A Wilder Time. William E. Glassley

      

      Praise for A Wilder Time

      “While conveying the geological hypotheses, techniques of data collection, and adventures of his expeditions to Greenland with his two Danish colleagues, William E. Glassley also brings startling sensory precision to his descriptions. The velvety feeling of moss, the taste of lichen, the alternating rhythms of terror and fluidity in schools of fish through which a predatory sculpin cruises—such experiences bring what might have seemed a stark world of rock and ice alive. This delicacy of perception is the vehicle through which not only the scientific quest but also the profound mystery of our living Earth saturates this memorable book.”

      —John Elder, coeditor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing and author of Picking Up the Flute

      “A Wilder Time is a wonderful mix of science and poetry. It delves into the kind of spiritual effect that wilderness has on those privileged to work in it and how it changes the way we experience and understand our surroundings and our lives. The science, including the geological controversy at the heart of the book, is lucidly explained, and readers will be absorbed by the story Glassley tells as well as his many vividly described encounters with nature. Next time someone asks me why I am a geologist, I will just hand them this book.”

      —William L. Griffin, professor of geology at Macquarie University

      “While conducting research probing deep time and the origin of continents, Glassley discovered a further source of fascination: the Arctic wilderness of Greenland. In A Wilder Time, he shares his encounters with unvarnished nature still free—for now—from the corruptions and constructs of human settlement. With openness, clarity, and a keen eye for detail, he weaves adventure, research, astonished awe, and thoughtful reflection into an absorbing account of his sojourns.”

      —Martha Hickman Hild, author of Geology of Newfoundland: Field Guide

      “As geologists, we may be rational scientists, but expeditions to remote places touch something deep in us that moves us to also be poets. Glassley has turned his experiences in Greenland into searingly beautiful descriptions of a wild landscape and the ways in which that landscape moves and changes him. Every sentence is evocative, connoting curiosity, awe, and respect in equal measure. A Wilder Time is a paean on the importance of wilderness to the human spirit and a saddening reminder of what we lose when we divorce ourselves from contact with wild places. Glassley’s voice will stay with me the way the works of Loren Eiseley, Edward Abbey, Rachel Carson, and Aldo Leopold have stayed with me over the decades.”

      —Jane Selverstone, professor emerita in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico

John and Kai walking toward the ice edge

      First published in the United States in 2018 by Bellevue Literary Press, New York

      For information, contact:

      Bellevue Literary Press

      NYU School of Medicine

      550 First Avenue

      OBV A612

      New York, NY 10016

      © 2018 by William E. Glassley

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Glassley, William E.

      Title: A wilder time: notes from a geologist at the edge of the Greenland ice. / William E. Glassley.

      Description: First edition. | New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2017005087 (print) | LCCN 2017006260 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Geology—Greenland. | Geology—Research—Greenland. | Climatic changes—Research—Greenland. | Climatic changes—History. | Ice cores—Greenland.

      Classification: LCC QE70 .G53 2018 (print) | LCC QE70 (ebook) | DDC 559.8/2—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005087

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a print, online, or broadcast review.

      Bellevue Literary Press would like to thank all its generous donors—individuals and foundations—for their support.

      This publication is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

      This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

      Book design and composition by Mulberry Tree Press, Inc.

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      ebook ISBN: 978-1-942658-35-1

       To Kai Sørensen and John Korstgård,

       whose friendships, hearts, and souls

       made Team Alpha happen,

       and to Nina,

       who forced me to accept the moment

      Either everything’s sublime, or nothing is.

      —KATHERINE LARSON

      You didn’t come into this world.

      You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean.

      You are not a stranger here.

      —ALAN WATTS

      Contents

List of Maps and Figures

Preface

Introduction

IMPRESSIONS I

Fractionation

Silence

Mirage

       Breaking Stones

       Cladonia Rangiferina

       Falcon

       IMPRESSIONS II