Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Uniformitarianism or Catastrophism vs. Plate tectonics

By Patricia Zapien and Jonathan Franco

Theories, Dates, People.



Uniformitarianism: 1830. assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe

- the work of geologist James Hutton, which was refined by John Playfair and popularised by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology 


Catastrophism: (19th century) the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, worldwide

-geologist Charles Lyell built upon James Hutton's ideas 

The theory of uniformitarianism is more closely related to the theory of plate tectonics


Uniformitarianism 
Catastrophism

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