begins as rocks are uplifted, or pushed up by tectonic forces. The exposed rocks erode as a result of surface processes, such as rain and wind. The eroded particles, or sediment, travel by wind or moving water until they are deposited, and the deposited material settles into layers. Additional sediment may bury these layers until heat and pressure metamorphose, or change, the underlying sediment to metamorphic rock. Additional sediment may compact the layers into sedimentary rocks. Rocks can also be subducted (sunk down into the lower layers of the earth) by plate tectonic processes. Buried and subducted rocks may also melt and recrystallize into igneous rocks (see Magma). Metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks may then be uplifted, starting the rock cycle again.

The water cycle is also known as the hydrologic cycle. Phases of the water cycle are storage, evaporation, precipitation, and runoff. Water is stored in glaciers, polar ice caps, lakes, rivers, oceans, and in the ground. Heat from the sun evaporates water from the earth’s surface and the water then condenses to form clouds. It falls back to the earth as precipitation, either as rain or snow, then runs into the oceans through rivers or underground and begins the cycle again.

Fossils preserved in rock strata provide scientists with clues to evolutionary history. This stratigraphic column is based on paleontological evidence and shows the order in which organisms appeared in the fossil-rich Paleozoic era. Each layer represents a particular time and shows a representative organism that flourished during that time. Although fossils are rarely found in the idealized and localized fashion, often sorted and shaped in some sorted chronological order. Generally, the oldest fossils appear in lower layers and the most recent fossils at the top, so that placement may be used as an aid in dating the specimens.

Stratigraphy is the study of the history of the earth’s crust, particularly fashioning as a stratified (layered) rock. Stratigraphy is concerned with determining age relationships of rocks as well as their distribution in space and time. Rocks may be studied in an outcrop but commonly are studied from drilled cores (samples that has been collected by drilling into the earth). Most of the earth’s surfaces are covered with sediment or layered rocks that record much of the geologic history is what make stratigraphy important. It is also important for many economic and environmental reasons. A large portion of the world’s fossil fuel, such as oil, gas, and coal, is found in stratified rocks, and much of the world’s groundwater is stored in sediments or stratified rocks.

Stratigraphy may be subdivided into a number of fields. Biostratigraphy is the use of fossils for age determination and correlation of rock layers; magnetostratigraphy is the use of magnetic properties in rocks for similar purposes. Newer fields in stratigraphy include Chemostratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphy. Chemostratigraphy uses chemical properties of strata for age determination and correlation as well as for recognizing events in the geologic record. For example, oxygen isotopes (forms of oxygen that contains a different number of neutrons in the nuclei of atoms) may provide evidence of an ancient paleoclimate. Carbon isotopes may identify biologic events, such as extinctions. Rare chemical elements may be concentrated in a marker layer (a distinctive layer that can be correlated over long distances). Seismic stratigraphy is the subsurface study of stratified rocks using seismic reflection techniques. This field has revolutionized stratigraphic studies since the late 1970s and is now used extensively both on land and offshore. Seismic stratigraphy is used for economic reasons, such as finding oil, and for scientific studies. An offshoot of seismic stratigraphy is sequence stratigraphy, which helps geologists reconstruct sea level changes throughout time. The rocks used in sequence stratigraphy are bounded by, or surrounded by, surfaces of erosion called unconformities.

The theory of plate motions explains how mountains are built by forces that shape the earth’s crust. Large pieces of crust on the surface of the earth move laterally. This creates huge compressional forces that may bend or even break rocks. These sedimentary rock layers show an anticlinal fold, in which the layers bend downward from the crest.

Sedimentology, or sedimentary geology, is the study of sediments and sedimentary rocks and the determination of their origin. Sedimentary geology is process oriented, focussing on how sediment was deposited.

