Avicenna on mountain formation and strata
Formación de montañas y estratos según Avicena
- Date
- c. 1027 · confidence medium
- Place
- Hamadan and Isfahan, Iran
- Credited to
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
- People
- 👤 Avicena980–1037
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In the Kitab al-Shifa he explains mountains as formed by uplift and by erosion from water and wind, recognises that marine fossils indicate ancient seas, and describes deposition in layers over very long periods.
The section on minerals circulated in Latin as De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum, attributed for centuries to Aristotle. It anticipates ideas that Steno formulated in 1669.
What it led to
- concept of long geological time
- theory of the petrification of fossils
- medieval Latin geology (De mineralibus)