De La Beche's Awful Changes

Caricatures are exaggerated sketches of a person or human behavior. However, such cartoons appear only at a superficial glance as simple drawings, as they contain deep and complex insight in our culture and society. This consideration is also true for scientific caricatures, dealing with subjects or persons involved in science and research.

For a long time, the caricature by British geologist Henry De la Beche (1796-1855) "Awful Changes. Man Found only in a Fossil State - Reappearance of Ichthyosauri" was considered a caricature of fellow geologist and paleontologist William Buckland (1784-1856). The sketch was widely publicized in Francis Buckland's (1826 - 1880, son of William) book-series "Curiosities of Natural History" (1857-72), including a biography of his father.

"A lecture, - 'You will at once perceive,' continued Professor Ichthyosaurus, 'that the skull before us belonged to some of the lower order of animals; the teeth are very insignificant, the power of the jaws trifling, and altogether it seems wonderful how the creature could have procured food."

However, geologist and earth-science historian Martin J.S. Rudwick realized the connection of this scene with some drawings produced before 1831 by De la Beche in his diary, where he ridiculed the approach adopted by Charles Lyell. In the unpublished drawings, a lawyer (the reference to Lyell, who actually was a lawyer, seems obvious) is carrying a bag with "his" theory around the world, or he is shown wearing particular glasses (like Professor Ichthyosaurus), and offering his "view" and the resulting "theoretical approach" to a geologist carrying a hammer and collecting bag, a reference to the geologist actually working in the field. De la Beche never completed the sketch, because he abandoned this design in order to try out others, including the now famous "Awful Changes."

De la Beche believed that Lyell injected too much of his lawyer profession into the emerging field of geology, focusing too much on theories than real research. "Awful Changes" does lampoon one crucial part of Lyell's uniformitarianism - theory, the concept of time repeating itself, as prehistoric animals are behaving much like Victorian scholars. In a second cartoon De la Beche is mocking another idea of Lyell, the effects of present causes operating at the same slow magnitude throughout geologic history. The cartoon shows a vast U-shaped valley, in the foreground a nurse with a child, presumably the son of William Buckland, can be spotted. The child is peeing into the huge valley and in the caption De la Beche has his nurse exclaiming, "Bless the baby! What a valley he have made!!!"

The caricature was inspired by the ongoing debate of river-erosion at the time. The glacial theory wasn't still accepted to explain the formation of large valleys and the shape of many valleys in Europe was hard to explain only based on, as proposed by Lyell's uniformitarianism, slow fluvial erosion.

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs's Mineralogical Legacy

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs, lithography by Joseph Kriehuber (1832).

Talc – Gypsum – Calcite – Fluorite – Apatite – Feldspar – Quartz – Topaz – Corundum – Diamond - the Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is familiar to rock-hounds and earth-science students alike. The ten-point hardness scales lists common minerals in the order of the relative hardness, with talc being the softest and diamond the hardest mineral found in nature.

The Mohs scale is named after German mineralogist Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs, born January 29, 1773, in the town of Genrode, at the time part of the principality of Anhalt-Bernburgs. After attending school, he worked in his father's business as a merchant, but in 1796 he went to the University of Halle to study there mathematics, physics and chemistry. He continued his studies at the famous Royal Saxon Mining Academy of Freiberg, where he studied under the renowned geognost Abraham Gottlob Werner. Werner published in 1787 a »Kurze Klassifikation und Beschreibung der verschiedenen Gesteinsarten« - Short classification and description of the various rock types - as a guide for identifying and classifying rocks and minerals. Unlike other mineralogists at the time, mostly using chemical analysis, Werner uses easily recognizable features, like color or crystal shape, to classify minerals and rocks. Mohs is impressed by Werner's approach. In 1804, he publishes himself a “student-friendly” classification chart for minerals, based on his experience in the mining district of the Harz mountain and as a consultant for wealthy mineral-collectors. In his book »Über die oryktognostische Classification nebst Versuchen eines auf blossen äußeren Kennzeichen gegründeten Mineraliensystems« - The genetic-geological classification and an attempt to introduce a mineral-system based on outer properties - Mohs combines various physical properties of minerals, like color, hardness and density, with six classes of crystal shapes, to identify 183 different minerals.

