The
History
of
EARTH
SCIENCE!
IN THE BEGINNING
THERE WAS NOTHING
THEN THERE WAS…
The Big Bang
The following are
people that shaped our
thoughts about Geologic
History.
JAMES USSHER
A
respected scholar of the
Bible.
 He created a chronology of
human and Earth history in
which he determined that
the Earth was only a few
thousand years old.
 He thought that the earth
was created in 4004 B.C.
 His thoughts were widely
accepted among scientific
and religious leaders of the
day, and was even printed in
the margins of the Bible.
ABRAHAM ORTELIUS
Ortelius, a Dutch
cartographer and publisher,
was the author of the first
modern atlas.
 1596 - Abraham Ortelius
suggested that the continents
had been displaced from their
previous positions. 'Ortelius
suggested that the Americas
were "torn away from Europe
and Africa”.
NICOLAUS STENO


Nicolaus Steno, a Danish anatomist,
geologist, and priest observed the
changes in a sequence of rock layers
while working in the mountains of
Italy.
Steno's observations became known
as the Law of Superposition (1669)
which simply stated that in a
sequence of sedimentary rock
layers, each layer of rock is older
than the layer above it and younger
than the rock layer below it.
JAMES HUTTON



Scottish scientist James Hutton,
called the father of modern
geology, began to try to figure out
the Earth's age from rock layers.
He studied and tested local rock
layers in an attempt to calculate
time with respect to erosion,
weathering, and sedimentation.
In the late 1785, Hutton published
his Theory of the Earth. He put
forth the fundamental principle
that is a pillar of geology:
Uniformitarianism- which states
that the processes that operate
today have also operated in the
geologic past.
CHARLES LYELL
Lyell was credited for
advancing the basic
principles of modern
geology.
 Between 1830 and 1872,
he produced 11 editions
of his, Principles of
Geology.
 Although the doctrine of
uniformitarianism did
not originate with him,
he was most successful in
interpreting and
publicizing it for society
at large.

ALFRED WEGENER

In 1915, a Bavarian scientist named
Alfred Wegener (later referred to
as the "Father of Plate
Tectonics") noticed, while working
near the North Pole, that his
compass needle did not point to
where north "should" have been.
In other words, true north and
magnetic north were in two
separate localities. Wegener
theorized that the poles (both
North and South) were "wandering"
with time. He called this "Polar
Wandering".
In subsequent years, he began
to also notice how continents
fit together like a jigsaw
puzzle…most notably the
western coast of Africa and
the eastern coast of South
America. In addition, rocks
from these localities were the
same rock type, same age, and
contained the same age and
type of fossils. His theory
became known as "Continental
Drift“. He now realized that
it was not the poles that
shifted, but the continents
themselves.
Wegener died of a
heart attack on a
voyage studying
glaciers near the
North Pole in early
1930 and his work was
virtually forgotten for
several decades.
The last photo of Alfred Wegener and Rasmus Villumsen,
taken on 1 November 1930 (Wegener's 50th birthday) as they
were leaving the "Eismitte" Station. (Photograph copyright
Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research)
Evidence used by Wegener:
1.
Shape of continents fit like a jigsaw puzzle.
2.
Similar fossils on both continents
3.
Mountain belts line up
4.
Mineral belts line up
HARRY HESS ON THE GLOMAR CHALLENGER.
It was not until World War II that a
technology (Echo Sounding) developed to a
degree that a stunning discovery was made
by a geologist and seaboat commander, Harry
Hess, aboard the research vessel, Glomar
Challenger.
He noticed that rocks on either side of the
rift-zone were a perfect mirror image of
each other on either side of the rift zone.
His theory of Sea-floor Spreading (1959)
stated that magma from submarine volcanoes
oozed out of the rift zone and that the
material spread on both sides of the rift.
ECHO SOUNDING DEVICE USED BY HESS
FREDERICK VINE
MATTHEWS
AND
DRUMMOND
Later in 1963, Frederick Vine
and Drummond Matthews, a
Cambridge University
professor/student team,
discovered the principles of
magnetic patterns on the ocean
floor.
Further findings revealed that
during earth history there have
been several "magnetic
reversals" (A time when the
compass needle would have
pointed south instead of north).
ROBERT PALMER
AND
DONALD MACKENZIE
In the late 1967, two
scientists, revisited
Wegener's findings and
combined them with Hess'
discoveries to formulate a
new package called "Plate
Tectonics".
Robert Palmer and Donald
Mackenzie are credited
with naming the theory of
“plate tectonics”.