THE DYNAMIC EARTH: A BLOG ABOUT GEOLOGY AND THE EARTH SCIENCES

Saturday, October 31, 2009

"The Thing on the Fourble Board" - Halloween Geology!

It's Halloween again and, just like last year, I've got some geology- themed horror for you all to enjoy! As we all know, Science is the unholy pursuit of Knowledge That Man Was Never Meant To Know. And the MOST blasphemous of all sciences is geology, seeing as how we seek to understand the inner workings of untold epochs and the secret histories of Earth's unimaginably ancient past; I mean, that's a given, right? An exploration of the horrors that lurk in the dark recesses of the ancient Earth form the center piece of the radio play "The Thing on the Fourble Board", an episode of the horror show "Quiet, Please" from 1948 (downloadable from the link I just gave you).

The radio show takes place on an oil derrick (as evidenced by the the title: a "fourble" is a catwalk on a derrick that's four pipelengths high off the bushing) somewhere in Pennsylvania. After drilling deeper than anyone had ever drilled before, the rough necks come across...something from deep within the Earth.

Anyway, "The Thing on the Fourble Board" is probably one of the best, legitimately spooky pieces of horror radio out there (especially the weird vocalizations of the The Thing itself). And it takes place on an oil derrick (and, come to think of it, would be one hell of a "Safety Moment" back at Oil Company HQ). Anyway, sit back and enjoy some Halloween themed geology with "The Thing on the Fourble Board".

Happy Halloween!