Today is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Everyone knows about the HMS Beagle and his "On the Origin of Species", published in 1859. His work outlining evolution underlies much of science, studies of biology, animal behavior,evolution, microbiology, zoology.
His "On the Origin of Species" is considered his greatest contribution to science, but Darwin was also an avid geologist. Prodigious chronicler that he was, his theories were precipitated by lots of observation, collaboration, and, to be real, some humdrum moments that every scientist lives. Darwin published "Note on a Rock Seen on an Iceberg in 61o South Latitude", in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 9, (1839). From the mate of a ship skippered by a colleague who had sailed in the Antarctic, he wrote of "a black spot" on "a distant iceberg." Learning the dimensions estimated by observation and drawing, Darwin wondered about the origin of these "erratic boulders", rocks deposited by glaciers, which he had been studying.
Based on the course of his colleagues vessel, and what was known of the area from "Cook in the year 1773", he thought the rock fragment must have rafted on an ice sheet from a distant land mass. At the time geologists debated about the existence of an ice age or a great flood. Boulders were part of the puzzle. Prevailing thought was that rocks were not transported by glacier movement. His pondering on erratic rocks continued, and in 1841 he published his influential "On the distribution of the Erratic Boulders and on the Contemporaneous Unstratified Deposits of South America".
As exciting a time as it was in the 18th century, it was also slow going. Correspondence occurred by letter, of which Darwin wrote over 2000. He triangulated his geographical knowledge of landmasses in the area of the dark spot his colleagues spied, with information for from over half a century earlier. Patience and perseverance, as well as creativity and insight, brought progress.
The excellent Darwin Correspondence Project collects Darwin's >2000 letters. "Darwin 200", from the London's Natural History Museum, lists some events celebratory events marking Darwin's birthday, some occurring throughout 2009.
