Before And After Pangaea
When viewing the geological formations that are exposed in today’s Appalachian Mountains, we observe elongated belts of folded and thrust faulted marine and sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks, and slivers of ancient ocean floors. They provide physical evidence that these natural monuments were molded during plate collision, the study of which is referred to as the realm of plate tectonics.
The formation of the Appalachian mountain range occurred in the geologic eras that geologists and biologists have named Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, which lasted from roughly 480 million to 250 million years ago. To make a very long story very brief, the core structure of the mountain range was created in the Permian peroid when two giant landmasses - Laurentia (North America) slammed into the African plates and then the Eurasian plates. This gradual sliding of one continental plate over another, combined with gigantic fissures, and the spewing of molten metals from the deep in the Earths mantel, gradually formed a massive mountain range that extended from present day Alabama in the US to Morocco in North Africa and as far north as Greenland and Scandinavia. By the time the additional landmasses of present day South America, Australia, Antarctica, and India were all conjoined, these mountains reached to heights taller than the Himalayas are today.
When all of the world’s continents were finally formed into one giant landmass for the last time in the earth’s history (so far), the continent of Pangaea (Greek for all earth) was formed. By studying the fossil and geologic record globally, scientists find the same species of plant and oceanic life in all parts of the globe with the same ages. The entire world was composed of one landmass, Pangaea, and one ocean surrounding it called Panthalassa (Greek for all sea).
In subsequent eras lasting millions of years each, the Appalachian Mountains underwent many major changes that shaped its surface, which included the birth and extinction of the dinosaurs, cataclysmic volcanic and meteoric bombardment, and at least two major ice ages. All of these conditions contributed to the gradual smoothing and polishing of the geologic surface of these mountains and their subsequent appearance today.
However if you look very closely and use a little imagination, one can sense the extraordinary power of these earth changes occurring within the vastness of time. These mountains still contain poetic evidence of the mysterious forces of plate tectonics, magnetic molten magma forces operating under the Earth’s surface, and for at least once in this planets 4.54 billion year old history, everything on this planet was connected in one place, at one time. The early Appalacians reached across much of this single landmass.
But the story is not over. All the continents are continually on the move, at a rate of about 1”-2” per year, about the speed of your fingernails growing. They are headed back toward each other again. Many geologists predict now that another 240 million years from now all the continents could reform, producing another "super-continent", but like the first, humans won't be around to experience it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQVoSyVu9rk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OHRb_ODo-Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuUi52eXgQw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dbTauY0Vog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axB6uhEx628
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Thoughts On My Recent Photo Work – Landscape / Still Life / Architecture Merged
John Dean 1- 2009
In my most current work I have made use of a framework of photo still-life that alludes to mutations of architecture, the interrelationships of personal and public space, and my reflections on the changing American landscape. Generally working with small tabletop sets, I’ve become more interested in transitional morphologies and floating environments than depicting actual specific objects and times.
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