Sasha Says - Geological timescale - a podcast by Whitestone Geopark

May 2020

Radio announcer: Time to talk Geopark once again. Joined by Geo educator Sasha Morriss. Sasha, still working from home at the moment.

Geoeducator: That's right, yes, I'm still working remotely.

Radio announcer: But you've been really active and busy, I guess.

Geoeducator: Oh, yeah. Look, it's been a really good opportunity for us just to develop a lot more online resources. So we've got a kids page up and running, lots of activities in kid friendly language. And we've also set up a resources page specifically for teachers to use. Now, teachers, you know, not just in schools, teachers are parents, teachers are family members. So if you've got children that you care for or in your life, jump online and have a look. And there might be some resources there that the people in your family find interesting.

Radio announcer: Now, one of the things you have been working on, I understand, is about timelines.

Geoeducator: That's right. Yes. So geological timescales and timelines is what we've been working on lately. And that's available online now. So we've got some text around that explaining what is the geological time scale and also the time scale itself. And it has been drawn up in a column form. So just to run over it briefly, the geological time scale is massive. It's very difficult for us to get our minds around, you know, millions of years. So what we've done is we've re created one specifically for the Waitaki District that tells the story of Zealandia. So everything on this geological timescale to date relates back to things that we discuss in Kids Corner. So there's nothing in there that's going to throw you and think, oh, what's that? It's all things that you can cross reference to Kids corner. And it covers right from when New Zealand was part of Gondwana - basement rocks were being formed through to the separation of Zealandia. And then what we see recorded here in the Waitaki District with the marine transgression, the volcanism, we've got glaciation etc. So it's not a thing to really get hung up on the actual numbers, but it's the order of things. What happened first? What happened next etc. And it just put things into context for people. And I think makes things a little bit more accessible and clearer for people. So we'd just really appreciate people's feedback as to what they think. And I guess one thing to keep in mind when you're looking at the geological time scale is one of the assumptions that's made is that things happen at a constant rate over time. Now, we know in reality that this is not true, that you have catastrophic events that do create things that would be recorded in the geological time scale. However, over time, we kind of assume that these things even out. And so there's lots of factors that come into play when you read the geological time scale. So if you read the text, you'll see there is a margin of error that is built in there. But when you start talking about millions of years, you know, you can have significant margins of era. They can be, you know, a million years here or there. So that's why geologists tend to talk about epochs or periods of time. So when you hear Oligocene, Eocene, Miocene - they're periods of time that span millions and millions of years. And that's what geologists tend to talk about rather than specific dates.

Radio announcer: And all of that is available on the Web site.

Geoeducator: It's all available on the Web site. So jump on there and have a look. And we would just love to hear your feedback.

Radio announcer: And that Web site address, again is...

Geoeducator: The website address is www.whitestonegeopark.nz

Radio announcer: Thanks for your time, Sasha. We'll catch up again next time.

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