Mohs scale of hardness sets from the 19th century, Mohs's geological hammer, and a letter to his wife.

Mohs continues to travel, collect material and improve his mineral classification system. He visits Štiavnica in Slovakia, famous for the local Mining Academy, and the mining district of Bleiberg in Carinthia. He visits and studies mines in Hungary, Transylvania and Scotland, and quarries in Germany and Austria.

In 1812, now a professor in the Austrian city of Graz, he creates a preliminary hardness scale and continues to publish guidelines for mineral identification. In 1818 he returns to Freiberg and between 1822-1824 Mohs publishes his final version of the hardness scale in the book »Grund-Riß der Mineralogie« - Essentials of Mineralogy.

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample to scratch another sample visibly. The samples of matter used by Mohs are readily available to a student or miner. Minerals with a hardness of 1 or 2 can be scratched with a fingernail. A coin will scratch minerals with a hardness of 3, the blade of a pocket knife scratches minerals of the hardness 5 and 6. Glass will scratch minerals with a hardness of 7, and harder minerals scratch each other.

Calcite crystals, example of a common mineral with hardness 3.

Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon - A Women Geoscientist In The Dolomites

The Scottish Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon (1864-1939), or May as she was called, was the oldest daughter of a pastoral family composed of eight children, five boys and three girls. Maria Ogilvie entered Merchant Company Schools' Ladies College in Edinburgh at the age of nine. Already in these early years, she showed a profound interest in nature. During holidays she enjoyed exploring the landscape of the Scottish Highlands accompanied by her elder brother, the later geologist Sir Francis Ogilvie. Maria Ogilvie aspired to become a musician and at age of eighteen she went to London to study music, becoming a promising pianist, but already in the first year her interests into the natural world prevailed and she went for a career in science.

Studying both in London and Edinburgh she obtained her degree in geology, botany and zoology in 1890. Maria Ogilvie hoped to follow-up their studies in Germany, but in 1891, despite a recommendation even by the famous geologist Baron Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (pioneer geologist of the Dolomites), she was rejected at the University of Berlin - women were still not permitted to enroll for higher education in England and Germany. She went to Munich, where she was welcomed friendly by eminent paleontologist Karl von Zittel (1839-1904) and zoologist Richard von Hertwig (1850-1927). However, she was not allowed to join male students. Sitting in a separate room she listened through the half-open doors to the lectures.

In July 1891, Richthofen invited her to join a five-week trip to the nearby Dolomites Mountains, visiting the Gröden-Valley. From the very first day, Maria Ogilvie was immensely impressed by the landscape and learned rock climbing to better explore the mountains. Richthofen introduced Maria Ogilvie to alpine geology and they visited the pastures of Stuores in the Gader-Valley. At the time Maria Ogilvie was studying modern corals to become a zoologist, but Richthofen, showing her the beautifully preserved fossil corals found here in the Triassic sediments, convinced her to become rather a geologist.

The pastures of Stuores in the Gader-Valley with outcrops of Triassic marl.

Richthofen was over sixty years old and therefore he couldn't provide much support in the field. Maria Ogilvie remembers later the challenge and danger of field work, sometimes accompanied by a local rock climber named Josef Kostner:

"When I began my fieldwork, I was not under the eye of any Professor. There was no one to include me in his official round of visits among the young geologists in the field, and to subject my maps and sections to tough criticism on the ground. The lack of supervision at the outset was undoubtedly a serious handicap."

For two summers she hiked, climbed and studied various areas in the Dolomites and instructed local collectors to carefully record and describe their fossil sites. In 1893 she published "Contributions to the geology of the Wengen and St. Cassian Strata in southern Tyrol". In the paper she included detailed figures of the landscape, geological maps and stratigraphic charts of the Dolomites, establishing fossil marker horizons and describing the ecology of various fossil corals associations. She described 345 species from the today 1,400 known species of mollusks and corals of the local Wengen- and St. Cassian-Formations.
The published paper, a summary of her thesis "The geology of the Wengen and Saint Cassian Strata in southern Tyrol", finally earned her respect by the scientific community. In 1893 she became the first female doctor of science in the United Kingdom. The same year she returned into the Dolomites to continue with her geological and paleontological research. In 1894 she published the important "Coral in the Dolomites of South Tyrol." Maria Ogilvie argued that the systematic classification of corals must be based on microscopic examination and characteristics, not as usually done at the time, on superficial similarities.

