Geomythology - Part I

Geomythology was a term coined in 1968 by the late Dr. Dorothy Vitaliano, a geologist who worked for the United States Geological Survey and Indiana University.  Here's a paper explaining the concept if you're interested in learning more:  Geomythology: Geological Origins of Myths and Legends.

Here's one common definition of geomythology by L. Piccardi (2007):

Geomythology indicates every case in which the origin of myths and legends can be shown to contain references to geological phenomena and aspects, in a broad sense including astronomical ones (comets, eclipses, meteor impacts, etc.). As indicated by Vitaliano (1973) "primarily, there are two kinds of geologic folklore, that in which some geologic feature or the occurrence of some geologic phenomenon has inspired a folklore explanation, and that which is the garbled explanation of some actual geologic event, usually a natural catastrophe"

I would define geomythology a little more broadly than this and break it into three general categories:

1. A garbled explanation of some actual geologic event, usually a natural catastrophe
2. A geologic feature or phenomenon which has inspired a folklore explanation
3. An association between a mythic figure or object and a geologic feature or phenomenon

An example of the first category might be the story of Noah's flood.  Geologists have known for over a century that there's no geological evidence for a global flood as recounted in Genesis.  Floods, however, are a common occurrence and most cultures have flood legends.  Some geologists have argued that the flooding of the Black Sea around 5600 BCE have have inspired the story in the Mesopotamian cultures.

The Great Flood by Bonaventura Peeters the Elder

Another might be the story of Atlantis as recounted by Plato in 360 BCE.  While his story just doesn't work historically, it may be a garbled remembrance of a massive volcanic eruption on the Aegean island of Thera (also called Santorini) around 1600 BCE which may have triggered the downfall of the Minoan Civilization.

Santorini (Thera) caldera from space in 2000

A final example is the eruption of Mount Mazama in 5677 BCE to form Crater Lake in Oregon.   The Klamath Indians, who lived in the area at the time, had a legend passed down to recent times of a battle between gods of the mountains who threw fiery rocks off the summit.

Crater Lake caldera

In this way, myths may shed some light on real historical events (but have to be taken with a grain of salt because they're overlain with cultural influences and religious beliefs).

The second category of geomyths are geologic features or phenomena which have inspired folklore explanations.  These are perhaps interesting to ethnographers but probably not as much to geologists.

The Lakota (Sioux), for example, have stories about how the grooves on the side of Devil's Tower in eastern Wyoming were formed by a giant bear.  Grooves geologists attribute to cooling of magma and formation of columnar jointing.

The Lakota name - Mato Tipilia or Bear Lodge - is a much better name, by the way, than the stupid "Devils Tower" (most likely named after the Devil because the Lakota viewed it as a sacred place).

Another example might be Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland attributed to Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) who supposedly built the causeway to walk to Scotland.

Of course geologists just talk about boring old magma intrusions and columnar jointing again.

The final category of geomythology I mentioned at the beginning of the post is a bit more odd.  I'm going to leave it for tomorrow's post...

2012: Ice Age

I saw this trailer on another blog and thought, "No, this has to be a parody!"



Nope, it's a real movie.

Holy shit, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

Mesingw

I've been reading about the Lenape lately, the original inhabitants of this land.  I highly recommend The Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage, 10,000 BC to AD 2000 by Herbert Kraft (2001, Lenape Lifeways) if you're interested in reading a scholarly book about their history.  Dr. Kraft (1927-2000) was a professor and curator of the Museum of Archaeology at Seton Hall University and a recognized expert on the Lenape.

They called themselves the Lenape which means "the people" (sometimes you'll see Lenni Lenape which means "true people") and inhabited the area from southeastern New York (including Ulster County where I live), through New Jersey, and into eastern Pennsylvania,and northern Delaware.  The called the area they lived  Lenapehoking - "land of the Lenape."

Sometimes the Lenape are referred to as the Delaware Indians which, of course, is offensive since the Delaware River, which runs through Lenapehoking, was named after Lord De La Warr, the governor of the colony at Jamestown around 1610.  De La Warr, as is typical of the early leaders in America, killed Indians, burned their villages and fields, and stole their land.  Not surprising the Lenape really don't want to be known as Delaware Indians.

The Lenape had three distinct clans - archaeologists call them phraties (derived from the Greek φρατήρ meaning brother).  The wolf (Minsi) clan generally lived in the northern part of Lenapehoking, the turtle clan (Unami) in the central part, and the turkey clan (Unalachtigo) in the southern as the map at right shows (legend is in German).

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I've had a long-standing interest in shamanism and found it interesting to read about a Lenape spiritual being known as Mesingw.  I honestly am not sure how to pronounce the name, my guess would be "may-sing-weh" based on what I've read.  The name means "living solid face" or "masked being" and he was the keeper of the game and guardian of the forest.

