Introduction To Modern Geology

The European Revolution paved the way for modern geologic principals, which primarily occurred in the 17th and 18th century. One major contributor to this was Nicolaus Steno in the mid to late 1600’s, when he proposed the surface of the earth could change over time. He also suggested that layers of the earth where in order of age, with the youngest being closest to the surface.
In the mid to late 1700’s it was James Hutton that brought about information regarding water pathways. He theorized that the sediments left behind in the currents were how ancient rocks were formed. In addition to this he also believed that the earth was much older than commonly understood at the time. This deduction was made through the observation of time it takes for geologic processes to occur. This ideology is known as the principle of uniformitarianism, stating that the processes that occurred in the past remain the same now. This is otherwise described by uniform laws of nature that supersede space and time, or more simply put: “the present is the key to the past.” This was not well received at the time until Charles Lyell promotes the same notions in multiple books which then entirely disregarded the previous belief on natures formation.
Predating this ideology was the idea that rocks and landforms came about through catastrophic means. This was theorized by Abraham Werner and Georges Cuvier and basically stated that the ways of the past are now the same as the present. And speaking of Cuvier, he was also the first to suggest that animals could go extinct. This realization was formed through the study of vertebrate fossils. But he also motioned that new species were introduced through, once again, catastrophic means.
Of course we have all probably heard this next name: Charles Darwin took a five-year trip with a copy of Lyell’s work and created his own theories on evolution. In return, Lyell was one of the first to reference this evolutionary theory.
Now we’re moving on to the next big advancement: tectonic plates and continental drift. This realization was looked over for a number of reasons. The first was that uniformitarianism had geologists by a choke hold that they overlooked it entirely. The second reason was that it was such a slow process was just plain overlooked. The final reason was that all the best evidence was underwater. The catalyst for this was Alfre Wegener, as he was the first to compile a large set of supporting data for this idea. This was ridiculed but the advancement of sub nautical technology. With this came the analyzed features of the mid-ocean ridge, the alignment of earthquakes, and magnetic striping.