The determination of the age of rocks is called geochronology. The fundamental tool of geochronology is radiometric dating (the use of radioactive decay processes as recorded in earth materials to determine the numerical age of rocks). Most radiometric dating techniques are useful in dating igneous and metamorphic rocks and minerals. One type of non-radiometric dating, called strontium isotope dating, measures different forms of the element strontium in sedimentary materials to date the layers. Geologists also have ways to determine the ages of surfaces that have been exposed to the sun and to cosmic rays. These methods are called thermoluminescence dating and cosmogenic isotope dating. Geologists can count the annual layers recorded in tree rings, ice cores, and certain sediments such as those found in lakes, for very precise geochronology. However, this method is only useful for time periods up to tens of thousands of years. Some geoscientists are now using Milankovitch cycles (the record of change in materials caused by variations in the earth’s orbit) as a geologic time clock.

Paleontologists often spend hours to uncover a single bone, painstakingly removing the dirt and rock that surround it. Here, a paleontologist reattaches a rib bone of some seismosaurus before excavation continues.

Paleontology is the study of ancient or fossil life. Paleobiology is the application of biological principles to the study of ancient life on earth. These fields are fundamental to stratigraphy and are used to reconstruct the history of organisms’ evolution and extinction throughout earth history. The oldest fossils are older than 3 billion years, although fossils do not become abundant and diverse until about 500 million years ago. Different fossil organisms are characteristic of different times, and at certain times in earth history, there have been mass extinctions (times when a large proportion of life disappears). Other organisms then replace the extinct forms. The study of fossils is one of the most useful tools for reconstructing geologic history because plants and animals are sensitive to environmental changes, such as changes in the climate, temperature, food sources, or sunlight. Their fossil record reflects the world that existed while they were alive. Paleontology is commonly divided into vertebrate paleontology (the study of organisms with backbones), invertebrate paleontology (the study of organisms without backbones), and micropaleontology (the study of microscopic fossil organisms). Many other subfields of paleontology exist as well. Palaeobotanists study fossil plants, and palynologists study fossil pollen. Ichnology is the study of trace fossils—tracks, trails, and burrows left by organisms. Paleoecology attempts to reconstruct the behaviour and relationships of ancient organisms.

Paleoceanography (the study of ancient oceans) and paleoclimatology - is the study of ancient climates that have two subfields that use fossils to help reconstruct ancient conditions. Scientists also study stable isotopes, or different forms that constitute or compose of the particular model or may be adjusted into further formalization. Detailed paleoclimatic studies have used cores from ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland to reconstruct the last 200,000 years. Ocean cores, tree rings, and lake sediments are also useful in paleoclimatology. Geologists hope that by understanding past oceanographic and climatic changes, they can help predict future change.

Geology originated as a modern scientific discipline in the 18th century, but humans have been collecting systematic knowledge of the earth since at least the Stone Age. In the Stone Age, people made stone tools and pottery, and had to know which materials were useful for these tasks. All and all, manifesting in or through intermittent intervals indicating alternatives between a specific thing and another between things attained of the 4th and 1st centuries, when ancient Greek and Roman philosophers began the task of keeping written records of or relating to geological information, as derived of specific events or situations that have been gathered or received by the collective acts or data of statistical conditions. Stored or transmitted data, measuring the outcome is made abundantly, especially by consumption, and manipulation of its owing information, otherwise the scientific knowledge that is concerned with the gathering and classification or retrievable recorded knowledge.

Throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods, people began to study mineralogy and made detailed geologic observations. The 18th and 19th centuries brought widespread study of geology, including the publication of Charles Lyell’s book Principles of Geology, and the National Surveys (expeditions that focussed on the collection of geologic and other scientific data). The concept of geologic time was further developed during the 19th century as well. At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the fields of geology expanded even more. During this time, geologists developed the theories of continental drift, plate tectonics, and seafloor spreading.

In western science, the first written records of geological thought come from the Greeks and Romans. In the 1st century Bc, for example, Roman architect Vitruvius wrote about building materials such as pozzolana, a volcanic ash that Romans used to make hydraulic cement, which hardened under water. Historian Pliny the Elder, in his Encyclopaedia, Naturalis Historia (Natural History), summarized Greek and Roman ideas about nature.

