scholarly journals Classic Rock Tours 1. Hutton’s Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland: A Guide for Visiting the Shrine on the Abyss of Time

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Andrew Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
De Se ◽  
History Of ◽  
Devonian Age

The angular unconformity at Siccar Point in Scotland is one of the most famous localities in the history of geology. At this spot, steeply dipping, folded turbiditic sandstone of early Silurian age is clearly overlain by subhorizontal red conglomerate, breccia and sandstone of late Devonian age. Siccar Point was not the first unconformity ever to be described or illustrated, but it is unquestionably one of the most spectacular and informative that geologists are likely to see. In June of 1788, a famous excursion by James Hutton, John Playfair and Sir James Hall first discovered this striking evidence for the cyclic nature of geological processes and the probable antiquity of the Earth. Contrary to myth, it was likely not the inspiration for Hutton’s famous phrase no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end, but Playfair’s metaphor of looking so far into the abyss of time is forever associated with this place. Siccar Point influenced many other geologists, including the young Charles Lyell, who would eventually bring the ideas of James Hutton together with those of William Smith, to build the uniformitarian paradigm that founded modern geology. Lyell’s writings would in turn influence the young Charles Darwin in his search for the reality and causes of evolution. Siccar Point is easy to visit from the historic and vibrant city of Edinburgh, and such a pilgrimage is easily combined with other sights of geological or cultural interest. Visiting the shrine involves a short coastal hike in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland. This article combines practical advice for would-be pilgrims to Siccar Point with some historical context about its pivotal role in the development of geological ideas in the enlightenment of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.RÉSUMÉLa discordance angulaire de Siccar Point en Écosse est l'une des localités les plus célèbres de l'histoire de la géologie. À cet endroit, un grès turbiditique plissé à fort pendage du début du Silurien est recouvert de conglomérats rouges subhorizontaux, de brèches et d’un grès de la fin du Dévonien. Siccar Point n'est pas la première discordance qui ait été décrite ou illustrée, mais c'est sans conteste l'une des plus spectaculaires et révélatrices que les géologues puissent voir. En juin 1788, avec leur célèbre excursion, James Hutton, John Playfair et Sir James Hall ont découvert cette preuve frappante de la nature cyclique des processus géologiques et de l`ancienneté probable de la Terre. Contrairement à ce qu'on croit, ce n'est probablement pas la fameuse phrase de Hutton « aucun vestige d'un début, aucune perspective de fin », mais la métaphore de Playfair « voir si loin dans l'abîme du temps » qui est à jamais associée à ce lieu. Siccar Point a influencé de nombreux autres géologues, y compris le jeune Charles Lyell, qui a fini par réunir les idées de James Hutton et celles de William Smith qui ont défini le paradigme uniformitariste, devenu le fondement de la géologie moderne. Les écrits de Lyell influenceront à leur tour le jeune Charles Darwin dans sa recherche de la réalité et des causes de l'évolution. Il est facile de se rendre à Siccar Point depuis cette ville chargée d'histoire et dynamique qu’est Édimbourg, et un tel pèlerinage se combine facilement avec d'autres sites d'intérêt géologique ou culturel. La visite de ce « sanctuaire » implique une courte randonnée côtière dans l'une des plus belles régions d'Écosse. Le présent article combine des conseils pratiques pour les visiteurs potentiels à Siccar Point et présente un historique de son rôle central dans le développement des idées géologiques à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au début du XIXe siècle.