Fossil corals from the pastures of Stuores, plate from LAUBE (1865).

In 1895 she returned to Aberdeen, where she married a longstanding admirer. Dr. John Gordon respected and encouraged her passion for the Dolomites. He and their four children accompanied Maria Ogilvie on various excursions into the Dolomites.

In 1900 she returned to Munich, becoming the first woman to obtain a Ph.D. She helped her old mentor, paleontologist von Zittel, to translate his extensive German research on the "Geschichte der Geologie und Palaeontologie" - "The History of Geology and Palaeontology."

Maria Ogilvie continued her studies and continued to publish. In 1913 she was preparing another important work about the geology and geomorphology of the Dolomites, to be published in Germany, but in 1914 with the onset of World War I. and the death of the publisher, the finished maps, plates and manuscripts were lost in the general chaos.
In 1922 she returned into the Dolomites, where she encountered the young paleontologist Julius Pia, who, during the war, had carried out research in the Dolomites. Together they explored many times the Dolomites.

Landscape profile of the Langkofel-massif after GORDON & PIA (1939): Zur Geologie der Langkofelgruppe in den Südtiroler Dolomiten. Maria Matilda included hand-drawn sketches in her research.

Apart from scientific papers, Maria Matilda published also one of the first examples of geological guide books for the Dolomites. To honor her contributions to earth sciences in 2000 a new fossil fern genus, discovered in Triassic sediments, was named Gordonopteris lorigae.

Interested in reading more? Try:

WACHTLER, M. & BUREK, C.V. (2007): Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon (1864-1939): a Scottish researcher in the Alps. In BUREK, C. V. & HIGGS, B. (eds): The Role of Women in the History of Geology. Geological Society: 305-317

Radioactivity and Earth's Age

In the 19th century, the discrepancy between the age of Earth and the age of the cosmos posed a great problem to scientists. Geologists had calculated, using methods like erosion or sedimentation rates, ages for Earth spanning from three million to fifteen billion years. Physicists and astronomers, based mostly on the energy output of stars, calculated an age for the universe spanning from twenty million to ten billion years - so in many models of the cosmos, Earth seemed to be too young or too old to fit in. In August 1893, during a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, geologist Charles D. Walcott (1850-1927) summarized the debate as follows:

"Of all subjects of speculative geology, few are more attractive or more uncertain in positive results than geological time. The physicists have drawn the lines closer and closer until the geologist is told that he must bring his estimates of the age of the earth within a limit of from ten to thirty millions of years. The geologist masses his observations and replies that more time is required, and suggests to the physicist that there may be an error somewhere in his data or the method of his treatment."

In 1896 the French physicist Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), based on Conrad Röntgen's (1845-1923) research, discovered that naturally occurring elements, like uranium, also emit X-rays and in 1897 Polish physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934) coined the term radioactivity to describe this energy of unknown origin. Her husband, Pierre Curie (1859-1906), realized that this energy from radioactive decay must be considered when calculating the age of Earth. Physicists supporting a young Earth based their calculations on a quickly cooling Earth. However, radioactive decay in Earth's interior provided a continuous source of energy and heat, therefore Earth was cooling slowly and so could be quite old.

Radioactive decay or another similar long-lasting and high-energy source (nuclear fusion was discovered later) could also explain how stars could produce light and heat for very long periods of time. The notion that stars or the sun had to be young (in most calculations younger than Earth) could also be dismissed.

But even better - the discovery of radioactivity provided not only indirect evidence of an old Earth but by measuring the constant decay it was also possible to calculate the exact age of a mineral, a rock and even of Earth.

High-energy rays, derived from radioactive decay, form a halo of alteration around a mineral grain in the larger biotite-crystal, image from J. JOYLE (1909): Radioactivity and geology, an account of the influence of radioactive energy on terrestrial history.

