February 23, 2011

Geology Word of the Week: Q is for Quaternary

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Quaternary Girl. Base image taken from here.

def. Quaternary:
The most recent Period of geologic time. We have been in the Quaternary Period for the past ~2.6 million years. The Quaternary Period is located within the Cenozoic Era and is further sub-divided into the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs.

For this week’s Geology Word of the Week I decided to write a song. I am not singing it for you because I cannot sing. Although I sometimes “sing” in the shower or in my car (when alone), I do not have a single grain of musical ability. Seriously. When I first participated in Chapel services at my high school, the minister and choir director actually suggested I mouth the words rather than sing. I had an even more humiliating musical experience earlier in life. After a few months of failed attempts to teach me to play simple tunes such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” my second grade music teacher suggested to my parents that I not pursue playing the recorder any further.

Come to think of it, perhaps my musical lack-of-ability means that I am not a very good songwriter. Oh, well. The song is already written, so I may as well share it with you here. If anyone with musical talent and a nice singing voice would like to record this song, I would love to hear it sung properly.

Quaternary Girl
Lyrics by, Evelyn the Geologist
To the tune of Madonna’s “Material Girl”

Cambrian Devonian
They’re too old for me
Triassic and Jurassic
The dinosaurs not me

Permian Silurian
The timing’s just not right
That’s right
For the past two million years
These Periods aren’t right, ’cause we are

(Chorus)
Living in a Quaternary world
And I am a Quaternary girl
You know that we are living in a Quaternary world
And I am a Quaternary girl

Carboniferous and Cretaceous
Tertiary makes three
Ordovician’s the last one left
Unless you count Miss and Penn

Eons, Eras, and Epochs
And sometimes a short Age
But when it comes to Periods
There’s only one today, ’cause we are

(chorus)

Living in a Quaternary world [Quaternary]
Living in a Quaternary world
(repeat)

Ages come and Ages go
That’s just geology 
Anthropocene is coming next
Unless that’s now maybe, but everybody’s

(chorus)

A Quaternary, a Quaternary, a Quaternary, a Quaternary world

Living in a Quaternary world [Quaternary]
Living in a Quaternary world
(repeat and fade)

Here’s the lyrics of the original song:

Material Girl
Madonna

Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me
I think they’re O.K.
If they don’t give me proper credit
I just walk away

They can beg and they can plead
But they can’t see the light
That’s right
‘Cause the boy with cold hard cash
Is always Mister Right, ’cause we are

(Chorus)
Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Some boys romance, some boys slow dance
That’s all right with me
If they can’t raise my interest then I
Have to let them be

Some boys try and some boys lie but
I don’t let them play
Only boys who save their pennies
Make my rainy day, ’cause they are

(chorus)

Living in a material world [material]
Living in a material world
(repeat)

Boys may come and boys may go
And that’s all right you see
Experience has made me rich
And now they’re after me, ’cause everybody’s

(chorus)

A material, a material, a material, a material world

Living in a material world [material]
Living in a material world
(repeat and fade)