9/10/2008. the development of geology. Conrad Gesner

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1 the development of geology 1557 Conrad Gesner

2 The Head of a Shark Dissected (1667) Glossopetrae were the teeth of very large sharks Preliminary discourse to a dissertation on a solid body naturally contained within a solid [i.e. on fossils] Superimposition: Layers of rock are arranged in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top, unless later processes disturb this arrangement. Original Horizontality: most sediments, when originally formed, were laid down horizontally. Original Lateral Continuity: the sediment will not only be deposited in a flat layer, it will be a layer that extends for a considerable distance in all directions. In other words, the layer is laterally continuous. 2

3 Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense I have no idea how the sea could reach so far into the land; I do not know whether this happened during the universal Deluge or during other special floods.... I do not know, neither do I know the way to find out. Nor do I care. What I do know is that the corals, the shells, the sharks' teeth, the dogfish teeth, the echinoids, etc., are real corals, real shells, real teeth; shells and bones that have indeed been petrified. 3

4 Annals of the Old Covenant from the First Origin of the World (1650) Creation on the evening preceding Sunday, 23rd October 4004 BCE 6,000 year old Earth versus 4,550,000,000 year old Chaos-Restitution Gap Matter & Life Created Matter Created Fossils Formed 4004 BCE 2348 BCE 4004 BCE 2348 BCE Perhaps multiple cataclysms and creations Gap of undetermined length 6-day Edenic Restoration Noah s Flood (local?) Life created Noah s Flood (local?) 4

5 Matter Created Life Created Fossils Formed Six Days of Creation Humans Created Day-Age Noah s Flood (local?) There is a prejudice against the speculations of the geologists, which I am anxious to remove. It is said that they nurture infidel propensities This is a false alarm. The writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the globe William Strata Smith Earth realized to be older than Ussher s estimate but how old? (Local?) flood believed to be the cause of some fossils Use of naturalistic mechanisms Rise of stratigraphy (no assumption of age) 1815; A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with a part of Scotland. 5

6 Inchbonny, Jedburgh, Scotland (1887) Horizontal Red Sandstone Vertical Grey shale Red Sandstone Greywacke Theory of the Earth, or an Investigation of the Laws Observable in the Composition, Dissolution and Restoration of Land upon the Globe. (1785 / 88 / 95) The Earth had a long history and that this history could be interpreted in terms of processes currently observed. 6

7 The solid parts of the present land appear in general, to have been composed of the productions of the sea, and of other materials similar to those now found upon the shores. Hence we find reason to conclude: 1st, That the land on which we rest is not simple and original, but that it is a composition, and had been formed by the operation of second causes. 2nd, That before the present land was made, there had subsisted a world composed of sea and land, in which were tides and currents, with such operations at the bottom of the sea as now take place. And, Lastly, That while the present land was forming at the bottom of the ocean, the former land maintained plants and animals; at least the sea was than inhabited by animals, in a similar manner as it is at present. Hence we are led to conclude, that the greater part of our land, if not the whole had been produced by operations natural to this globe; but that in order to make this land a permanent body, resisting the operations of the waters, two things had been required; 1st, The consolidation of masses formed by collections of loose or incoherent materials; 2ndly, The elevation of those consolidated masses from the bottom of the sea, the place where they were collected, to the stations in which they now remain above the level of the ocean. Here are three distinct successive periods of existence, and each of these is, in our measurement of time, a thing of infinite duration....the result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end. Mary Anning Plesiosaurs (1811) 'Duria Antiquior - a more ancient Dorsetshire' by Henry Thomas de la Beche,

8 Reliquiae Diluvianae, 1823 Geology was not inherently irreligious and confirmed the occurrence of a global flood. Miraculous forces were not, however, required - natural law was applied Later shifted to the idea of a local flood

9 1851 9

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11 Learned geology from Buckland in Oxford In 1827 abandoned the law for geology Principles of Geology ( ) Elements of Geology (1838) Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863) 11

12 An attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface by reference to causes now in operation The present is key to the past Bands of holes dug by aquatic molluscs Basic laws of nature had not changed over time No causes other than those we can see operating now can be employed in explanations (actualism) The intensity of these causes does not change over time (uniformitarianism) 12

13 Alan Cutler, The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of the Earth [Steno] Jack Repchick, The Man Who Found Time [Hutton] Simon Winchester, The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology [Smith] Deborah Cadbury, Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science [Mantell & Owen] 13