The job given to him by the creator was to reconcile the Indians' need for meat with the resentments of the animals who were being eaten!  In a traditional story of the Lenape, the game animals ran away and when the Lenape men found them, they told them "You need us, we don't need you!" echoing that tension.

Here's my edited and abridged version of a traditional story about Mesingw.

Three boys were wandering in the forest when they saw a strange-looking hairy person with his face painted half black and half red. This person said, "I am Mesingw, I have taken pity on you and I will give you strength so that nothing can ever hurt you again. Come with me and I shall show you my country!"

He took the boys into the sky to the place where he came from. It was a great range of mountains up in the sky reaching from north to south. While he was showing the boys his country, he promised that they would become strong and should gain the power to get anything they wished. Then he brought to boys back to the Earth again.

In later years, when the boys had grown up and were hunting, they used to see Mesingw occasionally, riding on a stag, herding the deer together, and giving his peculiar call, "Ho-ho-ho!"

A great earthquake came then which lasted for twelve moons and gave much trouble to the Lenapé ancestors. In one of their towns, a Chief had a large bark house, and there the people met to worship, hoping to stop the earthquakes. They worshipped there, and sang and prayed all winter for relief.

Just after springtime came, they were holding a meeting one night when they heard something making a noise in the forest, "Ho-ho-ho!" The Chief called for someone to go and see what it was. The three men recognized the call of Mesingw and offered to go because they wanted to find out what he wanted.

So, they went outside and found Mesingw in the woods, and asked him what he wanted. "Go back and tell the others to stop holding meetings and to attend to their crops," he answered. "Do not meet again until the fall, when I shall come and live with you. Then I will give your people help through a new ceremony, the Big House. You must carve a mask of wood to look like my face, painted half black and half red, as mine is, and I shall put my power into it, so it will do as you ask. When the man who takes my part puts the mask on, I shall be there with you, and in this way I shall live among you. The man must carry a turtle-shell rattle, a bag and a staff, just as I do now."

The earthquakes stopped, and the Lenapé kept the ceremony and the mask ever after.

The Lenape considered Mesingw important enough to place his likeness on their official seal.  Across his face is a pipe - the Lenape were considered peacemakers amongst the tribes and the sacred pipe was important in such discussions.  To the right of the mask is the fire drill traditionally used to start sacred fires.  Surrounding the mask are the symbols for the three clans of the Lenape - the wolf (Minsi), turtle (Unami), and turkey (Unalachtigo).  Also shown is the Christian cross since a large number of modern Lenape are now Christians.  The twelve bars are prayer sticks used in the old Big House Church ceremony of the Lenape, last held in 1924, and described as a  twelve day ceremony held in the autumn where the Lenape prayed, sang vision songs, and honored Mesingw.

There are still places, secret places, where the mask of Mesingw watches over the Valley here in Ulster County (click to enlarge pictures).  I like that.

Puyehue Volcano, Chile

I haven't posted for a week - no real reason other than I just haven't felt like writing.  Before you know it, a week passes.

Puyehue ("poo-yay-way") volcano in the Chilean Andes of South America started erupting last week on June 3.  This area had a small eruption in 1990 but nothing major since 1960.  It's part of a complex of volcanoes, called the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex (PCCVC), located almost 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Santiago (40°35'25"S, 072°07'02"W).

Due to the sharp increase in seismicity (earthquakes) in the area, geophysicists were monitoring the volcano and were able to issue a warning that it was about to erupt.
There are some amazing images over at the Boston Globe's The Big Picture and The Atlantic's In Focus with Alan Taylor.  Check them out.

The ash plume reached of 10 km (6 mi) into the sky.  As the ash was carried eastward, by the prevailing winds, it settled like snow up to 30 cm (1 ft) thick on the ground in places.

Airports as far away as Buenos Aires in Argentina were closed down as the ash clouds drifted out over the Atlantic Ocean.  Here's the volcanic plume as seen from NASA's Aqua satellite on June 4.

One neat thing that volcanic eruptions can do is trigger lightning.  The ash particles rising up through the atmosphere generate static charges (just as water and ice do in the updrafts of thunderstorms).  Looks like the start of Armageddon!

The geologic details of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex (PCCVC) are, to use the same word twice in a slightly different way, complex.  I'm not familiar with the details beyond the facts that the area has had a complicated history of eruptions along a large fault zone of a wide variety of magma compositions dating back some 300,000 years (well within the Pleistocene Ice Age).

The ultimate cause of volcanism in Chile is due to subduction of a plate of oceanic crust called the Nazca Plate.  As the basaltic seafloor subducts beneath the western coast of South America, it partially melts, magma rises and mixes with the overlying granitic continental crust, and forms volcanoes.

Here's Puyehue volcano in calmer times in Parque Nacional Puyehue (Puyehue National Park).  Looks like a beautiful place when it's not trying to kill you!