Exploration

Abstract

From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries geographic explorers covered the entire earth, mapping and studying the physiography and ecology. While there are a few “die hards” nostalgically attempting to relive the experiences of that earlier period, exploration in the twentieth century is the prerogative of the earth scientists, seeking to discover and evaluate the mineral resources upon which civilization is dependent. They are the successors to the prospectors, a hardy group of individuals who went into the mountains with a bag of beans, a chunk of salt pork, a pick, a shovel, a rifle, and a dream of finding riches.