The British Diplomat Who Studied Volcanoes

When, in 1631, Vesuvius erupted violently after having been dormant for more than 300 years, it aroused great interest among Europe's elite. German Jesuit and naturalist Athanasius Kircher traveled to Southern Italy to study Vesuvius, descending even in the crater. The volcano was almost continuously active, especially after 1750 and Naples became part of the cities traveler should visit when in Italy.

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) was a British diplomat in Naples from 1764 to 1798, He got so interested in the nearby Mount Vesuvius that in 1776 he published a monograph on the mountain, illustrated with stunning artwork by local painter Peter Fabris. Hamilton's "Campi Phlegraei: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies" is considered a pioneering work of early volcanology.

 The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in August 1779.

The eruption of May 1771. An Aa lava flow (recognized by the broken surface texture) passes the observer's location and reaches the sea at Resina. Note the steep, slowly advancing front of the flow. Pietro Fabris is amongst the spectators (below left) as is William Hamilton, who explains the view to other onlookers.

Inside the crater of Mount Vesuvius.

Lava samples from Mount Vesuvius.

Another view of the August 1779 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The excavation of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii.

 Hamilton at the crater of Forum Vulcani (Solfatara near Pozzuoli), examining the sulphur and arsenic deposits near the hot springs.

Hitler's Geologists

Already during the first World War the Germans established a special class of soldiers known as "Kriegsgeologen", military geologists working on the front line in special offices called "Geologen-Stellen". Their tasks included solving water supply issues by locating the best spots for wells, locating rock-materials for construction or roads and choosing sites suitable for bridges, trenches and galleries. 

In 1936 Adolf Hitler, now the Führer of the German Reich, announced his Four Year Plan to boost economic growth and make the country independent from imports (an important, at the time not mentioned, goal was to prepare the economy for a coming war). This plan included also projects to map all resources available in the Reich, like rare metals and especially oil. Geologists explored old mines to find new veins of ore and until 1939 almost the entire territory of the German Reich was mapped with geophysical methods (like gravimetry and seismic survey), hoping to discover new oil fields. At the beginning of World War II. many geologists were incorporated in the "Ahnenerbe", a unit established by Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel. The Schutzstaffel (or SS) was a vast military organization inside the Nazi regime, controlling the police, secret police, troops but also business like quarries and mines. The Ahnenerbe was the "science institute" of the SS, dedicated to geological, archaeological and ethnological surveys, but also political propaganda and pseudo-scientific research.  

Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler visiting a quarry in southwestern Germany, 1935.

During the field campaign to invade Poland in 1939 it was decided to establish also an "Oil Kommando", a unit of 50 geologists mapping oil reserves in occupied areas. The reserves in Germany and occupied areas were not sufficient to keep the German forces running for long. When Hitler ordered to attack the Soviet Union in summer of 1941, he hoped also to secure the rich oilfields of the Caucasus and Crimea where 80% of the Russian oil came from. Geology became now part of the war efforts and Himmler established in April 1941 the "SS-Wehrgeologen Battalion 500", the Schutzstaffel equivalent of a unit of military geologists. The battalion comprised four units, a unit specialized in the construction of tunnels (the "Stollenbau Kp"), a unit of hydrogeologists, a unit of Earth scientists (ranging from archaeologists to geophysicists) and a unit specialized in drilling operations. Members were recruited from other SS units including the Ahnenerbe. The unit included experts like Erich Marquardt, an archaeologist, Karl Heinzelmann, a geologist who worked on tectonics, and Joachim Schlorf, who studied the toxic effects of Vanadium-ore. The unit was commanded by Rolf Höhne, an archaeologist and geologist. The official tasks of the Wehrgeologen included all aspects of military geology, like prospecting for water, oil, gas and other valuable resources in the field, support during construction work of fortifications, underground mines and galleries. One project included mapping the route for a planned “Autobahn” (highway) between Berlin and the peninsula of Crimea (never realized). 

Geophysical surveys carried out until the beginning of the war in 1939. After BENTZ and CLOSS 1939.

