James Hutton

"The Present is the Key to the Past"

James Hutton was born in 1726, a geographer, was named "the father of geology" who believed not that catastrophes built the earth as it is today, but rather the origin of rocks happened through slow processes and time by gathering observations, the changes that took place over time, on his farm and land in Scotland,. The principle of uniformitarianism, the principle that Hutton is known for,, is said to be that present day geologic processes also occurred during the past, and would continue to take place in the future. shaping the earth.

Hutton wrote a paper, The Theory of the Earth, unfortunately, Hutton wasn’t the best writer. Therefore, Hutton’s ideas on the geologic processes didn’t expand until Sir Charles Lyell popularized the concept by rewriting Hutton’s proposition.

The principle of uniformitarianism brought other geologists to question the possibilities. Scientists at that time, as well as Hutton, had no proof of Hutton’s theory, although the principle is excepted now, and is the basis for a lot of geography and biology that followed, the theory.

"We find no vestige of a beginning, no prespect of an end."