PRESIDENT’S LETTER By Rob Diedrich
The Atlas That Changed RMAG
What is it about geologists and maps? I can’t help noticing the variety of maps I’ve seen on the walls of geo-colleagues during Zoom calls. One of my associates has a replica of William Smith’s 1815 geologic map of the British Islands framed on his office wall and easily seen over his shoulder during our online chats. This is The Map that Changed the World, according to Simon Winchester’s 2001 book, and is considered to be “the first true geological map of anywhere in the world.” For geologists, a map tells a story. We visualize the contours on topographic maps three-dimensionally as hills, mountains and valleys springing out of a flat piece of paper. We become detectives piecing together clues about an area’s geologic history when we overlay surface formations onto topographic maps, creating a geologic map. Most of us developed our mapping skills during geology field camps. I have fond memories of mapping the Paleozoic section near Molas Pass. Some of our mapping areas were riddled with test pits dug by miners looking for silver and gold. These pits were often located in areas of mineralization associated with faulting, providing clues to look for possible offsets in the strata and a fault line to sketch on our maps. Thinking about the science and art of map
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OUTCROP | March 2022
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Vol. 71, No. 3 | www.rmag.org
