alive and well - Geological Society of Australia

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Cam Bryan’s GeojottingsA picture is worth a thousand wordsHow true! Except when your audience does not speakEnglish as their first language. I recall talking about thegeology of an area to a group of Chinese geologists andwhen the first slide came up I said, “A picture is worth a thousandwords.” 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 thousand words”’, whereupon the Chinese geologists all grinnedand nodded to one another — by which time I had forgotten whatthousand words had been saved by the picture.I was brought up to think that the camera cannot lie. One ofthe earliest uses of this phrase can be found in the Ohio newspaperThe Sandusky Register, February 1895: “He looked up fromthe proof at me and said: ‘Good Lord! Do I look like that?’ ‘Thecamera doesn’t lie about such things,’ I replied.” Nowadays welook at all photographs and wonder how many lies they aretelling us: what has been left out, added, changed. Photoshophas a lot to answer for! In Gilbert and 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 hand, perhaps we are notlooking closely enough.One example is the classic Hutton’s Unconformity on the Isleof Arran in Scotland. For many years the significance of a phreaticcalcrete hardpan between Lower Carboniferous sedimentaryrocks and 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 and disconformably overlain by the LowerCarboniferous rocks.A map is worth many thousand words. Whenever I look at amap I am reminded of the Earl of 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, withwell-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders,and illuminated pictures cunningly inset. But nowadays, insteadof 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 photographsand diagrams. A picture ‘may be worth a thousand words’but it still has to be read, not just looked at.Maps, any map, but particularly geological maps, are surelywhere art and science come together: here we have the sciencein the units distinguished and the art in depicting them in amanner that enables the reader to easily understand what thegeologist is trying to get across.In a recent issue of TAG (TAG 162, March 2012, p. 30–32)David Branagan asked “Geological 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 of the geology asunderstood at the time it was prepared; it will change as more isknown about the geology, with new observations, new ideas andnew interpretations. The digitising of geological maps — as manyState geological surveys are doing — results in the ability to getmaps of any area of interest. Avoiding the irritation of having tojoin maps together (how many times has the area we wanted tolook at been on the boundary of two or more maps sheets?) isbut one advantage of 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 of the UK.While geological maps often show lots of detail, there can beproblems with figures (line drawings and diagrams) that canshow too much detail. Quite often we crowd line drawings in aneffort to show everything! We can understand the figure, but thereader often 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 of the audience hadbrought a pair of binoculars to view some of the slides, whichwere so cluttered with detail and small printing that they werevirtually useless. PowerPoint visuals are a little better althoughthe tendency to add detail by sliding items in from left and 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 and 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 thousand words, but unlessthe details of the image are chosen as carefully as you wouldchoose a thousand words, it may be better to show (and say)nothing!TAG September 2012| 43
Tech TalkiGeology – British Geological SurveyAvailable free from the iTunes App Store, theiGeology application is described as ‘Interactivegeological mapping of the UK’. It is designed forboth the iPhone and iPad.Essentially, the app will produce a geological mapfor anywhere in the UK. You can type in alocation and the map will be drawn on thescreen. You can then zoom in or out in the usualway. Zooming in gives you very detailed largescalemaps with contour lines. Clicking on aparticular unit on the map produces a windowtelling you what formation it is. If you wantfurther details you are sent to the BritishGeological Survey (BGS) Lexicon of named rockunits. The details shown in the lexicon varydepending on the scale of the map — zoomingout merely gives the age. When zooming in youare given a lot of information including typesection of the rock unit and a number ofreferences. One interesting feature is that youcan select William Smith’s map of 1815 as anoverlay. When you look at small-scale maps aslider appears on the screen so you can see theWilliam Smith map as an overlay on the moremodern map. It is fascinating to see howaccurately Smith portrayed the geology ofthe UK.As well as the maps, there is a news button thatleads you to a list of the latest news from theBGS website. Among the items mentioned when Iwrote this review were ‘Quantitative groundwatermaps for Africa’, ‘Fracking and earthquakehazard’ and ‘Heat energy beneath Glasgow’. Thenews items also include a diary section offorthcoming events in the UK with which BGS isassociated.While this app will be mainly of interest topeople living in the UK, I was keen to review itfor TAG in the hope that our own geologicalsurveys might take up the challenge of producingsimilar apps for each State and Territory, andnationally.TONY COCKBAINgeoedit@arach.net.auAJES QUIZAJES Publisher, Taylor and Francis,supported the AJES quiz at the IGC withan iPad prize for the quiz.Want to earnadditional income?1 What will be the themecolour for AJES in 2013?(use the real colour names)a Magenta, b Turquoisec Orange, d Royal blue2 2013 is a significant milestonefor the AJES and itsprevious titles – whatanniversary is it?3 Who was awarded theWR Browne Medal for theGSA in 2010?Anita Andrew andAJES IPad prizewinner Mel Jones.You can testyour AJESknowledge(Answers onPage 46.)4 How many individuals havebeen editor since the start ofJournal of the GeologicalSociety of Australia?a 12, b 13, c 14, d 155 What is currently the mostcited paper in AJES?6 What is currently the mostread paper in AJES?7 When did the AustralianJournal of Earth Sciencesbegin publishing 8 issuesper year?8 What is the five yearimpact factor for AJES?The GSA is looking for members ineach state to sell advertising space inTAG and Geoz.Members will receive a percentage ofeach advertisement sold in TAG.Contact Sue at sue@gsa.org.au formore information.Peter Day, Fellow of the Geological Society ofSouth Africa, is seeking contact with ChrisSmith, whom he knew in South Africa in1971, on the Free State Gold Mines, in thetown of Welkom. Chris moved to Australiaand worked on diamond exploration, basedin Perth until he relocated to the Melbourneoffice of CRA in about the 1990s. If youknow Chris Smith’s contact details, couldyou please ask him to contact Peter Day?Peter Day’s email address is:ptrday7@gmail.com44 |TAG September 2012
Page 1 and 2: The Geological Societyof Australia
Page 3 and 4: From the PresidentHello — let me
Page 5 and 6: Society UpdateBusiness ReportThe Se
Page 7: Society UpdateTowards a GSA Climate
Page 10: The first is that I take pride in m
Page 13 and 14: Society UpdateFrom the AJES Hon Edi
Page 15 and 16: of the early exploration drilling i
Page 17 and 18: Society UpdateEducation&OutreachIam
Page 19 and 20: Society UpdateHeritage MattersThe p
Page 21 and 22: Newsfrom the DivisionsJoint GSA Vic
Page 23 and 24: Newsfrom the Specialist GroupsSpeci
Page 25 and 26: NRG updateThe news is all good for
Page 27 and 28: Dana in AustraliaIn November 1839 t
Page 29 and 30: Feature 2The Square Kilometre Array
Page 31 and 32: Three dishes of ASKAP at the Murchi
Page 33 and 34: (see http://anz2012.com.au/), which
Page 35 and 36: Remote sensed data is becoming incr
Page 37 and 38: AwardsGSA MEDALSThe Geological Soci
Page 39 and 40: As well as speaking at the 34th Int
Page 41 and 42: Principal sponsor Vale exhibited a
Page 43: Vale Patrick J Coleman1926-2011Patr
Page 47 and 48: Calendar201215-17 OctoberMines and
Page 49: The Australian GeologistBackground

alive and well - Geological Society of Australia

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