However, more esoteric tasks included archaeological digs to prove the superiority of the Aryan race and research in ancient artifacts and unknown energy sources. Rolf Höhne believed in the Hollow Earth theory and published various archeological and pseudo-scientific articles on the topic. The Hollow Earth was a theory dating to the early 19th century, claiming that after a series of natural disasters a race of superior beings survived in a vast undergroudn reign, accessible only be gateways hidden in the mountain ranges around the globe.

In 1943 the Wehrgeologen were sent to northern and southern Europe to help build a defense line along the coasts of France and in the Italian Alps. The "Blaue Linie" was a system of fortifications to be built in the Prealps to stop the allied forces, landing at the time Sicily. An even more ambitious plan included the idea to use the mountains as the  “Alpenfestung”, a mountain fortress as a last refugium for the Nazis. In the Bretagne and Normandy, they helped to plan a defense line against a possible invasion by allied forces from the sea. The "Hindernisbau" consisted of a system of antitank obstacles along the beaches, bunkers hidden in the rocky cliffs and areas to be flooded in case of successful landfall of allied troops. In France and the Netherlands, the geologists studied the best location to build the launch pads for the secret rocket project of the Reich. The ground had to be stable enough to absorb the vibrations caused by the launch of the Vergeltungswaffe V1 and V2.

A V2 on the launch ramp. Called the 'flying bomb', it was used by the Germans to bomb English cities towards the end of the war.

The Wehrgeologen Battalion now included 600 men, both academics as soldiers. When air raids became more frequent over Germany in the last years of the war, mines or galleries were used to store ammunition and later also to host industries of strategic importance, like weapons production and research labs. Also, new underground bunkers were excavated, often involving forced labor of inmates of concentration camps. More than 800 subterranean bunkers and galleries are mentioned in contemporary documents, 400 still exist today.

In spring of 1945, shortly before the defeat of the Reich, the Stollenbau Kp helped in the construction of "Klein Berlin", a vast system of underground bunkers located beneath the Italian city of Trieste. During this operation, the geologists explored also caves and ancient mines, in part prospecting for valuable minerals, but also searching for the mystic gateway to an ancient underground reign. Based on research by two members of the Ahnenerbe, Wilhelm Teudt and Josef Heinsch, the city of Triest was built supposedly over a force field, the "Heiligen Linien", of subterranean origin. Nazi geologists searching the gateway to the Hollow Earth sounds like the plot for a bad movie. This should not hide the cruel reality of the war and the regime. The SS Wehrgeologen were also involved in war crimes, like the assassination of civilians in the Italian village of Laita.

It’s sedimentary, my dear Watson

February 20, 1949 Mrs. Henrietta Helen Olivia Roberts Durand-Deacon, a wealthy widow, disappeared from the Onslow Court Hotel located in South Kensington, London. The police interviewed the residents and soon John George Haigh became a suspect, as he was the last person to have be seen together with the woman. He led the police to an old storeroom on Leopold Road in Sussex, where they discovered strange and suspicious tools – a revolver, some rubber protective clothing and three containers filled with sulphuric acid.

During the interrogation Haigh suddenly confessed to an incredible crime, “Mrs. Durand-Deacon no longer exists. She has disappeared completely, and no trace of her can ever be found again. I have destroyed her with acid. You will find the sludge which remains on Leopold Road. But you can’t prove murder without a body.” 

Fortunately, Haigh ignored one important fact in his euphoria: the law doesn’t require a body to incriminate him – it requires a corpus delicti - the evidence that a murder happened. Forensic pathologist Keith Simpson examined carefully the ground at the supposed crime scene. He noted something unusual, a small pebble which he described as follows: “It was about the size of a cherry, and looked very much like the other stones, except it had polished facets.“ Simpson realized that he had found the evidence to prove the murder. The pebble was a gallstone from poor Mrs. Durand-Deacon. Gallstone can form from calcium-salts and organic substances in the gallbladder. A thin layer of organic matter protected the pebbles from being dissolved in the acid. John George Haigh, who was ultimately suspected of committing an entire series of murders, was sentenced later to death.