Knowledge From Underground: Leibniz Mines the Enlightenment

1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Hamm
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Administrative Work ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Mining Machinery ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Fantastic

The history of geology has focused largely on the foundations of geology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Considerable attention has also been given to grand theories of the earth, or cosmogonies, of the seventeenth century. This approach has left out most of eighteenth-century mineralogy; it has also left out mining. The argument here is that Leibniz's Protogaea is best understood in the context of the Harz mines, where Leibniz spent considerable energy doing administrative work and inventing new mining machinery. By looking to the mines we not only make sense of Protogaea, but of most of German mineralogy in the eighteenth century. J. G. Lehmann, J. F. W. Charpentier, C. G. Delius and many other practitioners working in and around mines were deeply concerned with mapping the subterranean structure of the earth's crust and they contrasted their work with the "fantastic" world of theorists. The Freiberg Mining Academy, other institutions, and the way vocabularies of mining changed will also be considered. Finally there are some concluding thoughts on why mining has almost disappeared from the history of geology.

2. Geology: the early days

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Jan Zalasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Geological Time Scale ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Georges Cuvier ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vedic Period

‘Geology: the early days’ provides a brief history of ideas on the Earth and its processes. Among the earliest recorded scientific speculations on the Earth were those of the ancient Greeks, such as Anaximander of Miletus and Pythagoras. Other cultures that independently developed ideas include the Vedic Period of India (c.1300–300 bc) and the Song Dynasty of China (960–1279 ad). Huge strides were made during the Enlightenment period, and the key contributions of figures such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, James Hutton, Baron Georges Cuvier, Mary Anning, William Buckland, Charles Lyell, Abraham Gottlob Werner, and Adam Sedgwick are discussed, with the creation of the Geological Time Scale.

Studies of the History of Geology in the Soviet Union in the Second Half of the 20th Century

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-206
Author(s):  
Vladimir Tikhomirov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
International Committee ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Geological ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Applied Geology

The earth scientists of Russia have long been interested in the history of geological knowledge. V. I. Vernadsky (1863-1945) and V. A. Obruchev (1861-1956) saw the necessity and actively supported research into the history of science in Russia. During the 1930-1940s M. S. Shatsky (1895-1960) published analyses of the ideas of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), R.I. Murchinson (1792-1871), and A. D. Archangelsky (1879-1940). He followed these with a series of papers devoted to the history of the evolution of theoretical and applied geology. In the early 1950s several works investigating actualistic and uniformitarian methods were published in the USSR. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the new fields of paleogeography and lithology evolved and a new branch of geology resulted from the prospecting and exploration of radioactive materials. In 1967, an International Committee on the History of Geological Knowledge was proposed by Soviet geologists and established at the 23rd International Geological Congress at Yerevan. It is presently known as "INHIGEO," a Commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. INHIGEO now has 126 members from 35 countries. From 1967 to 1992, INHIGEO sponsored seventeen international symposia. One or two were held at each of the International Geological Congresses, which regularly convene every fourth year, and additional symposia have been held at frequent intervals. The complex process of the evolution of the natural sciences in Russia may be subdivided into separate periods. Since the late 1960s, geophysics has grown in importance and several major fields of geophysics have emerged. In addition, a general theory of the Earth has taken shape, geoecological studies have begun, and a theoretical history of geology and other earth sciences has evolved. The last quarter of this century has witnessed the publication of two multi-volume series: "Geological knowledge in the USSR," comprising 52 books and "Sketches on the history of geological knowledge," with 28 issues. These works outline the history of geological knowledge in the USSR from about 1965 to 1990.

Concepts of Natural Law and Time in the History of Geology

1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Guntau
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Natural Laws ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Cyclic Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law

Our contemporary conceptions of time in terms of geology have developed since the Renaissance. In addition to an adequate notion of the age of the earth, these ideas include different concepts of the nature of geological processes in history. Until the 19th century the different concepts of geological time were determined by views on cyclic processes and processes which have a direction, as well as sequences of events, with or without relations between their various phases. These different aspects of geological thought have finally been incorporated into evolutionary conceptions of geohistory. Despite objective and epistemological problems, geological laws were formulated in the history of geology such as the law of superposition by Steno in 1669, the law of stratigraphy by Smith in 1799, and the law of development of the earth by Cotta in 1858. Laws of nature are interpreted as essential correlations of a general and necessary nature which exist independently of human cognition. Some fundamental geological processes have not been effective throughout the history of the earth. Presupposing that these processes were governed by natural laws as well, it is inferred that laws of nature exist over certain different periods of time. There are four possibilities of how long laws of nature, or combinations of them, can exist: (1) temporally unlimited existence, (2) existence from the beginning up to a certain point in time, (3) existence from a certain point in time up to the present time, (4) existence over a certain past period of time. Thus the science of geology shows that natural laws are of a historical nature, in that they do not exist eternally nor everywhere.

