People of earth science

Nicolaus Steno

A Danish natural philosopher, one of the first people to try and understand the earth surface, thought the orginial surface was a smooth pile of sediment, Father of stratigraphy.

Thomas Burnet

an English cleric and natural philosopher known for his work "The Sacred Theory of the Earth," which proposed a geological history of the Earth based on biblical accounts.

Archbishop Ussher

pronounced that earth came into existence at the sunset of october 22nd 4004 BC

Baron Georges Cuvier

head of the prestigious academy of science. repeating layers caused by sudden flooding, floods caused by a series of huge catastrophes which were sudden and unpredictable.

James Hutton

Scotsman who is “the father of modern geology” first person to formulate the concept and name is gradualism, was a diest

Charles Lyell

lawyer who ditched law after attending a geology lecture, professor of geology at kings college, book called principled of geology based on huttons hypothesis

Alfred Wegener

first steps toward formulation of a theory, continental drift 1912

Harry Hess

conjectured in 1960 that mid-ocean ridges represent spreading centers where earths curst moves like conveyor belts, atlantic widens by 2.5cm per year

Vine and Matthews

the alternating magnetic strips of normal and reversed polarity on the ocean floor are age related and form a symmetrical pattern around spreading ridges

Hugo Benioff

worked with seismographs to map earthquake origins in ocean trnches defining the sloping zones that mark descending slabs of ocean floor

Charles richter

co-worker who helped develop and perfect the seismometer instrument used by benioff

Henri Becquerel

discovered radioactivity, made absolute age dating possible