I went to Scotland!

Which is very exciting! Yes, I have Scottish ancestry, but more importantly some very cool scientists in the history of geology were Scottish, like my favorite: James Croll.

Both his personal backstory and his scientific contributions are inspiring to me. “Croll was a most remarkable man. Of humble origins and self-educated, he was eventually in middle age appointed to a post in the Geological Survey of Scotland and became one of the leading advocates of a limited time-scale and the propounder of an intriguing quantitative theory of ice ages” (Hallam, p. 112). Although outwardly resembling many of his contemporaries in the field of geological science, his background offers a diversity of experience lacking in many others.

Many of the other notable figures in the history of geology came from privileged backgrounds. These include titled members of the peerage, such as Kelvin, gentleman farmers, such as Hutton, and trained professionals, such as Lyell who had worked as a lawyer. Croll was born the son of a mason and in his younger years worked in a variety of positions, including apprentice to a millwright and innkeeper (Sugden, p. 604). He even worked as a janitor at a museum, in order to learn more about the sciences (Sugden, p. 605).  Croll was a self-made man, which I respect greatly.

Croll put forth a theory on the causes of ice ages, which was championed by later scientists. “The Serbian mathematical physicist Milutin Milankovitch has pursued at length ideas put forward last century by Croll that a combination of astronomical variables has controlled theses oscillations. Milankovitch’s thoroughly worked out model based on cyclic changes in the earth’s orbital eccentricity, tilt, and precession has in recent years received some support from data obtained from deep-sea cores, but controversy continues, especially about the way such variables can influence climate” (Hallam, p. 102). While there was perhaps controversy in the late 80s when Hallam wrote his book, the Croll-Milankovitch Theory is now generally accepted as the cause of ice ages. Other notable work includes Croll’s attempts to calculate the time since the last ice age based on his glacial theory.

James Croll was a non-traditional learner, beginning his geological career at an older age, and he was not particularly successful in school when he was younger (Sugden, p. 605). In fact, his outsider status may have been what allowed him to come up with his revolutionary idea. At the time, the geological establishment only considered endogenic causes of change in the Earth system. While perhaps not a natural academic talent, Croll’s drive to follow his interests and ability to work very hard led him to be a significant figure in the history of geology.

Also, I got to visit Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano and site of Camelot (?)!

References:

Great Geological Controversies by Anthony Hallam

James Croll (1821–1890): ice, ice ages and the Antarctic connection by David E. Sugden