THE JURASSIC (GEOLOGICAL) IMAGINATIONS

The word ‘Jurassic’ is the most popular Geological term in the world, I believe. Credit goes to the academy awards winning director, Steven Spielberg and his team for their tri-sequels of movies - ‘Jurassic Park’, which received overwhelming appreciation from viewers of all age groups, across the continents. There were about 1000+ products, promoted in line with this hyped movie, almost all containing the word ‘Jurassic’. But it is very interesting to note that the majority is not aware of the fact – JURASSIC is infact a geological term / period which denotes about 145 to 195 million years ago during which the life of the unique Dinosaurs, flourished and dominated the (Flora and) Fauna of Earth. There were about 700 species of Dinosaurs and all of them became extinct during ‘Cretaceous’ (about 145 to 65 million years), the geological period which followed the Jurassic. As per the fossil records, this era also had few species of dinosaurs with feathers (Archaeopteryx), considered as the first birds, in the ladder of evolution. Obviously the word ‘Jurassic’ is well known, far more than any other geological terms including the word ‘Geology’ by itself.

I always wonder, how people imagine and visualize about what they have never come across. We, humans are often trying for overcoming the state of not knowing about certain things of what we see, we learn and all above that, what we IMAGINE! We do have many imaginations for which the reasons are usually not made available, even if we try. We neither keep any records nor discuss about these imaginations. As per neuroscience studies, some people possess the ability to let their minds, imaginations integrated so well, with which they can acquire the skills to look things in a different view and create something new be it an art or an invention or even an idea, whatever. They can as well explain to what they have mentally explored with their imaginations.

On March 6, 2012, the self fuelled, just 4.5 billion years old, self firing power engine of our solar system, the SUN erupted with one of the largest solar flares. This flares are like an outburst of its own power which are categorized as the second largest flare, ever recorded by space scientists. Just to imagine… The Sun is a star at the center of our solar system that powers entirely the space environment of all celestial bodies around it, including our tiny home, the Earth. The approximate distance of the Sun from the Earth is 148 to 150 million kilometers. The light, with a speed of about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second, repeat 1 Second, travels from the Sun to reach Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. If we imagine the sun light as a beam of light, being switched on from a giant torch, the light that we get on the Earth has infact started travelling from the Sun, about 8 minutes and 19 seconds ago. And the imagination can only have a beginning here…

The Sun is about 109 times bigger is size that of Earth and has a diameter of about 860,000 miles. The Sun fuses about 500–600 million tons of hydrogen each second and generates its energy by converting hydrogen into helium [nuclear fusion]. It is actually plasma which is neither a solid nor a gas. The energy produced through this process of nuclear fusion by the Sun, produces all of the heat and light that we receive here on Earth. Modern technologies have continued to prove that there are millions of star systems out there in the space, like the Sun and the 8 planets (not 9 now) that we know – Pluto has been taken out of the planets list and is no longer a planet of our solar system.

Imagine a disk, around which there are several of such star systems with millions of stars (each one is like The Sun or even bigger) which can form a Galaxy. The closest  star system that we can see is about 4.4 light years away from Earth. One light year (about 10 trillion kilometers) is an astronomical unit of length, the distance that light can travel in one year - imagine 365 X 24 X 60 X 60 X 300,000 kilometers.

The picture above is of one such galaxies, known as NGC 628, it is between 30 and 36 million light-years away from us and has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years. It is estimated that this galaxy is home to about 100 billion stars, imagine about 100 billion Suns.

And the imagination does not end there, such galaxy is just one of around 200 billion galaxies in the whole universe, as per observations made so far. It may not be an exaggeration to say that looking the planet Earth from another galaxy is like seeing one particle of sand at the boundary while standing in a middle of a desert.

“Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.” - Ayn Rand, Novelist

The planet Earth by herself has many mysterious beauties which would trigger some wild imaginations. The open wound made by Meteors crashing onto earth, altering the landscape forever, wind and rivers blowing and flowing for millions of years, changing the topography of Earth and each one of them would give some appealing and inspiring imaginations. Being a Geologist by graduation, I had several opportunities to visit some unusual places of geological importance, in India. It is ecstatic to eye-witness the serenity of mother nature, the supernatural calmness of forests, the batholithic range of mountains, the relict mass of twisted, rocky outcrops standing proud at the empty horizons, crowned by another boulder with an unusual design... The mother Nature never missed to give a series of explosions of imaginations without any warrant, for me. I am blessed...

B.Mannan

Dubai, UAE