Exploring the Cosmic Beginnings and Geological Marvels of British Columbia

The Geological History of British Columbia

In future issues of our newsletter, we will be featuring articles about the Geological History of BC as offered by Dave Robertson of Westshore Estates, a long time resident of the North Westside, who has always had a fascination of

the incredible geology of BC and a former teacher of Geology at The U of Alberta and UBCO as well as Oxford University and the University of Leeds. Dr. Robertson received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Alberta, and his Doctorate from Leeds and Oxford Universities. Dr. Robertson wants to share this passion with all North Westside residents so they too can have an appreciation of the history that BC holds, under our feet.

Through the course of the next several issues, Dave will take us on a journey of time covering from The Beginning, approximately 13.5 billion years ago. This is the time it took for the light from the farthest galaxies to reach us and is the age

of our Universe. Covering the Archean Period through to the present, we will all garner a better understanding of the creation of our mountains, like Sugar Loaf and Terrace Mountain. We will answer some questions regarding radioactive decay and age dating. We will explore other aspects of the Okanagan like the evolution of Fintry Falls through underwater passageways and much more local content.

The Interview:

Let's start with The Beginning. Who were the scientists that tried the most to explain the beginning of the

earth?

Einstein and Hawkings with their incredible intellects tried to imagine what

existed BEFORE. Even with their imagination and scientific backgrounds, they

could not completely explain The Beginning. I can only imagine that there was a

"Continuum" not a "Space-time Continuum" because there was no time. It was

not "nothing" because it produced "everything". For some reason our Universe

began in that Continuum. I find it difficult to believe the Universe started as a tiny

point in that Continuum and has been expanding ever since. How could the

Universe be smaller than an atom?? Rather, it makes more sense to me that the

Universe began as a change of state of the continuum.

You have extended classroom experience with teaching from textbooks. Do

you have experiential learnings that formulated this idea of Continuum

more concretely?

Yes, I had an experience that gave me some insight. One cool November day

when it was about 5C below zero and dead calm, I went for a walk in the

wilderness. I came across a pond with a liquid surface that looked like glass. I

dropped a pebble into the pond and instantly the light from the pond changed,

the change radiating out from where the pebble had dropped. The pond had

instantly changed its state from water to ice. Now its surface was solid, not liquid.

I figure maybe the Universe started as a change from a "Continuum" to a "Space-

time Continuum". It simply changed its state. Whereas before it was simply pure

energy, it now became energy plus matter. The energy was partially transformed

to matter according to the wonderfully simple Einstein equation: E=mc squared.

That is: The energy is the mass of the object times the square of lightspeed, AN

ENORMOUS NUMBER!!!

At the beginning of time, what was the very first element that existed on

earth?

The only element which existed, hydrogen, formed the first stars which lived and

died in violence, all the time creating the heavier elements (up to iron) in

abundance. The debris from all this action formed the sun and planets about 4.55

billion years ago. The Earth could not have formed until the fusion energy of stars

created the elements necessary for its creation.

What was the Earth like during the Hadean Period?

The first episode of geologic time is called the Hadean because the Earth was

hotter than hell then with violent vulcanism and lava flows as the continents and

oceans formed. Believe it or not, evidence of life as old as 4 billion years has

been found, about the same time as the first continents formed and stabilized. By

then God went through His "Second day" of creation. We would need more time

to cover God’s Third day, and I look forward to sharing that with you in the next

segment.

Thank you Dave, for spending time with us and getting us all interested in

The Beginning of our planet’s creation. We all learned a thing or two.

Looking forward to more installments on the geology of BC and how

it affects what we see, consume and occupy as we call the North Westside

home.