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.

THE FRENCH FOUNDATIONS OF HUTTON’S THEORY OF THE EARTH, PART ONE: HUTTON AS A STUDENT OF GUILLAUME-FRANÇOIS ROUELLE

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
GREGORY F. W. TODD
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
River Transport ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Standing Problem

ABSTRACT This contribution, in two parts, addresses a long-standing problem in the history of geology: Was the geological theory of James Hutton derived inductively from observations and scientific knowledge, or was it derived a priori as a speculative system? Hutton’s own writings do little to clarify the question, and the conflict in interpretations has remained at an impasse. This contribution proposes to resolve that conflict by focusing on the two years Hutton spent as a young man studying chemistry in Paris. I argue that Hutton studied with one of the great chemistry teachers of the eighteenth century, Guillaume-François Rouelle, and that Rouelle’s teachings provided the foundations of Hutton’s geological theory. Part One of this contribution reviews Hutton’s early studies in chemistry, and presents evidence to show that Hutton continued his chemistry studies with Rouelle in Paris from 1747 to 1749. Part One describes as well the geological content of Rouelle’s lectures, as derived from notes taken by his students, with focus on Rouelle’s methodology, his ideas on the origins of coal and limestone, and his observations on erosion and river transport. This Part concludes that Rouelle should be regarded as an important figure in the history of geology, not only in the francophone tradition, but, through Hutton, in the anglophone tradition as well. A detailed analysis of the influence of Rouelle’s teachings on Hutton’s Theory of the Earth (1788), and the development of Hutton’s overall theory, is the subject of Part Two.

scholarly journals XIII. On the precession of a viscous spheroid, and on the remote history of the Earth

1879 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 447-538 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Motion ◽  
Mass Motion ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Bodily Tides ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theoretical Dynamics

The following paper contains the investigation of the mass-motion of viscous and imperfectly elastic spheroids, as modified by a relative motion of their parts, produced in them by the attraction of external disturbing bodies; it must be regarded as the continuation of my previous paper, where the theory of the bodily tides of such spheroids was given. The problem is one of theoretical dynamics, but the subject is so large and complex, th at I thought it best, in the first instance, to guide the direction of the speculation by considerations of applicability to the case of the earth, as disturbed by the sun and moon.

The History of the Earth in the hallways

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Ramírez Vongrejova ◽  
María José Massé Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
School Students ◽  
Learning Groups ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Experience Teaching ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Research Period

<p><span>There is widespread agreement among my fellow colleagues who teach Geology that the History of our planet is a tough topic for teenagers. Unfortunately, not only is the subject considered boring but also useless by the majority of our school students.</span></p><p><span>Our experience teaching these contents in a traditional way has shown us that pupils vaguely remember anything. In order to give a different approach to this issue and, therefore, to promote meaningful learning, we have designed a project where students must be fully engaged.</span></p><p><span>First, the class was organized in cooperative learning groups, so they had to collaborate to complete the task. Then, they started the research period using laptop computers available in the school. Students now dealt with specific vocabulary such as the geologic time scale terms but also a variety of events that occurred from the very first moments, from the formation of the Earth itself to the development of the big reptiles that have always fascinated children and adults, especially their dramatic extinction.</span></p><p> <span><span>Once the topic was developed in detail, they were required to make a poster on scale with the information collected. It was undeniable that pictures or photographs must cover most of the poster as long as short sentences describing both biological and geological phenomena. What we were also concerned about their learning was to improve their creativity. Because of this, they were encouraged to make their own drawings.</span></span></p><p><span>Students really liked the activity, built stronger relationships between them and the final products were so amazing that were exhibited in the walls of the hallways outside their classroom.</span></p><p><span>All these events have been recorded in the rocks so geologists could unfold part of the mysteries of our History. Our teenagers discovered them an represented them for us to enjoy.</span></p>

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.

scholarly journals The Evidences of the Geological Age and Human Manufacture of the Fossil Flint Implements

