James Hutton the founder of the Theory of Uniformitarianism |
It was during the mid-17th century that the Archbishop JamesUssher of Ireland
and a notable biblical scholar used the Bible to determine the age of the earth
based on the generations described in the Bible. From carefully counting the
number of generations described in the Bible Ussher it determined that the
earth had been created during the year of 4004 BCE. This may not indicate the
actual age of the earth although it does tell how many generations are
described in the Bible.
A little more than a century later the Scottish geologist
James Hutton who is called the father of geology came to the conclusion the
earth was much older then it was believed to be by Archbishop Ussher. Working
out of the University of Edinburgh Hutton laid down one of the basic tenets of
geology when he suggested that the processes occurring today for the same
processes that had acted in the past, and would be the same processes working
in the future. This is a polite way of saying, “Nothing ever changed and
nothing ever will.”
It was in 1785 that Hutton wrote, “we find no vestige of a
beginning, no prospect of an end.” James Hutton, 1785. 100 based his theory on was the slow, natural
processes that he is observed in the landscape of Scotland .
One of the first things he realized was that if a stream was flowing for enough
time it would create a valley. He also observed that ice could a erode rock,
that sediment could accumulate in such a way as to form new landscapes. I'm
also realized that the effects of great disasters on the face of the earth such
as earthquakes, asteroids, volcanoes and floods are nothing more than a part of
the regular cycle of earth processes.
The entire theory is postulated by Hutton known as the Theory of Uniformitarianism is based on the slow, natural processes that occur
on the face of the earth cussing him to speculate that millions of years
would've been required to form the surface of the earth into its present state.
This theory was used to give rise to a new science that was closely related to
geology that is called, “geomorphology.” This is the study of landforms and how
they were created.
Hutton himself is not a very good writer that is considered
by many to be unfortunate, but his paper of 1785 suggested an entirely new
theory of geomorphology that is the study of landforms and their development.
Another sentry was to pass before another geologist Sir Charles Lyell. Whose
money and metal book the principles of geology that was published in 1830
popularized the concept laid down by Hutton in his earlier work on
uniformitarianism.
Today the age of the earth is estimated to be about 4.50 5
billion years old with a planet having had enough time for the slow, continuous
processes of geology to mold and shape our as we now know. In the same vein we know that sudden
disasters have also had some very profound impacts on our landscapes.
In 1994, the US National Research Concil will stated:
“It is not known whether the relocation of materials on the
surface of the Earth is dominated by the slower but continuous fluxes operating
all the time or by the spectacular large fluxes that operate during short-lived
cataclysmic events. (Davis , 18).”
Today it is recognized that the water that falls on those
writing during a storm slowly erodes the soil, wind is capable of moving the
sands of the desert's, floods can change the course of a river while the theory
of uniformitarianism unlocks the keys of our distant past and predicts the
future and is the controlling factor for everything that occurs today.
For further reading about this subject consult:
Davis, Mike. Ecology of Fear: Los
Angeles and the Imagination of
Disaster.
Lyell, Charles. Principles of Geology.
Tinkler, Keith J. A Short History of Geomorphology. Barnes & Noble Books, 1985.
Lyell, Charles. Principles of Geology.
Tinkler, Keith J. A Short History of Geomorphology. Barnes & Noble Books, 1985.
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