A ‘milky mass’ and ‘uniform material’: white marble in eighteenth-century French discourses on sculpture and geology

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
Marthe Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Grain Size ◽  
Denis Diderot ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
White Marble ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Network

Knowledge of the materiality of stone during the Enlightenment expanded following the exploration of mineralogical structure, to alter ideas about taxonomy and challenge the role of rocks in the history of the earth. Close studies of the material of marble sculpture generated expertise on grain size, surface varieties and stone deposits. This mode of reception became intertwined with contemporary controversies about the age of the earth. This article focuses on both French sculpture and geological discourses of the eighteenth century to reveal an international and interdisciplinary network centring on protagonists such as Denis Diderot, Paul-Henri Thiry d’Holbach and Étienne-Maurice Falconet; through these figures, debates can be connected concerning both geology and art theory. Within these contexts, the article discusses the translation processes between these artistic and geological interests.

scholarly journals Two critical books in the history of loess investigation: ‘Charakteristik der Felsarten’ by Karl Caesar von Leonhard and ‘Principles of Geology’ by Charles Lyell

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 447-451
Author(s):  
Ulrich Hambach ◽  
Ian Smalley
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
The Third ◽  
Worldwide Distribution ◽  
The World ◽  
Short Piece ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rhine Valley ◽  
Principles Of Geology ◽  
Short Section

Abstract The two critical books, launching the study and appreciation of loess, were ‘Charakteristik der Felsarten’ (CdF) by Karl Caesar von Leonhard, published in Heidelberg by Joseph Engelmann, in 1823-4, and ‘Principles of Geology’ (PoG) by Charles Lyell, published in London by John Murray in 1830-3. Each of these books was published in three volumes and in each case the third volume contained a short piece on loess (about 2-4 pages). These two books are essentially the foundations of loess scholarship. In CdF Loess [Loefs] was first properly defined and described; section 89 in vol. 3 provided a short study of the nature and occurrence of loess, with a focus on the Rhine valley. In PoG there was a short section on loess in the Rhine valley; this was in vol.3 and represents the major dissemination of loess awareness around the world. A copy of PoG3 (Principles of Geology vol. 3) reached Charles Darwin on the Beagle in Valparaiso in 1834; worldwide distribution. Lyell and von Leonhard met in Heidelberg in 1832. Von Leonhard and Heinrich Georg Bronn (1800-1862) showed Lyell the local loess. These observations provided the basis for the loess section in PoG3. Lyell acknowledged the influence of his hosts when he added a list of loess scholars to PoG; by the 5th edition in 1837 the list comprised H.G. Bronn, Karl Caesar von Leonhard (1779-1862), Ami Boue (1794-1881), Voltz, Johann Jakob Noeggerath (1788-1877), J. Steininger, P. Merian, Rozet, C.F.H. von Meyer (1801-1869), Samuel Hibbert (1782-1848) and Leonard Horner (1785-1864); a useful list of loess pioneers. The loess is a type of ground that has only recently been established, and it seems, the peculiarity of the Rhine region, and of a very general but inconsistent spread.” H.G. Bronn 1830

Teaching the History of Geology

1993 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-242
Author(s):  
David Leveson
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Brooklyn College ◽  
Original Writings ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Current Belief ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Sophisticated Technology