Science as an organized system of thought can trace its roots back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In the 4th century Bc Aristotle developed a philosophical system that explained nature in a methodical way. His system proposed that the world be made of four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), with four qualities (cold, hot, dry, and wet), and four causes (material, efficient, formal, and final). According to Aristotle, particular elements could interchange of one another, and the earth was filled with water and air, which could rush about and cause earthquakes. Other philosophers of this era who wrote about earth materials and processes include Aristotle’s student Theophrastus, the author of an essay on stones.

Chinese civilizations developed ideas about the earth and technologies for studying the earth. For example, in 132 AD the Chinese philosopher Chang Heng invented the earliest known seismoscope. This instrument had a circle of dragons holding balls in their mouths, surrounded by frogs at the base. The balls would drop into the mouths of frogs when an earthquake occurred. Depending on which ball was dropped, the direction of the earthquake could be determined.

The nature and origin of minerals and rocks interested many ancient writers, and mineralogy may have been the first systematic study to arise in the earth sciences. The Saxon chemist Georgius Agricola wrote De Re Metallica (On the Subject of Metals) following early work by both the Islam natural philosopher Avicennia and the German naturalist Albertus Magnus. De Re Metallica was published in 1556, a year after Agricola’s death. Many consider this book to be the foundation of mineralogy, mining, and metallurgy.

Medieval thought was strongly influenced by Aristotle, but science began to move in a new direction during the Renaissance Period. In the early 1600s, English natural philosopher Francis Bacon reasoned that detailed observations were required to make conclusions. Around this time French philosopher René Descartes argued for a new, rational system of thought. Most natural philosophers, or scientists, in this era studied many aspects of philosophy and science, not focussing on geology alone.

Studies of the earth during this time can be placed in three categories. The first, cosmology, proposed a structure of the earth and its place in the universe. As an example of cosmology, in the early 1500s Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the earth was a satellite in a sun-centred system. The second category, cosmogony, concerned the origin of the earth and the solar system. The Saxon mathematician and natural philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von Leibniz, in a cosmogony, described an initially molten earth, with a crust that cooled and broke up, forming mountains and valleys. The third category of study was in the tradition of Francis Bacon, and it involved detailed observations of rocks and related features, of which the English scientist Robert Hooke and Danish anatomist and geologist Nicolaus Steno (Niels Stenson) both made observations in the 17th century of fossils and studied other geologic topics as well. In the 17th century, mineralogy also continued as an important field, both in theory and in practical matters, for example, with the work of German chemist J. Becher and Irish natural philosopher Robert Boyle.

At the time Scottish geologist Charles Lyell wrote Principles of Geology in 1830, geology was a new and popular science, encompassing elements of philosophy and theology, biblical interpretation, cosmology, mineral surveying, and natural history collecting. Lyell’s avowed aim was to take the theology out of geology. Lyell examined difficulties with the prevailing theory of catastrophism, which explained observed phenomenon in terms of sudden events, such as Noah’s flood depicted in the Bible. Instead, Lyell promoted the theory of Uniformitarianism—-the premise that geologic processes have acted gradually and similarly throughout time—which became his major contribution to geology.

By the 18th century, geological studies began to emerge as a separate field. Italian mining geologist Giovanni Arduino, Prussian chemist and mineralogist, Johan Gottlob Lehmann, and Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman all developed ways to categorize the layers of rocks on the earth’s surface. The German physician Georg Fuchsel defined the concept of a geologic formation—a distinctly mappable body of rocks. The German scientist Abraham Gottlob Werner called himself a geognost (a Knower of the earth). He used these categorizations to develop a theory that the earth’s layers had hastened from a universal ocean. Werner’s system was very influential, and his followers were known as Neptunists. This system suggested that even basalt and granite were caused from water. Others, such as English naturalists James Hutton and John Playfair, argued that basalt and granite were igneous rocks, solidified from molten materials, such as lava and magma. The group that held this belief became known as Volcanists or Plutonists.