This forensic case was an unusual example of how rocks can help solve a crime. However already in the mid of the 19th century people realized that rocks, soils and the science of geology could be used to reconstruct a crime and provide circumstantial evidence to connect a suspect with the crime scene. An 1856 one issue of the magazine “Scientific American” reported the “Curious Use of the Microscope” to help clarify a case of thievery:

“Recently, on one of the Prussian railroads, a barrel which should have contained silver coin, was found, on arrival at its destination, to have been emptied of its precious contents, and refilled with sand. On Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin [1795-1896, famous zoologist and geologist] from Leipzig in, being consulted on the subject, he sent for samples of sand from all the stations along the different lines of railway that the specie had passed, and by means of his microscope, identified the station from which the interpolated sand must have been taken. The station once fixed upon, it was not difficult to hit upon the culprit in the small number of employees on duty there.“

Influenced by the rapid development of science, the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced in 1887 a new kind of detective, who based his crime solving abilities on the scientific and forensic clues that everybody acquired or left behind by touching objects, or simply walking on muddy ground: “Knowledge of Geology. – Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them."

About at the same time as Doyle published his fictional adventures, the Austrian professor of criminology Hans Gross (1847-1915) published various textbooks dealing with forensic investigations methods. In his “System der Kriminalistik” (Criminal Investigation, published in 1891) he proposed that the police should carefully study geomorphological maps, to infer possible sites where criminals could commit crimes or hide bodies – like forests, ponds, streams or sites with a well. In 1893 Gross published his “Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter” (Handbook for Examining Magistrates), where he explained how the petrographic composition of dirt found on shoes could indicate where a suspect went previously. Based on these ideas, in 1910 the French physician Edmund Locard (1877-1966) established the basic exchange principle of environmental profiling:

“Whenever two objects come into contact, there is always a transfer of material. The methods of detection may not be sensitive enough to demonstrate this, or the decay rate may be so rapid that all evidence of transfer has vanished after a given time. Nonetheless, the transfer has taken place.“

The German chemist Georg Popp (1867-1928) was the first investigator to solve a murder case by adopting the principles of Gross and Locard and considering soil as reliable evidence. In the spring of 1908 Margarethe Filbert was murdered near Rockenhausen in Bavaria. The local attorney had read Hans Gross’s handbook and know Popp from an earlier case, where Popp connected a strangled woman to the suspect by mineral grains of hornblende found in the mucus of the victim’s nose and under the fingernails of the suspect.
In the Filbert case a local factory worker named Andreas Schlicher was suspected, however he claimed that on the day of the murder he was working in the fields.

Popp reconstructed the movements of the suspect by analyzing the dirt found on his shoes. The uppermost layer, thus the oldest, contained goose droppings and earth from the courtyard of the suspect’s home. A second layer contained red sandstone fragments and other particles of a soil found also where the body of the victim was discovered. The last layer contained brick fragments, coal dust, cement and a whole series of other materials also found on the site where the suspect’s gun and clothing had been found. However, there were no mineral grains – fragments of porphyry, quartz and mica- on the shoes. Since these were found in the soils of the field where Schlicher supposedly worked the very same day, he was obviously lying.

In the last two decades, the significance of forensic geology increased steadily. It is applied not only to connect single suspects to criminal cases, but also to trace the provenience of explosive, drugs or smuggled goods, including wildlife, not to mention the possible applications to detect cases against the environmental law. Forensic geology also proved valuable to reconstruct and uncover modern war crimes.

In 1997 the United Nations International Criminal Tribune for the Former Yugoslavia (UN ICTY) began exhuming five mass graves in north-eastern Bosnia associated with the massacre of civilians in and around the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Intelligence reports showed that 3 months after the initial executions of civilians, the primary mass graves had been exhumed and the bodies transported over a 1-3 day period to a number of unknown (but at least 19) secondary grave sites. To prosecute the suspects, it was necessary to prove that the now recovered bodies came without doubt from Srebrenica, and that therefore the later dislocation of the graves was intentionally to hide these war crimes. Two grave sites were intensively studied and samples of the grave fills and surrounding soils and bedrock collected. Soil samples can be screened by their content of minerals and rocks, the size and form of single mineral or rock grains, biochemistry of organic substances, microbiology, remains of invertebrates and plants and pollen and spores preserved in it. These various parameters can vary in so many ways, every soil can be regarded as unique. Comparing the parameters between samples recovered from the victim or the suspect and collected at the crime sites it is possible to establish a unique connection between them.
During the investigations in Bosnia a clast of serpentinite found in one of the secondary gravesites proved to be the decisive evidence. This greenish rock connected one secondary grave site with only one primary site – only there an outcrop with a serpentinite dyke could be found. Similarity, the presence or absence of particular clay minerals, depending on the surrounding geology of the primary burial site, connected or excluded the primary to the secondary sites.

