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The length of time represented by these geological events is particularly long when directly compared with the history of mankind in the 6,000 years since written languages appeared. This is why geological systems, including small and minor components like salt tectonics, can be considered a basic framework for mankind, i.e. something to be acted upon.
Take a minute and contemplate how many different 6,000 year histories of mankind can be mapped into the geological record. In this minute of meditation, consider the fact most of mankind's significant impacts on geology (railroads, freeways, big open pit mines, etc.) have occurred in the past 200 years (not counting the desertification of the Sahara). This implies that if these different histories were limited to 5,000 years of development before being wiped out, we might never know they happened. For the most part they would not even be noticed in the geological record.
Using a 26,000 year Milankovich Cycles, as described earlier in this section, and assume an intelligent force planted one 5,000 year human society somewhere on earth for each of these 26,000 year cycles. Scientists claim the earliest humanoid bones date to about 2,000,000 years ago. If a 5,000 year human society was started by a reasoning entity, e.g. God, every 26,000 years, there would have been 77 human civilizations since the first humanoid bones were deposited in the geological record. And this does not take into account the millions of other planets suitable for life somewhere in the universe (the first of which was recently identified by astronomers). Expanding this thought exercise, if we go back to the Jurassic time frame, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, which scientists estimate started started about 210 million years ago, and allow one different 5,000 year long civilization to develop every 26,000 years, God could have allowed 7,385 different human civilizations to develop on planet Earth alone since the Jurassic. Enough contemplation.
One of the big technical issues in oil and gas exploration over the last couple of decades, has been developing technologies to “see" underneath layers of salt. Improvements have been made in how the data are collected. Big improvements are currently being made in how the seismic data are processed. This seismic processing or data focusing is called pre-stack depth migration. Mankind's ability to ask questions like "How do we see beneath salt?" is phenomenal.
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paradoxes