Crafting deep time: Tempotechnical practices in experimental geology, 1788–1888–1988

This article explores how scientists in experimental geology craft deep time. Scientists experimented with geological time from 1788 to present-day high-pressure geology, and employed strategies to understand and communicate their research. In their labs, the formation of rocks or the uplift and erosion of mountains, events that take eons in nature, occur in a matter of hours or minutes—such unsettling yet spectacular experiences offered new possibilities to manage the unimaginable temporalities of the earth. In this article, I introduce “tempotechnical practices” as a tool for considering how geological timescales became manageable in laboratory settings. I argue that a broad and comparative perspective on geological time adds to the literature on scientific temporalities by showing how experimental geologists reformulate the mind-boggling temporal scales of deep time and control past, present, and future. This challenges the common assumption that thinking about deep time “warps our sense of indebtedness to earth forces and creatures past, present, and future” . Instead, the experimental crafting of deep time in experimental geology evokes visions of power and control, for better or for worse.