What are the Real Laws of Geological Field Work and Research Publication?

 A bunch of years ago (1998) I took on the first really substantial written work I was ever involved with, a field guide to Yosemite National Park, the central Mother Lode, and the Coast Ranges at Del Puerto Canyon and around the Calaveras fault in the vicinity of Hollister. This was for a field conference of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers-Far Western Section. I was pretty happy with the result in the end, but it took a lot of work, and I came to realize a few underlying laws of the Universe that apply to doing field work and writing of any kind. I know I plagiarized some of these (Murphy's Law is of course universal in and of itself), for which I apologize, but today I am more interested in what other universal laws that exist out there. What would you add to this list?

The Ultimate Law (also known as Murphy’s Law): In an infinite Universe, anything that can go wrong, must eventually go wrong.

The First Corollary: In an infinite Universe, the number of ways something can go wrong is also infinite.

In the field:

The Snowflake Uncertainty Principle: No two individual snowflakes in the Universe are identical. Neither are car odometers.

Corollary: no outcrop will ever be found by following mileages in a guidebook. 

The Abandon all Hope Principle: The outcrop you are looking for has been destroyed by landscaping anyway.

One of the most significant geology exposures in the eastern Sierra Nevada, the Big Pumice Cut, was recently slated for "landscaping". It once and for all established the age of Sherwin glacial tills in relation to the Bishop Tuff

 

Law of Complexity: The geology is always more complicated than you think it will be.

 

Corollary: The complexity of the geology is directly proportional to the percentage of the area that is exposed as an outcrop. The least amount of exposure contains the most complex geology.

Grass covers the hills of the California Coast Ranges, hiding the extraordinarily deformed rocks of the Franciscan Complex, an accretionary wedge deposit

Laws Regarding Organized Skepticism in Science:

Pharaoh’s Principle: Be skeptical about extraordinary claims, but do not forget that the guy may really have been talking to God after all.

Pharaoh always struck me as the best scientist in antiquity: question all claims; require evidence (screen capture from "The Ten Commandments", 1956, Paramount Pictures)

The X-Files Principle: If you truly believe in a hypothesis, all evidence will eventually prove it.

Laws Regarding the Teaching of Science:

The “California will fall into the sea” Syndrome: The one principle, fact, or model that students will remember 20 years after taking a science class will be factually wrong.

Researching and Publishing (and in my case, field guides):

The “Grammatical Problems: the Colon” Principle: Despite the best efforts of editors and publishers to abolish the practice, the colon will always be used in geology titles. No geologist can resist its dramatic impact. 

The Law of Expanding Returns: The time remaining before the deadline for submittal of papers is inversely proportional to number of pages remaining to be written (i.e., as the deadline approaches, the number of new facts, ideas and conclusions approaches infinity).

The second corollary: the best ideas and insights must necessarily occur after a paper has been submitted.

The Log in One’s Own Eye Axiom: Authors can never proofread their own documents.

The Aggressive Editor Fallacy: An editor who makes too many changes to a document becomes subject to the previous axiom.

The Elephant in the Living Room Principle: An editor can spend so much time correcting minor grammar problems that he/she will miss the fact that the entire premise of the paper is erroneous.

ADD MORE LAWS IN THE COMMENTS!

Picture of the Day: Rock, Moon and Sky, and 10 Unanswered Questions

Dave Schumaker, and the Geology News blog (http://geology.rockbandit.net/) is back after a long absence, and I am looking forward to his insights on the geoblogosphere. He caught a post from the National Research Council and National Academies on the Ten Questions Shaping Earth Science Identified. This isn't your average David Letterman top ten list; it is an excellent guide to the direction of research in the earth sciences today, and bears repeating below.

I have been struck in recent years how new research is deconstructing some fondly cherished ideas about the planet...hot spots that aren't necessarily deep mantle plumes, a possible new layer in the core (the inner-inner core?), an older-younger-older and maybe younger Grand Canyon, a Sierra Nevada that is sinking, no rising, well maybe both, and a side of Mercury no one has seen before. The results of research are fascinating to see. One of the most important points I try to build into the minds of my students is the sheer excitement of living in a time when so much is being discovered.