The list of fascinating or strange cases solved thanks to forensic geology would surprise even Sherlock Holmes himself.

Historic Mineral Collection Destroyed in Brazil's National Museum Fire

German mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner was born in 1749 in Wehrau, at the time a city in the Prussian kingdom.
Werner was educated at Freiberg and Leipzig, where he studied law and mining. In 1775 he was appointed as inspector and teacher of mining and mineralogy at the small, but influential, Freiberg Mining Academy in Saxony. Here he catalogized the collection by mining inspector Carl Eugenius Pabst von Ohain (1718-1784) consisting of 7,500 mineral and rock samples. The collection was also used to teach mineralogy and petrology at the academy. After the death of Ohain in 1785 the collection was sold to the Portuguese statesman, author and amateur botanist António de Araújo e Azevedo, 1. conde da Barca. In 1807 the mineralogical samples were shipped to Rio de Janeiro, where they were incorporated in the collections of the newly founded National Museum of Brazil. Werner started a new collection, still hosted today at the University of Freiberg. In 1787, based on the studied collections, he published “Kurze Klassifikation und Beschreibung der verschiedenen Gesteinsarten” (Short classification and description of the various rock types), a classification guide using - unusual at a time when most rocks were classified based on the complex rock-chemistry - easily recognizable features (like color, shape, even odor) to identify minerals and rocks. Werner's works play a very important role in the history of geology and mineralogy. He named many common and less common minerals, like Kyanite and Vesuvianite in his writings. His books on minerals and rocks-identification influenced an entire generation of German geologists, including Alexander von Humboldt. Charles Darwin used "Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours" published in 1814 and based in part on A.G. Werner's work, to describe his rock and mineral samples collected during the famous voyage of the Beagle.

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the National Museum just a few days ago. The extent of the fire's damage won't be fully known until salvage efforts are completed, but it is feared that also Ohain's mineral collection is lost.

After an enormous fire destroyed the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 2, 2018, the Bendegó meteorite was one of the few artifacts left relatively intact. The meteorite is the largest space rock ever discovered in Brazil. 

Geology and the Genoa bridge collapse

In Genoa, part of the important A10-highway bridge 'Polcevera' (locally known as 'Morandi', so named after the engineer who planned the bridge) collapsed Tuesday during a thunderstorm. Today 39 victims are confirmed, 16 survivors were saved from the debris, 9 are severely injured, and 10-20 people are still reported missing.

The bridge was built between 1963 and 1967 and planned by Italian engineer Riccardo Morandi, who planned bridges also in Venezuela and Lybia.

Newspaper issue from 1964 showing the project for the Polcevera viaduct.

At this time the cause of the collapse is unclear. Speculations range from thunderstorm damage, material fatigue of the 50 years old bridge to a very unlikely case of terroristic act.

Collapsed section of the Polcevera viaduct after Spiegel Online

Geology can play a role in statics and dynamics of a bridge. The A10 connects Italy to France and follows the coastline between the Ligurian Sea and the Alps.  The limited space and rugged terrain demands the construction of many tunnels and bridges. The Morandi bridge crosses the  Polcevera river bed and an industrial zone and connects the city of Genoa with its harbor and Nizza/France, making it one of the most important routes in the region. 

Unconfirmed are claims of a landslip on the base of one of the bridge's pylons, triggered by the heavy rain, causing the collapse. A published video seem to show the pylon collapsing only after the highway deck. Photos of the ongoing rescue attempts also don't seem to show damage on the base of the collapsed pylon.

