The Geoblogosphere Arrives

Five years ago this month, About.com outfitted all of us with WordPress and our blog age (or bloggage, if you prefer) began. My first post from 24 June 2003 is still extant, and for better or worse it seems to be the oldest blog post from a purely geology-oriented site on the entire Web.

Later that year, I put up sheets of paper at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco asking, "Are You a Geoblogist?" No one was, apparently. The best response I got to that appeal was not a blog; it was Christie Rowe's graduate-school home page at UCSC. (Now she's teaching geology and geoblogging for real in South Africa.)

The June 2008 Geotimes has recognized what I did two years ago, when I first compiled a list of geology blogs, and includes brief profiles of seven of the best bloggers. Its cramped definition of geology ignores the long-running blogs RealClimate, Speleonet and Pitpundit, but it's a good start. Chris Rowan of the blog Highly Allochthonous lists over 40 more, and those legitimately constitute a geoblogosphere. Congratulations!