Olympic-Wallowa Lineament - Puzzle Pieces

Puzzle Pieces

How any of the broader context relates to the OWL is unknown, as nothing is known of the nature of the ur-OWL. When the story is finally known it may be that the significance of some of these elements is in their non-significance.

In attempting to solve puzzles it is often the case that pieces seem impossible to fit – until we discover we have been holding them the wrong way. It is often the same way with scientific puzzles. In an article titled "The value of outrageous geological hypotheses", Davis (1926) mentioned "the Wegener outrage of wandering continents". It is instructive to note that the similarity of the western and eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean – obvious even to a schoolchild – was long a puzzle. It seemed to require choosing between obvious impossibilities: either some kind of control of shore-line building processes over thousands of miles apart, or "wandering continents". Either of these seemed outrageous. Wegener's theory of continental drift, first published in 1912, was rejected on the basis of impossibility until the theory of plate tectonics explained how continents could 'wander'. Such reinterpretation of concepts and evidence seems characteristic of the resolution of puzzles; it is intriguing to consider what modifications and extensions will result when the puzzle of the OWL is finally solved.

Retrospectively the solution may seem "obvious", with future generations wondering why we could not sort it out. Perhaps it will be obvious – once we get all the pieces turned around the right way up.