Also unconfirmed are claims of possible subsidence movements of the underground, destabilizing one of the pylons. According to the geological map the underground is composed of marine and alluvial sand and conglomerates, filling a river vally incised in siltstone-formations.

Geological map extract of Genoa showing the A10 crossing the river , blue: alluvial sediments, green: siltstone.

Such terrain can be problematic for a bridge's foundations. A changing water table can cause erosion and resulting underground cavities, followed by collapse and locale subsidence movements on the surface over time. However, many other factors, like construction type of the foundations, play a role in case of a collapse. At the moment there is no evidence to support this scenario.

 Photo from 2016 showing the collapsed pylon and also renovation works at the Polcevera viaduct and river.

A rupture of the highway deck caused by material fatigue, the bridge was constructed in a time when traffic was less intense as today, is favored by most interpelled experts, but only forensic investigations in the coming months may reveal the true cause of the collapse. On Friday it was speculated, that one of the suspension ropes broke. Reinforced concrete is vulnerable, especially near the sea, as water and salt accelerates the corrosion of the iron parts.

The Most Famous Last Stand In History And How Geology Played A Role In It

The Thermopylae, the hot gates or also gates of fire, is a mountain pass at the foot of Mount Kallidromo in modern Greece where legend tells that King Leonidas and 300 of his Spartan warriors fought millions of Persians, during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 480 B.C. They were able to hold the mountain pass for three days, when they were betrayed and finally defeated.

"Greece and Rome: Builders of Our World (The Story of Man)", 1977

Marie Tharp, The Woman Who Discovered The Backbone Of Earth

July 30, 1920, birthday of Marie Tharp, The Woman Who Discovered The Backbone Of Earth. She was among the first women to get a degree and work as professional geologist in the US. Later she worked also on a map of the seafloor that changed geology.

Alternative Model For Formation Of Devils Tower Explains Its Geological Oddities

Devils Tower in Wyoming is surrounded by myths and mysteries. To the Sioux people, this site was sacred and some of their stories tell how this mountain formed: A long time ago a giant bear chased a group of children onto the flat top of the mountain. Out of reach of the animal, the bear started to scratch the rocks with its claws, forming the characteristic joints in the rock. Reportedly, Devils Tower got its name from this legend, as "bear" was erroneously translated as "bad god" - later becoming the "devil".

Today, this 1,267-foot-high pinnacle of phonolite (a silica-poor fine-grained igneous rock) is described in many textbooks as an intrusion of igneous rock that never reached the surface to form a volcano. However, there are a number of issues with this idea.

Why Hydrogeology Plays Such An Important Role In The Thailand Cave Rescue Operations

Rescue operations to free 12 boys together with their soccer coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand are underway but could take days to complete. The geology of the region plays a role in both the origin of the cave as why exploring wild cave systems is so dangerous.

The Largest Crystals Ever Discovered Are At Risk Of Decay

The mine of Naica, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, was opened in 1828 to mine for lead, zinc and silver ore. In 1910, a natural cave in the mine was discovered, which was later named Cueva de las Espadas, the Cave of Swords. The name derives from three-feet large, blade-like gypsum crystals (calcium-sulfate) completely covering the walls of the cave.

However, what the miners discovered almost 90 years later during the construction of a new tunnel was even more astounding. The Cueva de los Cristales, the Cave of the Crystals, hosts the most incredible crystals ever discovered. The mining operations, making the discovery possible, are also threatening this geological treasure.

Hawaii's Kilauea Eruption Did Not Rain Gemstones From The Sky

Since the beginning of May 2018, the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii has been erupting. First a cloud of fragmented older lava, volcanic ash and vapor rose from the Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater on the summit, magma then migrated to the flanks, opening a series of fissures from where now lava is pouring out.

Around five weeks into the eruption, some residents of the town of Kalapana reported small, green crystals to be found on the ground, soon speculating that the crystals rained out from the eruption column or the lava fountains of Kilauea.

Olivine sand from the Papakolea Beach on Hawai'i. Source and Credit: Wikipedia-user Tomintx, CC BY-SA 4.0.