The list of the top ten questions bears repeating...here they are! A news release, a brief, and a full report (for a price) can be accessed at http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20080312.html. Do you agree with the list? Would you have asked something different?

How did Earth and other planets form? While scientists generally agree that this solar system's sun and planets came from the same nebular cloud, they do not know enough about how Earth obtained its chemical composition to understand its evolution or why the other planets are different from one other. Although credible models of planet formation now exist, further measurements of solar system bodies and extrasolar objects could offer insight to the origin of Earth and the solar system.

What happened during Earth's "dark age" (the first 500 million years)? Scientists believe that another planet collided with Earth during the latter stages of its formation, creating debris that became the moon and causing Earth to melt down to its core. This period is critical to understanding planetary evolution, especially how the Earth developed its atmosphere and oceans, but scientists have little information because few rocks from this age are preserved.

How did life begin? The origin of life is one of the most intriguing, difficult, and enduring questions in science. The only remaining evidence of where, when, and in what form life first appeared springs from geological investigations of rocks and minerals. To help answer the question, scientists are also turning toward Mars, where the sedimentary record of early planetary history predates the oldest Earth rocks, and other star systems with planets.

How does Earth's interior work, and how does it affect the surface? Scientists know that the mantle and core are in constant convective motion. Core convection produces Earth's magnetic field, which may influence surface conditions, and mantle convection causes volcanism, seafloor generation, and mountain building. However, scientists can neither precisely describe these motions, nor calculate how they were different in the past, hindering scientific understanding of the past and prediction of Earth's future surface environment.

Why does Earth have plate tectonics and continents? Although plate tectonic theory is well established, scientists wonder why Earth has plate tectonics and how closely it is related to other aspects of Earth, such as the abundance of water and the existence of the continents, oceans, and life. Moreover, scientists still do not know when continents first formed, how they remained preserved for billions of years, or how they are likely to evolve in the future. These are especially important questions as weathering of the continental crust plays a role in regulating Earth's climate.

How are Earth processes controlled by material properties? Scientists now recognize that macroscale behaviors, such as plate tectonics and mantle convection, arise from the microscale properties of Earth materials, including the smallest details of their atomic structures. Understanding materials at this microscale is essential to comprehending Earth's history and making reasonable predictions about how planetary processes may change in the future.

What causes climate to change -- and how much can it change? Earth's surface temperature has remained within a relatively narrow range for most of the last 4 billion years, but how does it stay well-regulated in the long run, even though it can change so abruptly? Study of Earth's climate extremes through history -- when climate was extremely cold or hot or changed quickly -- may lead to improved climate models that could enable scientists to predict the magnitude and consequences of climate change.

How has life shaped Earth -- and how has Earth shaped life? The exact ways in which geology and biology influence each other are still elusive. Scientists are interested in life's role in oxygenating the atmosphere and reshaping the surface through weathering and erosion. They also seek to understand how geological events caused mass extinctions and influenced the course of evolution.

Can earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and their consequences be predicted? Progress has been made in estimating the probability of future earthquakes, but scientists may never be able to predict the exact time and place an earthquake will strike. Nevertheless, they continue to decipher how fault ruptures start and stop and how much shaking can be expected near large earthquakes. For volcanic eruptions, geologists are moving toward predictive capabilities, but face the challenge of developing a clear picture of the movement of magma, from its sources in the upper mantle, through Earth's crust, to the surface where it erupts.

How do fluid flow and transport affect the human environment? Good management of natural resources and the environment requires knowledge of the behavior of fluids, both below ground and at the surface, and scientists ultimately want to produce mathematical models that can predict the performance of these natural systems. Yet, it remains difficult to determine how subsurface fluids are distributed in heterogeneous rock and soil formations, how fast they flow, how effectively they transport dissolved and suspended materials, and how they are affected by chemical and thermal exchange with the host formations.