Timeline of geology
Appearance
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Timeline of geology
Early works
[edit]- c. 1025–al-Birunipublishes theKitāb fī Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind(Researches on India), in which he discusses thegeology of Indiaand hypothesizes that it was once a sea.[1]
- 1027 –AvicennapublishesThe Book of Healing,in which he hypothesizes on two causes ofmountains.[2]
16th and 17th centuries
[edit]- Portuguese and Spanish explorers systematically measuremagnetic declinationto estimate the geographical longitude[3][4]
- 1556 –AgricolapublishesDe re metallica.This book acts as the standard mining and assaying text for the next 250 years.
- 1596 –Abraham Ortelius,Flemish-Spanish cartographer, first envisages thecontinental drifttheory.[3]
- 1603 –Ulisse Aldrovandicoins the termGeology.[3][5]
- 1669 –Nicolas Stenoputs forward his theory that sedimentary strata had been deposited in former seas, and that fossils were organic in origin
18th century
[edit]- 1701 –Edmond Halleysuggests using the salinity and evaporation of the Mediterranean to determine the age of the Earth
- 1743 – DrChristopher Packeproduces a geological map of south-east England
- 1746 –Jean-Étienne Guettardpresents the first mineralogical map of France to theFrench Academy of Sciences.
- 1760 –John Michellsuggests earthquakes are caused by one layer of rocks rubbing against another
- 1776 –James Keirsuggests that some rocks, such as those at theGiant's Causeway,might have been formed by the crystallisation of molten lava
- 1779 –Comte de Buffonspeculates that the Earth is older than the 6,000 years suggested by the Bible
- 1785 –James Huttonpresents paper entitled Theory of the Earth – Earth must be old
- 1799 –William Smithproduces the first large scale geological map, of the area aroundBath
19th century
[edit]- 1809 –William Maclureconducts the first geological survey of the eastern United States
- 1813 –Georges Cuvierpublishes hisEssay on the Theory of the Earth,proposingcatastrophismon the basis of his work inbiostratigraphy
- 1830 – SirCharles Lyellpublishes book, Principles of Geology, which describes the world as being several hundred million years old
- 1837 –Louis Agassizbegins his glaciation studies which eventually demonstrate that the Earth has had at least oneice age
- 1841 –August Breithaupt,Vollstandiges Handbuch der Mineralogie
- 1848 –James Dwight Dana,Manual of Mineralogy
- 1862 –Lord Kelvinattempts to find the age of the Earth by examining its cooling time and estimates that the Earth is between 20 and 400 million years old
- 1884 –Marcel Alexandre Bertrand,NappeandThrust faulttheory
20th century
[edit]- 1903 –George DarwinandJohn Jolyclaim that radioactivity is partially responsible for the Earth's heat
- 1907 –Bertram Boltwoodproposes that the amount of lead in uranium and thorium ores might be used to determine the Earth's age and crudely dates some rocks to have ages between 410 and 2200 million years
- 1911 –Arthur Holmesuses radioactivity to date rocks, the oldest being 1.6 billion years old
- 1912 –Alfred Wegenerproposes that all the continents once formed a single landmass called Pangaea that broke apart viacontinental drift
- 1912 –George Barrowmaps zones ofmetamorphism(the Barrovian sequence) in southernScotland
- 1913 –Albert A. Michelsonmeasurestidesin the solid body of the Earth
- 1915 –Pentti Eskoladevelops the concept ofmetamorphic facies
- 1928 –N. L. BowenpublishesThe Evolution of the Igneous Rocks,revolutionizing experimentaligneouspetrology
- 1935 –Charles Richterinvents a logarithmic scale to measure the magnitude ofearthquakes()
- 1941 –Nickel-Strunz classification,Karl H. Strunz,Mineralogische Tabellen
- 1948–1959 –Felix Andries Vening Meineszinvestigations show gravity anomalies, implying that the crust is moving (together withJ.H.F. Umbgrove,B.G. EscherandPh.H. Kuenen)
- 1951 –Alfred Rittmannlinkssubduction,volcanismand theWadati–Benioff zone
- 1953 –Maurice Ewing,Bruce Heezen,andMarie Tharpdiscover theGreat Global Riftrunning along theMid-Atlantic Ridge
- 1960 –Harry Hessproposes that new sea floor might be created at mid-ocean rifts and destroyed at deep sea trenches
- 1963 –Frederick VineandDrummond Matthewsexplain the stripes of magnetized rocks with alternating magnetic polarities running parallel to mid-ocean ridges as due to sea floor spreading and the periodic geomagnetic field reversals (Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis)
- 1966 –Keiiti Akidiscovers theseismic moment()
- 1979 –Thomas C. HanksandHiroo Kanamori,Moment magnitude scale(), it succeeds theRichter magnitude scale
- 1980 – PhysicistLuis Alvarez,his son, geologistWalter Alvarez,and others propose that the impact of a large extraterrestrial object caused theextinctionof thedinosaursat theend of the Cretaceous Period,about 66 million years ago.
21st century
[edit]- 2001 –Nickel-Strunz classification,Karl H. StrunzandErnest H. Nickel,Strunz Mineralogical Tables9 ed.
See also
[edit]Wikibooks has a book on the topic of:Historical Geology
References
[edit]- ^A. Salam(1984), "Islam and Science". In C. H. Lai (1987),Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam,2nd ed., World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 179–213.
- ^Goodfield, Stephen Toulmin, June (1999).The discovery of time.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.64.ISBN9780226808420.
{{cite book}}
:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^abcGarcia-Castellanos, Daniel (27 November 2013)."How old is Earth Science?".Retos Terrícolas.blogspot.Retrieved7 April2018.
- ^Alvarez, Walter; Leitão, Henrique (March 2010). "The neglected early history of geology: The Copernican Revolution as a major advance in understanding the Earth".Geology.38(3): 231–234.Bibcode:2010Geo....38..231A.doi:10.1130/G30602.1.
- ^Vai, Gian Battista; Cavazza, William, eds. (2004).Four centuries of the word geology: Ulisse Aldrovandi 1603 in Bologna.Bologna, Italy: Minerva.ISBN9788873810568.