By the early 19th century, many people were studying geologic topics, although the term geologist was not yet in general use. Scientists, such as Scottish geologist Charles Lyell, and French geologist Louis Constant Prevost, wanted to establish geology as a rational scientific field, like chemistry or physics. They found this goal to be a challenge in two important ways. First, some people wanted to reconcile geology with the account of creation in Genesis (a book of the Old Testament) or wanted to use supernatural explanations for geologic features. Second, others, such as French anatomist Georges Cuvier, used catastrophes to explain much of earth’s history. In response to these two challenges, Lyell proposed a strict form of Uniformitarianism, which assumed not only uniformity of laws but also uniformity of rates and conditions. However, assuming the uniformity of rates and conditions was incorrect, because not all processes have had constant rates throughout time. Also, the earth has had different conditions throughout geologic time—that is, the earth as a rocky planet has evolved. Although Lyell was incorrect to assume uniformity of rates and conditions, his well reasoned and very influential three-volume books, Principles of Geology, were published and revised 11 times between 1830 and 1872. Many geologists consider this book to mark the beginning of geology as a professional field.

Although parts of their theories were rejected, Abraham Gottlob Werner and Georges Cuvier made important contributions to stratigraphy and historical geology. Werner’s students and followers went about attempting to correlate rocks according to his system, developing the field of physical stratigraphy. Cuvier and his co-worker Alexandre Brongniart, along with English surveyor William Smith, established the principles of Biostratigraphy, using fossils to establish the age of rocks and to correlate them from place to place. Later, with these established stratigraphies, geologists used fossils to reconstruct the history of life’s evolution on earth.

In the late 18th and the 19th centuries, naturalists on voyages of exploration began to make important contributions to geology. Reports by German natural historian Alexander von Humboldt about his travels influenced the worlds of science and art. The English naturalist Charles Darwin, well known for his theory of evolution, began his scientific career on the voyage of the HMS Beagle, where he made many geological observations. American geologist James Dwight Dana sailed with the Wilkes Expedition throughout the Pacific and made observations of volcanic islands and coral reefs. In the 1870s, the HMS Challenger was launched as the first expedition specifically to study the oceans.

Expeditions on land also led to new geologic observations. Countries and states established geological surveys in order to collect information and map geologic resources. For example, in the 1860s and 1870s, John Wesley Powell, and George Wheeler conducted four surveys of the American West. These surveys led to several new concepts in geology. An American geologist described the Basin and Range Province and first recognized laccoliths (round igneous rock intrusions). Reports also came back of spectacular sites such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon, which would later become national parks. Competition between these survey parties finally led the Congress of the United States to establish the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879.

Determining the age of the earth became a renewed scholarly effort in the 19th century. Unlike the Greeks and most eastern philosophers, who considered the earth to be an eternal, western philosopher believed that the planet had a definite beginning and must have a measurable age. One way to measure this age was to count generations in the Bible, as the Anglican Archbishop James Ussher did in the 1600s, coming up with a total of about 6000 years. In the 1700s, French natural scientist George Louis Leclerc (Comte de Buffon) tried to measure the age of the earth. He calculated the time it would take the planet to cool based on the cooling rates of iron balls and came up with 75,000 years. During the 18th century, James Hutton argued that processes such as erosion, occurring at observed rates, indicated an earth that was immeasurably old. By the early 19th century, geologists commonly spoke in terms of ‘millions of years.’ Even religious professors, such as English clergyman and geologist William Buckland, referred to this length of time.

Other means for calculating the age of the earth used in the 19th century included determining how long it would take the sea to become salty and calculating how long it would take for thick piles of sediment to accumulate. Irish physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) returned to Buffon’s method and calculated that the earth was no more than 100 million years old. Meanwhile, Charles Darwin and others