alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Cam Bryan’s GeojottingsA picture is worth a thous<strong>and</strong> wordsHow true! Except when your audience does not speakEnglish as their first language. I recall talking about thegeology <strong>of</strong> an area to a group <strong>of</strong> Chinese geologists <strong>and</strong>when the first slide came up I said, “A picture is worth a thous<strong>and</strong>words.” That stopped the presentation for five minutes while theydiscussed what this phrase meant. I could only continue after acolleague had the wit to say ‘Confucius says, “a picture is wortha thous<strong>and</strong> words”’, whereupon the Chinese geologists all grinned<strong>and</strong> nodded to one another — by which time I had forgotten whatthous<strong>and</strong> words had been saved by the picture.I was brought up to think that the camera cannot lie. One <strong>of</strong>the earliest uses <strong>of</strong> this phrase can be found in the Ohio newspaperThe S<strong>and</strong>usky Register, February 1895: “He looked up fromthe pro<strong>of</strong> at me <strong>and</strong> said: ‘Good Lord! Do I look like that?’ ‘Thecamera doesn’t lie about such things,’ I replied.” Nowadays welook at all photographs <strong>and</strong> wonder how many lies they aretelling us: what has been left out, added, changed. Photoshophas a lot to answer for! In Gilbert <strong>and</strong> Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore,Buttercup sings: “Things are seldom what they seem/ Skim milkmasquerades as cream ...” So we must beware — perhapsthe camera is lying, but on the other h<strong>and</strong>, perhaps we are notlooking closely enough.One example is the classic Hutton’s Unconformity on the Isle<strong>of</strong> Arran in Scotl<strong>and</strong>. For many years the significance <strong>of</strong> a phreaticcalcrete hardpan between Lower Carboniferous sedimentaryrocks <strong>and</strong> steeply dipping Dalradian (Neoproterozoic–Cambrian)metamorphic rocks was not recognised. More recently the classiclocality has been reinterpreted as a double unconformity withthe hardpan being developed in Late Devonian times above theunconformity <strong>and</strong> disconformably overlain by the LowerCarboniferous rocks.A map is worth many thous<strong>and</strong> words. Whenever I look at amap I am reminded <strong>of</strong> the Earl <strong>of</strong> Warwick’s remarks about booksin Shaw’s play St Joan: “Now this is what I call workmanship.There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with<strong>well</strong>-placed columns <strong>of</strong> rich black writing in beautiful borders,<strong>and</strong> illuminated pictures cunningly inset. But nowadays, instead<strong>of</strong> looking at books, people read them.” Indeed, while a ‘bonny’map can be a joy to look at, it must also be read to extract allthe information recorded on it. But this also applies to photographs<strong>and</strong> diagrams. A picture ‘may be worth a thous<strong>and</strong> words’but it still has to be read, not just looked at.Maps, any map, but particularly geological maps, are surelywhere art <strong>and</strong> science come together: here we have the sciencein the units distinguished <strong>and</strong> the art in depicting them in amanner that enables the reader to easily underst<strong>and</strong> what thegeologist is trying to get across.In a recent issue <strong>of</strong> TAG (TAG 162, March 2012, p. 30–32)David Branagan asked “<strong>Geological</strong> maps — have they had theirday?” I look forward to reading Letters to the Editor on this topic.For my part I am sure they will always be with us. As Davidemphasised, a geological map is a depiction <strong>of</strong> the geology asunderstood at the time it was prepared; it will change as more isknown about the geology, with new observations, new ideas <strong>and</strong>new interpretations. The digitising <strong>of</strong> geological maps — as manyState geological surveys are doing — results in the ability to getmaps <strong>of</strong> any area <strong>of</strong> interest. Avoiding the irritation <strong>of</strong> having tojoin maps together (how many times has the area we wanted tolook at been on the boundary <strong>of</strong> two or more maps sheets?) isbut one advantage <strong>of</strong> the computer age in which we live. Anotheris the ability to zoom in on any area in a map. The iGeology app(reviewed in Tech Talk, this issue) illustrates these features withgeological maps <strong>of</strong> the UK.While geological maps <strong>of</strong>ten show lots <strong>of</strong> detail, there can beproblems with figures (line drawings <strong>and</strong> diagrams) that canshow too much detail. Quite <strong>of</strong>ten we crowd line drawings in aneffort to show everything! We can underst<strong>and</strong> the figure, but thereader <strong>of</strong>ten cannot see the wood for the trees. This is particularlytrue with diagrams prepared for slides to accompany a talk. Withthe diagram on the screen only for a short time it is very hardfor the audience to take in everything at a glance. I recall aninternational conference where one member <strong>of</strong> the audience hadbrought a pair <strong>of</strong> binoculars to view some <strong>of</strong> the slides, whichwere so cluttered with detail <strong>and</strong> small printing that they werevirtually useless. PowerPoint visuals are a little better althoughthe tendency to add detail by sliding items in from left <strong>and</strong> rightas the presentation progresses can end up with a very confusingimage. The KISS principle is important for all such visual aids.There is a bit more latitude in diagrams prepared forpublication as the reader can pore over them at leisure <strong>and</strong> comeback to them when in doubt. Nevertheless, the diagram thatmeans everything to the author may not be so clear to the reader.A picture may indeed be worth a thous<strong>and</strong> words, but unlessthe details <strong>of</strong> the image are chosen as carefully as you wouldchoose a thous<strong>and</strong> words, it may be better to show (<strong>and</strong> say)nothing!TAG September 2012| 43