Tag Archives: Charles Lyell

Geosyncline Celebration

Today, September 12, commemorates the 1811 birth of James Hall, Jr., an American geologist (and one of the world’s first paleontologists). Hall was brilliant. But dangerous. And, as often happens in science, his most stunning idea was eventually proven wrong. … Continue reading

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Scotland’s Verbose Expounditor of Geological Logorrhea

James Hutton (1726-1797), Scotland’s most celebrated geologist, had a way with words. A rather awful way with words. But his scientific brilliance is uncontested. He is credited with moving geology away from the La-Z-Boy recliners of seventeenth century drawing rooms … Continue reading

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The Painfully Seated Camel

Camels often sit down mighty painfully. Perhaps their joints creak. Perhaps early oiling might prevent permanently hazardous aging. Or perhaps these sentences are just simple mnemonics and we are trying to remember the names of the geological periods.  Here they … Continue reading

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The Age of Man?

Well, this is not the Age of Aquarius. Last week, geologists met in Berlin to discuss  renaming our current geological epoch – the Holocene. They say it began when the ice age ended, 11,700 years ago. The geologists in Berlin … Continue reading

Posted in Climate, Culture, Oceans, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments