Geologic Time Spiral

  • Lisa Hall
Joseph Graham, William Newman, and John Stacy, The Geologic Time Spiral—A Path to the Past (ver. 1.2, 2008). U.S. Geological Survey General Information.

Drawing attention to the relative scales of geologic and human time, the Geologic Time Spiral is an apt starting place for an inquiry into the Anthropocene. Earth’s origin and early life are obscure, receding into a distant past some 4.5 billion years ago—but as time and the spiral unfold, more details emerge. Depicted is the story of a changing planet and evolving life, a story recovered from the rocks that form the planet’s crust. Human-time barely registers, yet our traces may define the next chapter. The spiral image also calls to mind oft-quoted lines from Yeats’s 1919 poem “The Second Coming.” The sentiment continues to resonate:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…



Lisa Hall is an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Her current research explores the production of scientific knowledges and social imaginaries relating to energy, the environment, and health. Drawing on the anthropology and sociology of knowledge, she engages these issues empirically through a set of related projects on global environmental change and fracking. She previously worked as a public health physician and epidemiologist in London, UK.

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