I’ve always liked mountains. When I was young, I didn’t understand much but I felt a visceral connection with the rocks, always seeking out crags to scramble on, drawn to scars and pocketing rocks, more intrigued by their textures than having any deep insights into their origin. Decades later, I’m a geology professor at the University of Adelaide and I’ve learnt to read the rocks to glimpse our planet’s deep history. There is delight in this, but also vertigo as I peek into the temporal abyss and see
