Jonathan Warnock
Jonathan Warnock has always been into rocks. But that interest led him to a curiosity about the Earth, what affects it, and why it is how it is. Then he learned about dinosaurs and knew what his life’s work would be about. Now he’s a professor in IUP’s Department of Anthropology, Geospatial, and Earth Sciences. Learn more about him in this installment of Meet Our Faculty.
What is it about the geology field that initially drew you in—and ultimately keeps you interested?
In a way, this is hard to answer. Being into rocks goes further than my memory. Early in grade school, they added gravel shoulders to the roads of our rural town. I came home with pockets stuffed full of rocks for years, and the complaints about rocks in the washer and dryer became pretty frequent. I found a fossil in the gravel under our deck sometime before kindergarten. I colored the grooves red with a crayon. You can still see some traces of the red if you grab it from my teaching lab. It grabbed me and took over.
I was always into rocks, and that collection started early and grew fastest, but dinosaurs caught me completely. When I was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I always answered, “a paleontologist.” It was dinosaur books, VHS tapes, and plastic toys from then on out. Jurassic Park (the movie, not the book) was released in 1993. I was 9. That was the event that sealed it. In high school, I jumped on the opportunity to meet a professor from Northern Illinois University, and from then on, it was lab work, driving out west for T. rex, and never looking back. The geology education I was getting filled in all the contexts these animals lived in. The rocks had been their world, and the importance of that was clear. To make rent, I took a job in a lab helping a professor study fossil algae. It sounded boring right up until it became the core of my entire career.
Studying Antarctica and the interconnectedness of the world inspired me. The complexity of the interactions of all the parts of the Earth's system is beautiful, and I could use fossils to watch them change through time. Growing up, there was a continual series of TV shows, cartoons, school assemblies, and documentaries about pollution and climate change. Year after year, from grade school on, these shows told the story of a world falling apart. Year after year, there was no silver lining or problem solved. Being able to be part of that solution, to understand climate change, to predict and combat it, keeps me going.
Why do you enjoy teaching in this discipline?
Geology is everything. You understand the Earth. Everything is on the Earth, so geology isn’t just rocks. To study the Earth and how it works, you have to understand some of life, chemistry, and physics. Geology is ice and water and soil and rain and humanity. It is impossible to describe how complex the Earth’s system is. Geology is the best way to see the complexity and the beautiful interactions of the system.
Then, geology allows you to understand how all of these parts and processes interact and change through time. To see a hill or a cliff and read the rocks, knowing what happened in that place in the deep past, is profound. It’s the entire big picture of every part and living thing of Earth moving at once, and the single grain of sand landing on a riverbed.
The perspective of deep time and how very little of Earth’s history humanity has experienced is important enough that alumni often come back to talk about how it changed their lives. The fourth dimension, that time perspective, is infinitely fascinating. Nothing is more powerful than a story, and I’m always ready to tell Earth’s story if someone wants to listen.
What advice would you give students about how to succeed in college?
Be honest with yourself. A day of self-care can spare a week or more of struggle in the classroom. Don’t take on too much, but always keep your eyes open for opportunities. Talk to your professors.
Tell us something most of your students may not know about you.
I am a fantastic Dungeon Master. I run an alumni game.