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The nature offers us many aesthetic sensations. Indeed, the nature is a "great artist". The geological forces and processes are its instruments. The beauty of landscapes is one of its most common aesthetic expressions. How many of us has admired the beauty of landscapes, representative outcrops, wonderful minerals, and fossils, and geological phenomenon, such as volcanic eruptions, ice-bergs, sedimentation, erosion, etc.? What are those sensations that we experiment? These are a mixture of feelings where the aesthetics, the wonder of the nature and the majesty of geological processes assault our minds and hearts in the form of art. Their beauty is one of the reasons why geological features are selected to be conserved.
The relationship of art and geology has been treated by painting, photography, poetry, sculpture, installations, and performance. This relationship is called here as geoaesthetics. It can be defined as
"aesthetics produced by natural geological processes, such as rocks, or by man, when he use geological elements or concepts to produce art".
Therefore, the geoaesthetics comprises rocks, formations, minerals, landscapes, natural monuments, outcrops, and structures, as well as geological and geophysical maps, the use of rocks or other geological elements in decoration, architecture, and Land/Earth art. The post-modern, avantgarde antiart view (e.g. Dada) in which everything can be considered as art and anyone can produce it, even the nature, is accepted here. Geoaesthetics is post-modernt, because it mixes art and science and unifies classic beauty concept of landscapes and geological monuments with a modern art view of microscope pictures, satellite images and geophysical and geological maps.
Understanding these issues as art is a subjective option, a matter of taste. However, a person does not need to be a geologist to see beauty in those phenomena. Indeed, usually it is easier to layman perceive the aesthetics in geology than for geologists. Although geologists see their field from the scientific, applied and aesthetic points of view, unfortunately many of us wish to see geology only as a science or applied benefit for the society. Indeed, beyond its aesthetic pleasure, geoaesthetics can be also used in geological education, nature tourism, Earth heritage conservation, landscaping, architecture, and arts in general.
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