Geological Weavings

For some miraculous reason, Geology was a GCSE option at my comprehensive school. It was one of my favourite subjects and I still berate myself for not taking it at A-level. Even the exams were enjoyable: we got to interpret maps and draw cross-sections and, in the practical exam, we shared rocks, acid and hammers in order to identify samples. You might think that sounds incredibly dull and/or geeky, but I loved it.

These are the types of diagrams we’d have to decipher: test yourself! List the features with letters in the order in which they occurred, write your answers in the comments, and I’ll mark them.

I love maps, but I love geological maps and diagrams as much, if not more. This, in spite of the fact that the maps of the areas I’ve lived in are distinctly dull-looking. (Thanks, British Geological Survey, for choosing such uninspiring colours for the rocks of my areas, though I suppose various shades of dark grey for coal measures is to be expected.)

Other geological cartographers took a less scientific and more aesthetic approach. In the early 40s, the US Army Engineer Corps commissioned the cartographer and geologist Harold Fisk to map not only all 2000 miles of the Mississippi River, but all the ghosts of the river, too. Remarkably — and maybe unbelievably — he took less than three years to do so. In 1944, he presented his “Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River” to the army, and the maps he produced were astoundingly gorgeous:

Fisk must have used a lot of supposition and even much imagination to complete his maps, alongside the evidence available to him, and they’re no less special for that. But I like a huge array of geological maps and charts, including the chunky exam-style diagrams I had to decipher in school. I think the only charts I’m not keen on are the flat, digital drawings. Otherwise, patterned or colourful, ancient or academic, simple or extremely detailed, I love them all.

I took a simple diagram, altered and coloured it in a variety of ways, and when I finally decided on a palette and design, this is what turned out:

It’s my third woven piece, and the quickest I’ve ever done. (Though I admit to only finishing it this morning, just a couple of hours before writing and publishing this blog! Please forgive any typos or mistakes.) Evidently I’m still struggling a little with tension (I need to create some sort of device to keep the distance between the warps even before I start my next project), but it’s better than it has been, and I also got to experiment with other techniques: I made a fringe for my first project, but this is the first time I used layers, and they could do with a bit more trimming.

Honestly, I’m not really sure it works, even though there are many things I could do differently (especially those weird, spectral trees). Perhaps representing geology with textiles is better done through patchwork. I’d like to experiment with that.

Links

The British Geological Survey’s Map Portal is a delight. The 1:63,360 Old Series maps are things of beauty, but the 1:63,360/1:50,000 New Series maps also contain cross-sections and other information.

You can find the whole set of Harold Fisk’s amazing maps on Radical Cartography.