scholarly journals A man with a master plan: Steno’s observations on earth’s history

Substantia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Stefano Dominici
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Shark Teeth ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Marine Fossils ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Form ◽  
Made In

We present specific sources, including specimens of the Medicean cabinet and geological outcrops in Tuscany, probably used by Nicolaus Steno to build a theory on the origin of organic fossils, crystals and sedimentary strata, in order to construct the history of the Earth based on universal geometric principles. Phenomena he observed in Tuscany and in precedeing travels were revealing a sequence of events consistent with the biblical account. We propose that he devised his method to reconstruct a chronology of primordial events to demonstrate the historicity of the biblical creation in contrast to unorthodox thinking. This had been spreading in philosophical circles of northern Europe since the 1650s, circles frequented by Steno before his arrival in Tuscany in 1666. Steno knew in advance what places to visit to find fossils from literature such as Michele Mercati’s Metallotheca. This was a manuscript owned by the Florentine Carlo Dati, whom Steno probably heard about while in Paris in 1664-1665. In Tuscany he soon formed a tight interaction on matters regarding the interpretation of fossils with the local community of learned men. These included Giovanni Alfonso Borelli who was asked by Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici to provide Steno with fossils from Sicily and Malta. Steno’s theory and scale-independent, geometrical method of inquiry of geological objects found in Tuscany is hinted at in his Canis Carchariae Dissectum Caput, a geological essay completed in a few months in 1666. The theory was published in its most complete form in the so-called Prodromus of 1669. In both works he demonstrated that fossils in younger strata in the Tuscan hills, such as shark teeth and molluscan shells, have an origin analogous to solids which living animals form. In both essays he explicitly related the deposition of strata with marine fossils to the biblical flood, an idea foreshadowed in his oldest known manuscript of 1659, when he was a student in Copenhagen. He found no fossils in older sandstones of the Apennines and understood those strata to have formed before the creation of life. These discoveries  and other observations he made in Tuscany were, for Steno, the final proof that natural philosophy and biblical revelation disclose in synergy the mysteries of God’s creation.

scholarly journals XXV. Researches on silica

1857 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 533-542 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Silicic Acid ◽  
Binary Compound ◽  
Essential Point ◽  
Proper Position ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Considerable Portion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Natural Relation ◽  
Made In

Since chemistry has been studied as a science, it has been an object with its cultivators to arrange the bodies which have been the subjects of their attention, into groups in which the individuals should have a natural relation to each other. Probably at no time in the history of the science has the importance of such a classification been more strongly felt than at the present day, not only on account of the number of known elements, but also from the number of compound bodies appearing to act as elements, which organic chemistry has made known. Although great advances have been made in this direction, the place of the element silicon in such a series as above alluded to, is very doubtful. Yet the binary compound of this element, silicon with oxygen, is familiar to every one; it constitutes by itself a considerable portion of the crust of the earth, and enters into a long series of definite crystallized compounds. It has been satisfactorily determined that this substance, silica, belongs to the class of bodies designated as acids, but one essential point is wanting to enable chemists to give it, or its peculiar element, its proper position, and that is, the formula of this silica or silicic acid.

An Overview of the use of Mollusks in Biostratigraphy

1985 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 248-257
Author(s):  
Norman F. Sohl
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Earth History ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Nomenclature ◽  
Molluscan Species

One of the prime objectives of the earth scientist is the delineation of the sequential history of the physical and biological evolution of the planet. Biostratigraphy provides one framework of reference for ordering the sequence of events for a large portion of earth history. Representatives of the Phylum Mollusca have played a central role in the development of this frame of reference and indeed in the development of the discipline itself. Molluscs have had an important role since the earliest efforts to utilize fossils for purposes other than as objects of beauty, veneration or commerce. Indeed, William Smith's observations in the 1790's, that certain fossils were characteristically restricted to specific rock units in the vicinity of Bath, England, was primarily a delineation of molluscan species that to this day are recognized as distinctive of the Jurassic Bathonian Stage. Although the term biostratigraphy was not coined by Dollo until the early 1900's, the guiding principles and practices that evolved much earlier through the efforts of such pioneer biostratigraphers as d'Orbigny, Quenstedt, Oppel and Buckman were based primarily upon the study of the stratigraphic and spatial distribution of Jurassic molluscs. The part played by molluscs in these early studies is amply demonstrated by the fact that local Jurassic stages were named after fossil rather than place names by French and Swiss geologists - the Pterocerien and Strombien Stages for snails and the Astartien, Diceratien and Pholadomyen Stages for clams. Although subsequent work has seen the demise of such local nomenclature, these units remain recognizable as defined. In spite of later refinement, the principles and many of the zonations developed by these founders have stood the test of time for over a century and a half.

