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Geology and the war on the Western Front, 1914–1918
Author(s) -
Doyle Peter
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.188
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1365-2451
pISSN - 0266-6979
DOI - 10.1111/gto.12066
Subject(s) - front (military) , exhibition , first world war , world war ii , event (particle physics) , geopolitics , history , geology , ancient history , spanish civil war , economic history , archaeology , political science , law , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics , politics
The First World War started a hundred years ago this year. On 4 August 2014 the United Kingdom marked the anniversary of involvement in this war with a remembrance event at Mons, and over the next four years there will be new museums and exhibitions, services and events, conferences and colloquia world‐wide. The aim of this collective recognition of a major event in world history is to pick over the impact and effects, innovations and consequences of a war that claimed the lives of at least 16 million people and left the world with geopolitical issues that still reverberate today. One of its notable innovations was the use of geology in warfare. As is well known, compared with the open war fought against the Russians on the eastern front, the war in the west very quickly became positional, with opposing trench lines locked into a position that would dictate the war's approach. And with trench warfare, came the need to understand the geology of the land over which the men were fighting.