The content and form of a course in the history of geology are dictated by the nature of the subject matter, the conceived purpose of the course, the background of the instructor and the students who participate, and the availability of appropriate readings. In an undergraduate course just offered by the Brooklyn College Geology Department, half the class were geology majors, half non-science majors. The stated aim of the course was epistemological: a consideration of how one comes to believe something. Investigation was pursued through a comparison of different historiographic accounts of major ideas, episodes and figures in the history of geology: the age of the earth; the meaning of fossils; 17th and 18th C ‘theories of the earth’; the denudation dilemma; the basalt and granite controversies; directionalism; Lyell's ‘uniformitarianism’; fluvialism, diluvialism, and glacialism. Where possible, original writings were consulted; the recent advent of a low cost reprint of Lyell's "Principles" was particularly fortunate. Inevitably, the methods, boundaries, controls, and workings of science were questioned, as was the meaning of ‘truth.’ The history of geology is a particularly useful tool for such an epistemological investigation because, prior to its mid-19th C professionalization, geology was relatively free of arcane jargon or sophisticated technology; thus, it is accessible to students with minimal scientific background. The students came to appreciate the relative character of knowledge and the probable evanescence of current belief. As for myself, trained as a geologist, I came to respect the insights and problems of historians, philosophers and sociologists, and to appreciate the pitfalls and opportunities of teaching in an area beyond one's expertise. Going out on a limb, I suggest that a course in the history of geology could serve well as partially fulfilling undergraduate science requirements.

Inventing the Present: Historical Roots of the Anthropocene

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Davis
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Physical Force ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Historical Transition

In 1833, Charles Lyell proposed that the current post-glacial geological epoch be termed Recent. In the late 1860s, Paul Gervais suggested Holocene as a more appropriate name for the same epoch. In 2000, Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer jointly proposed that a new epoch beginning in the late eighteenth century should be named Anthropocene to connote that the human-determined geological signature is now, and for the foreseeable future will be, the predominant physical force shaping the Earth. Such a conclusion by geoscientists will not, and perhaps should not, pass unnoticed by politicians, environmentalists and other academic disciplines. Based upon a review of the early debates over the role of a deity in geological causation, the power of classification and nomenclature, and distinctions between organic and inorganic in geological processes, this paper traces the historical transition from Recent to Holocene to Anthropocene and concludes that the conceptual space for creating the modern Anthropocene was carved during the nineteenth-century foundation of geology.

A Discussion on the evolution of the Precambrian crust - Introductory remarks

1973 ◽  
Vol 273 (1235) ◽  
pp. 316-316 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early History ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Precambrian Rocks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The realization that the behaviour of the Earth has changed radically during geological time has come about largely in the last decade. This development, which constitutes one of the major advances in geological thinking, results from the study of Precambrian phenomena in many parts of the world and in particular from the work of a small number of geochronologists. In the last ten years as large numbers of unfossiliferous Precambrian rocks have been dated, it has become clear that the nature of geological processes has varied throughout geological time and that one of the cardinal doctrines of geology - the concept that the present is the key to the past — could not be applied to the study of the early history of the Earth.

scholarly journals Main biostratigraphic stages in the Earth history. Technogenic scenarios

2013 ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
G. Rudko ◽  
P. Zagorodnyuk
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Continuous Transformation ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Catastrophe

The biostratigraphic history of the Earth as a process of continuous transformation and adaptation from the primary forms of life and till its current state had been considered in the present article.  The development of life on the Earth had started due to the changes of geological processes, changes of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the aquatic environment, within the period of global catastrophe. As a result of more than 3.8 billion years the anthropogenic system «human – geological and related environment» was formed; it transformed the biosphere in accordance with the needs of human, creating the precedent of inconsistency between human needs and biosphere resources.  The basic scenarios of human and biosphere development within the technogene were defined. The results of studies helped to identify the biostratigraphic conditions of the Earth life. The article investigates scenarios of technogene development as well as the role of human under the conditions of intensive biosphere transformation due to the anthropogenic activities.   

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