Uniformitarianism and deep time
Uniformitarismo y tiempo profundo
- Date
- 1788 / 1830 · confidence high
- Place
- Siccar Point, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Hutton (1788), Charles Lyell ('Principles of Geology', 1830-33)
- People
- 👤 Charles Lyell (botánico)1767–1849👤 James Hutton1726–1797
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
At the unconformity of Siccar Point, Hutton deduced that rocks form, fold and erode through present-day processes operating over immense spans of time ('no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end'). Lyell systematised this as uniformitarianism.
Coordinates of Siccar Point, the unconformity Hutton showed to Playfair and Hall in 1788, the site of the discovery.
What it led to
- Concept of deep geological time
- Decisive influence on Darwin
- Geology as a historical science
- Geologic time scale
Built on
- Steno's principles of stratigraphy1669
- Volcanic origin of basalt in the Auvergne (Guettard and Desmarest)1751-1774
- Neptunism and the succession of formations (Werner)1774-1787
- Steno: principles of stratigraphy (1669)
- Werner's Neptunism (rejected)