Mundus Subterraneus (Kircher): fires and waters beneath the Earth
Mundus Subterraneus (Kircher): fuegos y aguas bajo la Tierra
- Date
- 1665 · confidence high
- Place
- Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Credited to
- Athanasius Kircher
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
After descending into the crater of Vesuvius and observing Etna and Stromboli, Kircher published an Earth crossed by channels of fire and water linking volcanoes and oceans. The model was wrong, but it gathered observations of volcanoes, springs and ocean currents in one of the first works devoted to the Earth as a system.
The visit to Vesuvius and Calabria was in 1637-1638; the central-fire model is not correct. The entry covers the 1665 work as a compendium of observation and theory.
What it led to
- placed volcanoes as an object of study in 17th-century science
- widely circulated images of the Earth's interior that inspired Burnet and Woodward