GEOL 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Geologic Time Scale, James Hutton, Uniformitarianism
Document Summary
Setting the stage for studying the past: uniformitarianism: until recently, people believed that geologic time began around the same time that human history began. They also believed that our planet had been virtually unchanged since its birth: james hutton came up with the idea that the formation of rocks and landscapes were a consequences of processes happening in his own time. This idea became known as the principle of uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism: physical processes that operate in the modern world also operated in the past, at roughly the same rates, and these processes were responsible for forming geologic features preserved in outcrops. Hutton deduced that the development of individual geologic features took a long time, and that not all features formed at the same time. He also realizes that the earth"s processes must have been active for a long time before human history began.
