Vicki Hansen, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of
Minnesota Duluth Complex systems thrill me; ultimately I think
that is what brought me into geology from chemistry. Many years
ago at SMU, I began teaching Physical Geology course as an Earth
Systems course. After the first experimental time, I could not
go back. Earth Systems science was not the new idea many of us
thought it was in the 1990's; A 1975 textbook written by Lee
McAlester, SMU Dept. Chair at the time, took an Earth Systems
approach. According to Lee the book's approach was inspired by
'The Blue Marble' the first Earth from space, taken by Apollo 17
astronauts on December 7, 1972. The image, which we all know,
clearly shows Earth as a gorgeous, wonderfully complex system.
The joy of complex systems is key to several courses that I am
lucky enough to 'teach'. Structural geology embodies rheology.
Rheology is the key to basically everything, and almost
everything affects rheology in one way or another— and those
effects come at potentially a