Bearded Geology

About four years ago I ran across a website called Macrostrat.org , a website that started from the University of Wisconsin to compile stratigraphic data into a searchable database. While browsing their site, I saw the most beautiful geologic map. Don't get me wrong, there are great geologic maps that have been published, but this one struck a chord with me. Painted in the standard geologic colors, but with an earthy hue, was the surficial geology of the continental United States, northern Mexico, southern Canada, and the oceans. No borders between countries or states were visible, except for a couple of inexplicable odd lines along Michigan and Mexico that just happened to render. It's just geology. The zoom setting I had it on restricted the details to what are visble on a national scale. Not too generalized; not too specific. It looked as if it were a piece of abstract art with hints of Jackson Pollock evident in the Basin and Range province. I immediately thought tha

Of all of the many types of maps that have been made for one purpose or another, I find one of the most enjoyable kind to look at are the old USGS topographic maps. These types have been made since 1879  (which also was the year that USGS was established) and thus, depict the human world that once was. This is particularly interesting since many localities have been mapped three or more times and we can see the evolution of human geography. For this reason and because I grew up within two miles of two towns that were abandoned during the 1960s as a dam was constructed and flooded the town sites, I'm easily fascinated by old maps that show towns and other old settlements and structures that have been abandoned. Old topo maps from across the country can be viewed and downloaded for free (in JPEG, TIFF, or PDF formats) from the USGS ( click here for more ). Admittedly, this USGS site is a huge rabbit hole for me to fall into and I've downloaded several topo maps from it, incl