What is geography, It's magic!

Often I find myself answering the question "What does a geographer do?" with the witty come back "Everything" to the dismay of friends and family. In the professional sense I tell employers I gather data, where I look for trends in data about location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and regions and how interact with each other, and that I can show these trends on everything from a map to a bar-graph. Where this is the most specific singular sentence I can use to describe geography, I think Judy Martz said it best as, "Everything has to do with geography."

The modern Geographer needs to know just about everything. This should be evident to the nature of its goals but I will elaborate. Every geographer will have to have at minimum knowledge of, Earth Science, mathematics/statistics, rhetoric, cultural diversity, cartography and navigation. Which gives them the ability to understand and elaborate on data. Modern geographers also should know many tools (computers, compass maps, software, Global Information Systems, geological hammers, microscopes just to name a few). The goal of geography is to make information about the world accessible or useable. This means a geographer is not only using math to prove a fact but also dictating a train of thought about the philosophical argument. Geographers will use law, science, behavior psychology, math, literature, and philosophy to establish concrete data on a subject. This is due to the broad spectrum of data a geographer will use.

For example: A geographer is collecting data about a region to build a new damn in a flooded valley. They will survey, measure and map the selected valley, locate and identify human/animal populations that may need relocating, identify geographic substrata to determine if an area has enough impermeable surface to retain said dam water, they will need compose data to be usable by planning committees and engineers. All the while looking at how changes to a region will impact future development, economy and environmental impact. Although this data maybe collected by a number of specialized geographers, the amount of overlap in work and administration of the project requires a geographer to know a broad skill set. Let alone a broader knowledge base makes for a more marketable geographer.
So consider this:

There are two major fields of study of Geography, subdivided into Physical and Human geography which include at least the following:
• Physical geography: including geomorphology, hydrology, glaciology, biogeography, climatology, pedology, oceanography, geodesy, and environmental geography.
• Human geography: including urban geography, cultural geography, economic geography, political geography, historical geography, marketing geography, health geography, and social geography.

Every geographer I personally know constantly studies each of these fields because the overlapping data is always useful. Example: A Hydrologist needs to understand the physical geo-sciences of geomorphology, glaciology, climatology, and environmental geography just because how they add data to how water moves on/in landmass. Hydrologist will have a vast knowledge about how water will impact human geography, including concepts of culture, economics, politics, health and social/historical conflicts.

Every geographer I know is at least an amateur geologist and a skilled cartographer.
Most are computer savants, and skilled mathematicians.
The best geographers I know can program a computer or write programs.
Simply put geographers are the most experienced and skilled people. Which is evident since no one can tell what we are doing.

It brings to mind three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke's Three Laws are:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

So the next time someone asks me "What does a geographer do?" And I give them an honest answer and receive a blank look. I am going to tell them it's Magic. Geography is just magic.

Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer 1668-69 oil on canvas; 53×47 cm. Steadelsches Kunstinstitut Frankfurt, Germany

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods Colorado Springs CO

Garden of the Gods is one of my favorite places to drive in Colorado. The first picture of the set is my car with Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak in the back ground.

as a side note you can see the kissing camels on the rock to the upper right hand side. (will get to that later).

I live not far from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It's a beautiful region with sedimentary beds of colored sandstones, conglomerates and limestone. They were deposited horizontally, that is no longer the case as they reach into the sky vertically.

Evidence of past aions; ancient seas, eroded ruminants of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches and great sand dune fields can be read in the rocks. But I just like it because it makes the rocks look like BACON!

I kid.

Here is a cross section of the park I drew for a college course. It shows how the different layers of rock bend towards the sky under Colorado Springs and form Garden of the Gods.

A spectacular shear fault can be observed where the Tower of Babel in the Lyons Sandstone where it contacts the Fountain Formation. Hmm Picture is missing I will go retake it and add it later.

The hogbacks, so named because they resemble the backs and spines of a pig, are ridges of sandstone whose layers are tilted. Instead of lying horizontally, some layers are even vertically oriented as mentioned above.

The Hogback says Oink Oink

Some hogbacks are several hundred feet long, and the tallest (North Gateway Rock) rises to a height of 320 feet. A notable rock feature on this hogback is Kissing Camels, it appears to be two very large camels sitting face to face with their lips touching it is also one of the most popular rock climbing spots in the city.

There are many fossils to be seen: marine forms, plant fossils, and some dinosaur fossils. But there is no such thing as Obsidian in Garden of the Gods:

On one occasion during the nineteenth century, Dr. George Frederick Kunz, vice-president of and "gem expert" of Tiffany & Co., wrote about a “specimen of obsidian” he was shown from the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. “A friend recently made a trip through parts of Colorado, and knowing our desire to obtain materials suitable for cutting into gems, he purchased at a pavilion, near the gateway of the Garden of the Gods, a specimen of what the dealer called “obsidian.” It was carefully packed and carried thousands of miles, and was handed to us with the ceremony befitting an elegant gift. We received it with much delight, and after removing yards of tissue paper, held it before a lamp light, and saw a transparent mass of about 4x4" of pure bottle green- glass.”
-Kunz, George Frederick. The Mineral Collector. Volume II, number 6, August 1895, page 97.
This does not mean you might not find obsidian shards or objects int he park. It is possible from an anthropological point of view that you may find man made objects transported into the park. Particularly but Native Americans. I would just be wary of buying any Colorado obsidian on the internet found in Garden of the Gods.

Trivia:
The name Colorado is said to come from the color of the red sandstone.
The name of the park dates back to August 1859 when two surveyors helping to set up nearby Colorado City were exploring the nearby areas. Upon discovering the site, one of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a "capital place for a beer garden." His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods." The beer garden never materialized, but the name stuck.

In 2006 a dinosaur species discovered there, was named after the park: Theiophytalia kerri.

- Garden Of The Gods | Education | Park History http://www.gardenofgods.com/education/index_175.cfm

All Pictures Copyrighted Mehner Photo Illustrations and are the expressed property of Fred Mehner III

Next time you go to Garden of the Gods or visit it from out of state have a beer and remember you can learn a lot about the world while enjoying a cold brew.