Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
use. During the bicentenary celebrations of Hutton's death, a plaque
was unveiled at the site on Wednesday 6 August 1997, and in 2002 the
site was landscaped and opened as a memorial garden, largely thanks
to the efforts of Norman Butcher. Incorporated into the garden are
several boulders that mark the themes in Hutton's work: conglomer-
ate erratics from near Dunblane illustrate his work on geological
processes, while a granite boulder, moved from Glen Tilt, recalls
Hutton's pronouncements on granite and plutonism.
While Hutton did not attempt to calculate the date of creation or
give a figure for the duration of the Earth, he did open up geology to
scientific observation, and removed it from the influence of the
church and the reliance for Earth's chronology on the biblical texts.
Without doubt his Theory of the Earth ranks high, if not highest, in the
list of the most influential topics ever published in geology. This
modest gentleman farmer/geologist deserves the moniker
'The
Father of Geology'.