The Geologist ◽  
1861 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Geological Age ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Amiens and Abbeville do not, however, enjoy a monopoly in these flint implements; they are found, apparently, all over the earth. At any rate, we can boast in our land of such treasures, and we can proudly record that the first discovered specimens belong to England. Let Amiens and Abbeville by all means be commemorated as the scenes of M. Boucher de Perthes' persevering investigations, which have furnished the incitement to the present remarkable inquiry—let the names of Boucher de Perthes, Prestwich, Falconer, Flower, and Evans, be duly honoured as the pioneers of the investigation; but let us also think of Hoxne, Grays, Ilford, Maidstone, Stanway, and the scores of other places where mammalian bones have been found in our own land—and, let us hope that our young geologists will set to work, and reap a rich harvest in the yet ungarnered fields. Does not this first recorded implement—this earliest discovered relic—(fig. 5) treasured and preserved in the Sloane collection, the nucleus of the British Museum, and entered in that old catalogue, two hundred years ago—encourage them. Does it not say in unmistakable language “Under your feet these relies may be found?”There is another of these spear-shaped flints, which has obtained a great deal of notoriety in the late discussions. It was found at Hoxne, in Suffolk—a place memorable in the history of the good king Edmund, the saint and martyr—and was described, and figured in the “Archæologia,” (see cut 9, p. 20), by Mr. Frere, the finder, who, with remarkable acuteness, seems to have fully comprehended the value and true bearing of his discovery. His paper is, even now, an excellent epitome of the subject; and we give it at length, just as it was read in 1797, before the Society of Antiquaries of London.

scholarly journals II. On the Classification of the Cretaceous Beds

1865 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 197-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. C. Godwin-Austen
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Geological Formations ◽  
Geological Magazine

The two Memoirs by Dr. Reynès, on the Cretaceous formation, which were noticed in the ninth number of the Geological Magazine, suggest two questions: how far subdivisions there proposed are applicable to the Cretaceous series of this country; and, next, as to the sufficiency of the ground on which the synchronism of the subdivisions of geological formations has been based. The subject of the second Memoir, ‘De l'Étage,’ involves considerations which might be well extended to the whole range of the geological series: indeed, it will hardly be profitable to make much progress with the past physical history of the earth until rules for determining geological horizons shall be established.

scholarly journals IX. On the tidal friction of a planet attended by several satellites, and on the evolution of the solar system

1881 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 491-535 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Central Body ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Tidal Friction ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Complete Investigation

In previous papers on the subject of tidal friction I have confined my attention principally to the case of a planet attended by a single satellite. But in order to make the investigation applicable to the history of the earth and moon it was necessary to take notice of the perturbation of the sun. In consequence of the largeness of the sun’s mass it was not there requisite to make a complete investigation of the theory of a planet attended by a pair of satellites. In the first part of this paper the theory of the tidal friction of a central body attended by any number of satellites is considered.

The Propagation of Earthquake Vibrations through the Earth

1899 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 573-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. G. Knott
Keyword(s):  
British Association ◽  
Natural Consequence ◽  
Physical Problems ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe history of seismological research and discovery may be conveniently divided into three great epochs. 1. We have the recording of earthquakes in the popular significance of the term, with an enquiry into their character, based almost entirely upon the (usually) destructive results of their visitation. 2. We find investigators beginning to appeal to experiment to elucidate some of the effects noticed, with a growing appreciation of the necessity of recording all palpable earthquakes, whether destructive or not. One of the most honoured names in this connection is that of Mallet, whose two volumes on “The Great Neapolitan Earthquake” form a classic in the literature of the subject. Most of the developments of recent times will be found in embryo in the pages of this monumental work. 3. The introduction of instruments for recording earthquakes, and, as a natural consequence, the recognition of pulsations and tremors and the various kinds of earthquake too feeble to be detected by our senses.At every stage in this history, geological and physical problems of intrinsic difficulty have been encountered; and it is to the discussion of some of the most recent of these that this address is devoted.From the days of Mallet and Hopkins, numerous reports on earthquakes and seismological phenomena have been prepared and published by the British Association; and the last of these, from the industrious pen of J. Milne, F.R.S., formerly Professor of Mining in the Imperial University of Japan, has a surpassing wealth of detailed facts and of suggested theories.

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