Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
giant tide in the sea and in waters within the Earth; thus were
the 'fountains of the great deep broken up' and unleashed upon
the Earth. As the comet passed, water was discharged from its
tail, which was when it rained for 40 days. According to
Whiston, the result of all this water on the Earth was a flood six
and a quarter miles deep. It now seems unlikely that a passing
comet would wreak havoc on the Earth's weather and tides, but
Whiston's idea seems as plausible as that of a meteorite impact
wiping out the dinosaurs.
Whiston however, could not prevail over the biblicists, so the
Noachian Deluge theory triumphed and did even more harm to
the development of geology as a science than Archbishop Ussher.
Gradually though, a few men, understanding the significance of
what they observed in the rocks, were prepared to stand up to
the theologians, and an adherence to a strict interpretation of the
Bible slowly gave way to the need for longer and longer periods
of time to explain geological and biological processes.
In 1785 James Hutton, frequently called the 'father of mod-
ern geology', stood before the learned and recently formed Royal
Society of Edinburgh. He read to them an essay he had written
entitled 'Theory of the Earth' in which he emphasised the
immensity of geological time and the uniformity of geological
processes which, over vast time periods, formed the Earth as we
see it today. Hutton was sco¬ed at by his critics for 'running
about the hill-sides with a hammer to find out how the world
was made', but it was because of this long and critical study of
rocks in the field that he recognised that the Earth we are stand-
ing on now must have been made from the rocks of past ages.
He explained to his audience how the land of today had been
fashioned by the seas and rivers of yesterday, and that the land
of tomorrow was today forming at the bottom of the sea. He
overthrew much of current thinking, which he knew would
arouse theological opposition, and identified at least three
cycles of land formation in the Earth's history, each of which
were 'of indefinite duration'. He concluded his lecture with the