scholarly journals A never-born Russian-language earth globe in the Virtual Globes Museum

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Dávid Gerzsenyi ◽  
Gábor Gercsák ◽  
Mátyás Márton
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
New Product ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Russian Version ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Virtual Globes ◽  
Made In

Abstract. It has been just for more than thirty years that the English-language version of the detachable structural-morphological globe of the Earth with 40 cm diameter produced by the Cartographia Enterprise won the prize of the best demonstration aid (Anson and Gutsell 1989) at the Budapest conference of the International Cartographic Association in August 1989. This success was the result of the cooperation between two education institutions (Kossuth Lajos University and Eötvös Loránd University /ELTE/) and two Hungarian firms (Cartographia Enterprise and School Equipment Producing and Marketing Company). This unique product has been the only thematic earth globe designed and published in Hungary and which was duplicated in a relatively large number. It is a rarity today. This is one of the reasons why this globe has been placed in the Virtual Globes Museum (VGM) (http://terkeptar.elte.hu/vgm). This paper gives an overview of the history of these thematic globes: the Hungarian versions made in 1986 (VGM ID 8, 9, 10) and the English versions published in 1988 (VGM ID 66, 67, 68). It introduces the immediate scientific antecedents of their birth and – being a demonstration aid – the process of publishing. The paper also presents the work with the Russian version of the globe carried out at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, ELTE (VGM ID 154, 155, 156). This will lead to the expansion of the number of globes in the VGM. The close relationship between the new product and the former two editions is also pointed out.

scholarly journals THE ORIGIN AND STABILITY OF BEACHES

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hoyle ◽  
G. T. King
Keyword(s):  
Civil Engineer ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Material Supply ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Sea Bed ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material

One should not lose sight of the fact that the origin of beaches goes back into antiquity. The story "begins with the origin of matter and continues through the aeons with the evolution of the solar system and the appearance of the Earth as a fiery ball gyrating in space. As one's focus narrows there is to be seen the cooling of that ball, the formation of dense clouds of water vapour in the atmosphere, the torrential rains and the beginnings of the seas. Perhaps it is at this point that the introduction is completed and the real story of the beaches begins, for with the rains came erosion of the land masses, and the transportation of the eroded material by river and rivulet towards the sea. At the brink of the ocean a brief halt is called in its journey, for here a portion of this eroded material takes position as beaches around die coast, before ultimately joining the remainder in the depths of the sea. For many thousands of years the sediment so formed and transported collected on the sea bed, consolidated and hardened and was transformed into the sedimentary rocks which, by adjustments in the Earth's crust, were later lifted above the surface of the sea to form new islands and continents. Still the rains fall, although perhaps not so heavily as before; still the processes of erosion continue upon the land masses, old and new, still a part of the products of this erosion remain for a while at the coastal fringe before they pass on to the ocean depths - the raw material of what may be, by completion of the cycle, the continents of tomorrow. Such is the sequence of events over a period of millions of years and, as the process continues during the millions of years which the future holds, the existing land masses will no doubt be eroded away and the materials of which they are composed will finally rest again on the bed of the sea. For so long as the seas have washed the shores, and the rains have fallen and reduced the mountains and high places, there have been beaches. Those beaches, which are found today may have existed from time immemorial in some form or other, perhaps since before life appeared on the surface of the Earth. Due to their position in the pattern of Nature they will have changed as the coastline changed, and as the eroded ingredients of the land which formed them changed. They will have grown when the new material supply exceeded the wastage, and they will have diminished when the wastage was more rapid than the replenishment. The changes which are taking place today and which are engaging the attention of the Civil Engineer, form an infinitesimally small incident in the history of the beaches; and in the considerations of the Engineer they should be related to the whole, of which they form a part.

Tensions in the Concept of Geology: Natural History or Natural Philosophy?

1982 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Laudan
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
General Term ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Plate Tectonic ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of

Under the general term "geology" there exist two very distinct concepts of the aim and subject matter of the discipline. One concept is that geology is part of natural history and thus is primarily concerned with the reconstruction of the history of the earth. The other concept is that geology is part of natural philosophy and thus is primarily concerned with understanding the processes of change on the earth. Although both concepts can be found at most periods in the development of geology, the relative emphasis has swung decisively back and forth at different times, for example, in the Lyellian period in the early 19th century, and in the plate tectonic revolution. This is at odds with our common sense picture of disciplinary development. Two important mechanisms that trigger these swings are the discovery of new techniques and the adoption of new methodological positions.

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