Geology has always been an interest of mine, and going to school in Utah was a geological wind-fall. The state offers numerous "geosites" of interest, from dinosaur fossils to diverse rocks and minerals.
Alan Nicol, a fellow industrial design student, and I wound up taking a class together. The instructor was Brother Bissell, a man who lived in a gray shop jumpsuit, and who had a great sense of humor and was full of stories that usually took us far, far away from the subject matter. But he also knew his stuff.
The most memorable aspects of this class were the off-site trips. On one such trip, we were discussing many of the rocks and minerals found in the Utah basin, including schist and an igneous, porous rock - the name of which now escapes me - which had the habit of trapping prehistoric bio materials (plant and animal) that were released from their tiny little pockets when broken open, causing a foul smell.
On our big trip out into the high Utah plains, we stopped often, with Brother Bissell pointing out various rocks and asking "OK class, what is this?" to which we all replied in unison "It's a rock!"
Here I am with Alan, performing a specialized, synchronized geological technique, only to be used by qualified professionals, of course:
I believe it was shortly after this photo was taken that Brother Bissell pulled us all into a circle, and once again held up a rock and asked "What is this, class?" and everyone chanted "It's a rock." At that point, he took out a small hammer and chipped off a large piece of the rock, and right away you could smell the release of gas and prehistoric microbes, probably infecting us all with some ancient monkey-dinosuar disease. "Does anyone know what rock this is?" Bissell again asked. "That's schist" came a voice from the crowd. "No," Bissell replied "that's not it." But the guy who replied came right back with "Well, it sure smells like schist."
Ah, geology humor at its finest.
Recent Comments