geology 209 people

this is every single person we learned about in this class because omg theres so many.

Neils Stenson (Nicolas Steno)

Found a shark tooth in the mountains and wrote De Solido to explain his theories. Created Steno’s principles

abraham gottlob werner

A neptunist who believed that primary rocks precipitated from a global ocean.

James Hutton (plutonism)

A plutonist who believed earth started as a molten ball and primary rocks were the first to precipitate. He believed in an eternal Earth and infinite cycles

william smith

Designed canals, used fossils to connect layers over space. The thickness of layers tells us how long a period lasts.

mary anning

Found many fossils that proved signs of former life and very different ecosystems from now, most people were skeptical and she didn't get much credit for her findings

george cuvier

Used fossils to understand past environments. Founder of catastrophism.

geradus mercator

Came up with longitude and latitude.

jean de charpentier

Inferred that large continental scale glaciation had occurred in the past

louis agazzi

Became an advocate for a slowly cooling Earth with periodic ice ages. Hole in his theory - how did we get glaciers when it was hotter than it is now???

james ussher

His chronology was picked for the king james bible - “in the beginning god created heaven and the earth”

johannes Keppler

Not science vs religion, just a line of inquiry about how the earth was formed etc.

edward lhywid

Walked along a glacial valley (not knowing it was glacial). Observed boulders on the valley floor. Assumed boulders falling was rare. Proposed that it must have taken a couple hundred thousand years for all the boulders to fall.

edward halley

Postulated that if one could find a lake with no river exit and measure the saltiness, one could determine the age of the Earth, assuming the lake had fresh water to start with and has a constant influence of dissolved salts. Never performs test as he does not have accurate tools.

benoit de maillet

Considered seashells in mountains as evidence for an original global flood. Since the water must be evaporating at a constant rate, if he could measure the lowering of sea level, assuming constant rate of evaporation, he could calculate the age of the Earth

George Louis, leclerc, comte de baffon

Used his iron foundry to create iron spheres of different diameters. Heated them up almost to melting, Timed their cooling, and Used the results to calculate the age of the Earth.

aristotle (porous earth)

Earth is made up of rocky materials with networks and caverns and galleries through which fluids can flow. Where fluids accumulate, it fills the caves, creating uplands. Where fluids are low in volume, Earth sinks into ocean basins. As fluid flows back and forth, transition zones see earthquakes and volcanic activity. Like a sponge.

huttin (vertical displacement)

Earth's internal heat engine caused vertical movement of heat.

edward seuss

Sees folded sedimentary rock in the alps. The Earth is molten, and the first to cool is the outside (because it is the closest to space, obviously). The matter contracts as it cools. Homogenous crust, meaning oceans and continents can alternate.

james dana

sees folding mountains. believes in a contracting earth. The least dense rocks cool first. Low density rocks are continents, high density rocks sink down and become the basin. Lows get lower, highs get higher. Heterogenous crust, meaning oceans and continents can’t alternate.

schuchert

Came up with broad land bridges

willis

Came up with isthmian links.

alfred wegener

Came up with horizontal displacement/ pangea.

edna plumstead

Studied fossils and came up with the Gondwanaland connections.

alexander du toit

Studies maps in south america that matches fossils etc. found in west africa

pratt

Continental rocks get less dense toward the middle of continents causing them to “float” higher on interior layers of the Earth.

George Biddel Airy

There are hidden “roots” of low density mountain material causing the mass deficit.

Robbert Mallet

Measured direction of cracks to determine location of earthquake. Seismic description of destruction.

Harvey Fielding reid

Studied regional deformation as recorded by past surveys. The crust deformed elastically under some kind of stretch. The rocks withstood a certain amount of strain before the break. Rocks go back to their original configuration (snaps back elastically).

inge lehman

Studied seismic signals of hundreds of earthquakes - Little cards in an oatmeal bowl. Results showed inconsistencies with just a liquid outer core.

marie tharp

Drew maps based on points. Formalized “anatomy” of seafloor. Discovered a long chain of rugged mountains running the length of the Atlantic AND it had a deep valley right in the middle.

harry hess

Ridges were locations of mantle convection upwelling. The crust cracked causing mantle magma to enter and fill up the crack. New seafloor generates ridges and migrates away, getting colder and older. The oceans are getting bigger.

samuel warren carey

The seafloor is much younger than the continents. Homogenous crust forms on smaller earth. Continents break apart with expanding seafloor. Earth is getting bigger

neal adams

A conspiracist that believes that earth is getting bigger.

patrick maynard stewart blackett

Studied at Manchester college trying to understand the magnetic field. Giant gold ball - didn’t actually find anything. Assumed it was from the spinning of the Earth.

lawrence morley

Recognized both the pattern and a symmetry about the ridge axis. Combines Hess’s geopoetry (seafloor spreading), Magnetic anomalies, and Magnetic reversal time scale. Basically as new ocean crust is formed in ocean rifts, it recorded the ambient magnetic field at the time.

fred vine/ drummond matthews

Came to the same conclusion as Morley, however they get the credits. Basically as new ocean crust is formed in ocean rifts, it recorded the ambient magnetic field at the time.

J. Tuzo Wilson

Originally a fixist. Switched after the new theory. Wilson's model of mantle plumes - Hot spot, or plume emanating from a stationary point. Higher density crust is converging with lower density crust as a result.

Tanya Atwater

Brings tectonics onto land in 1970. San Andreas fault is a long transform fault connecting two ridge/rift systems. Plate tectonics becomes a thing.