Yesterday I posted a link to data showing the rapid westward expansion of people settling the United States as demonstrated by the rise of farming. Pretty dull stuff if you’re not into statistics you might think!

Well 24 hours later and I stumble across the UNESCO World Digital Library which has a fantastic collection of documents and maps. Some very pretty ancient maps too:

Emigrant's map to Indian Territorium

I’ve loved looking at maps since childhood and would highly recommend Katherine Harmon’s book You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination if you share this interest.

So browsing this online treasure trove I come across some superb examples showing how long people have been fascinated with exploring and colonising the American continent way before the days of the Wild West.

I’ve listed just a few in chonological order below that are all connected by this spirit of adventure and probably also a fear of the unknown:

  1. A Modern and Quite Precise Depiction of America (or the Fourth Part of the World) Dated 1562 and annotated in Latin it shows the first mention of California and also indicates just how much land there is to explore - anything above the southern seaboard states is marked “ulterivs hec terra incognita permansit” which according to an online translation site is ‘farther this earth unknown to stay to the end’. Very Lost!
  2. Map of California Shown as an Island 100 years later and Spanish explorers have still not determined if California is connected to the North American mainland. Perhaps if the ever-expected superquake does occur the state may well end up disconnected from the rest of the west coast.
  3. History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the river Columbia to the Pacific Ocean An American classic - over 2 years of exploration to discover land and people previously unknown. Now you can read the original online.
  4. Emigrant’s Map and Guide for Routes to North America 50 years later and it doesn’t take a Corps of Discovery to adventure across the US. All you need is a handy map showing how and where to start your journey. But 300 years on from the first map and the inner reaches of the American continent are now marked as ‘Indian Territorium’ - Indian Territory.

I look forward to future additions to the collection.


I’m sure you’re tired of reading about Obama’s win and US election politics but whilst scanning the blogs I came across two interesting comments from readers on Matthew Price’s election blog for the BBC:

1. “Interesting to look at the political map of who won which states. A centre with two coastlines… as others have said, an inward looking and an outward looking country.”

2. “As an Englishman looking at the Election results on the Map of America, the divisions look like the Confederate war, who knows ‘The south may rise again’”…

Read the rest of this entry »


Today, according to this BBC News story, marks the 140th anniversary of the last major earthquake to strike the Hayward Fault, one of the many fault lines which criss-cross the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Hayward Fault, which runs directly through Oakland to the east of downtown San Francisco, is described on the USGS website as a “tectonic time bomb, due anytime for another magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake.”

The 1868 quake was described at the time as the “great San Francisco earthquake” until the magnitude 7.8 shock on 18 April 1906. You can read a report of the damage on the U.S. Geological Survey website.

Only 12,00 people lived in Oakland at the time, in mainly wooden buildings, but the possible consequences today are enormous and so many parties have come together to form the 1868 Hayward Earthquake Alliance to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the 1868 ‘big one’ and to raise public awareness of another imminent quake.

These historical photos show the destruction caused by the quake to old wooden structures. Joking aside in the title of this post, spare a thought for those living in the area now. Budding geologists and seismologists should take a trip and check out the sites courtesy of this handy field guide to one of North America’s most dangerous earthquake faults, including a 96 page PDF field trip planner.


I have been going through my collection of old National Geographics and wanted to share one of my favourite issues.

It’s the September 1996 edition (Vol. 190, No 3 in case you want to buy a copy on eBay) and features a fantastic article and series of photos taken high above the Fours Corners region in the American Southwest.

Writer T.H. Watkins and former Navajo Nation pilot Adriel Heisey teamed up to produce a beautiful illustrated guide to what must be one of the most scenic and - for geologists, especially - most amazing landscapes on earth.

Watkins quotes WWII reporter Ernie Pyle to illustrate how many have loved the region for its isolated magnificence:

The only way to feel the country is to pause in it… in the desert it’s likely to occur to you that our daily lives in the cities are full of seeing, hearing, and worrying over a great many things that are of no damn consequence whatever.

Given the current state of the stockmarket this might be a nice quote to start the day with to soothe those pension fund concerns!

The region encompases some of the most amazing canyons you could hope to photograph - Dark Canyon, Marble Canyon and, of course, the Grand Canyon. Plus there are the glorious iconic Mittens in Monument Valley which have come to represent the mythic West.

I camped in the park back in 1991 and watched the sunrise at dawn, an unforgettable experience. In the absence of my photos I’ll point you to James Neeley’s shot of the Predawn Mittens.

For the Navajo this land is more than just a source of tourist income:

If a Navajo stands at at the center of the Four Corners country, he looks to the La Plata Mountains in southwestern Colorado, to Blanca Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, to Mount Taylor in western New Mexico, and to the San Francisco peaks in northern Arizona. To the Navajo’s way of thinking, these are not just geographic points pinning down the four corner’s of the place where he happens to live, they are the bounds within which lie the ancient spiritual traditions of his people. In the Navajo cosmology, the landscape here is numinous with meaning and power, and when a person lives in harmony with the land and its spirit, he is said to be walking in beauty.

If you want to read more about this geographical anomoly, the only place in the United States where the corners of four states intersect, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Watkins’ article and perhaps even subscribing to the magazine.