Calendar on EARTH Magazine

Geologic Column: Light amid the darkness: Celebrations during the winter solstice

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 09:35:25 -0500

Ancient Scandinavians celebrated the Feast of Juul (Yule) with a log burned on the hearth to honor Thor, whose job was to bring the sun's warmth, light and life-giving properties back to the people. In Scandinavian customs, the log never burned entirely as it was used as a starter log for the next year's fire. Other cultures also celebrated with a Yule log, but most burned it completely to use the ashes on their fields as fertilizer, wear the ashes as charms or put them under their beds for protection. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Ptahi.

This year, the winter solstice falls on Friday, Dec. 21, marking the arrival of winter and the shortest stretch of daylight of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (the situation is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere). The solstice occurs simultaneously around the world when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, the line of latitude 23.5 degrees south of the equator. On Dec. 21, winter will officially arrive at 5:23 pm (EST).

Geologic Column: "Collect Rocks Day" offers opportunity for inspiration

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 12:45:23 -0400

Photo by Fernando Reyes on Unsplash

I have been intrigued by rocks since I was a kid. In fact, as I write these lines I am surrounded by rocks I have collected over the years. On my window sill is a piece of shale containing several preserved ammonites, obsidian from Iceland, dolerite from Tasmania, and a sedimentary rock bearing fossilized sand ripples attesting to former currents along the western edge of the Western Interior Seaway, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic during the late Mesozoic.

Geologic Column: Pie on Pi Day, and Einstein's lesser-known legacy

Fri, 02 Mar 2018 06:01:52 -0500

MIT's Experimental Study Group often bake pie as a way to celebrate Pi Day. Credit: Evan Shelhamer, CC BY 2.0.

March hosts a number of special days: St. Patrick’s Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, the Spring Equinox and, one of my favorites, March 14, which is both the birthday of the father of modern physics, Albert Einstein, and also Pi Day, which celebrates the mathematical constant 3.14 that features in some of Einstein’s equations.

Geologic Column: Celebrating Old Rock Day

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 17:05:31 -0500

Move over New Year’s: There’s a new favorite holiday in January, at least for geologists. Jan. 7 marks “Old Rock Day.” No, this is not the day to celebrate old rock ’n’ roll music or the elderly musicians still playing it. Old Rock Day is the day that geoscientists and rock enthusiasts encourage people to celebrate and learn more about old rocks and fossils.

Geologic Column: Musings on the autumn equinox

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:35:21 -0400

Panaoramic color photograph made at Fredonian Nature Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, at the fall equinox, September 22, 2002. Credit: Bob Burkhardt, CC BY 3.0

Last month, many of us in the U.S. celebrated a relatively rare event — a full solar eclipse. That event, and the fact that the metal roof of my ranch house in California’s Santa Ynez Valley has started resonating with the thunk of raining acorns, got me thinking about our annual trip around the sun and the impending fall equinox.

Geologic Column: Rebirth on the vernal equinox

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:18:53 -0500

March is about rebirth. Credit: Public Domain.

March is a particularly tempestuous month. The Anglo Saxons called it “Hrethmonath,” which translates as “rough month.” The name referred to March’s blustery winds that often blow with a force unfelt all winter, and which make March a great month for kite flying and a common time for tornadoes to strike.

Geologic Column: New Year's as we know it is new

Tue, 27 Dec 2016 18:25:51 -0500

Credit: Fran LoCascio

Cuneiform clay tablets discovered in Iraq reveal that more than 4,000 years ago, Babylonians were celebrating a New Year’s holiday. The Babylonian New Year, however, began with the first crescent moon after the spring equinox.

Geologic Column: The dog days of July

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 16:10:35 -0400

Julius Ceasar, for whom two months in the Gregorian Calendar of the year are named. Credit: ©Traumrune / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0.

As months go, July has some distinctive qualities. For one thing, it is one of only two months in the Gregorian calendar named for a person; in this case, Julius Caesar. (The other is August, which honors Julius Caesar’s great nephew and the first Roman emperor, Gaius Octavius, better known as Augustus.) The remaining months of the year are named for gods, goddesses, festivals or numbers.

Geologic Column: The beginning of "time" as we know it

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 13:33:02 -0500

Pre-Julian Roman calendar found in the ruins of Nero's villa at Antium (Anzio). Credit: Public Domain.

As we approach the end of a year, my thoughts often turn to calendars and the measurement of time. Time is our window on the world; we use it to create order and shape our existence. We use time to measure grand things, like the rise and fall of civilizations, and small things, like the increments of our daily lives.