Friends of the Pleistocene Digging Song

Music: Gilbert and Sullivan

Lyrics: E.J. Cushing (Univ. Minn.) and C.L Matsch (Univ. Minn.-Duluth)

 

We’re Friends of the Pleistocene;

damn little ice we’ve seen; listen and we’ll tell you why:

The glaciers retreated, the lakes are depleted,

the temperatures risen too high.

 

We’ve till and we’ve gravel, our problems travel,

when stones oriented we see.

We’ve eskers and kames and various names

to apply to the Glacial debris.

 

We’ve loess and we’ve soils which add to our toils,

we’ve lakes and we’ve peat bogs to bore.

With Quercus and Fagus and Pinus to plague us,

the pollen we cannot ignore.

 

So we’re Friends of the Pleistocene,

where geology’s nice and clean. Granites and faults we decry.

Instead of Petrology, on carbon chronology

and climatic change we rely.