Charles Lyell And Steno And Hutton's Accomplishments

There are several people in the world of geology that got us to the things we know today, but there were a few who set the base of what we know today. Those few people are: James Hutton, Charles Lyell, and Nicolaus Steno. Hutton is most widely known for the idea of actualism. Lyell is known for continuing Hutton’s idea and coming up with uniformitarianism, and Steno is known for his three principles of sedimentary rocks.
James Hutton was a Scottish farmer who set the way of actualism. Actualism is defined as “The principle asserting that there are inviolable laws of nature that have not changed over the course of time” (Stanley, 2015). After studying the origins of rocks, Hutton noticed that the rocks were formed by the same processes happening
at the surface of Earth, thus the idea of actualism.
Charles Lyell, a fellow geologist, was the one to get Hutton’s ideas noticed. Charles Lyell was the one who made Hutton’s ideas popularized. He wrote about them in a three-volume book, Principles of Geology. People accepted Lyell’s ideas better because he was a stronger writer than Hutton. Lyell and Hutton had similar ideas, “Earth resembled an enormous machine that was always churning but retained its basic features” (Stanley, 2015). Lyell expanded Hutton’s idea of actualism, and created the idea of uniformitarianism, “the present is the key to the past.” Uniformitarianism is defined as “The principle asserting that processes operating in the present work can be used to interpret events of the past” (Stanley, 2015). In modern days Lyell was correct in his finding and arguments, but some say that he pushed his ideas too far, for three reasons to be exact. The first reason being that “Lyell argued that no events of a kind never seen by humans had ever played and important geologic role” (Stanley, 2015). An example of this, according to the textbook, is the asteroid impacts that lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This is
a pretty important event in geologic history, but Lyell didn’t think it was. Secondly, “Lyell argued that all geologic changes were gradual” (Stanley, 2015). Going back to the example of the asteroid and the dinosaurs, which was something that happened pretty suddenly. Granted, there are definitely things that happened over time, but there are also things that happened quickly. Lastly, “Lyell argued that the kinds of rocks that form our planet – and even the kinds of living things that occupy Earth’s surface - had never basically changed” (Stanley, 2015). Lyell believed that the planet had not changed over time. Lyell’s idea of uniformitarianism helped Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution, “The process by which particular forms of life give rise to other forms by way of genetic changes” (Stanley, 2015). Lyell was one of the geologists who set the idea of what we know today. Lastly, we have Nicolaus Steno.
Steno was a seventeenth century, Danish physician, who lived in Florence, Italy. Steno is known for creating three principles for interpreting sedimentary rocks; the principles of superposition, original horizontality, and original lateral continuity. Steno’s first principle, superposition, is defined as “The principle that in an undisturbed sequence strata, the oldest lie at the bottom and the progressively younger strata are successively higher” (Stanley, 2015). This is relatively easy to understand, each layer of a sedimentary rock, as long as it is undisturbed, is younger than the layer below. The second principle, original horizontality, is “The principle that all strata are at low angles when they form. In other words, almost all strata are initially horizontal than vertical when they form” (Stanley, 2015). During the seventeenth century this was true, and is still mostly true, but today there are sediments that form on sloping surfaces, such as sand dunes. Lastly, is Steno’s principle of original lateral continuity, which is defined as “The principle that similar strata found on opposite sides of a valley or some other erosional features were originally connected” (Stanley, 2015). The sediments can be broken apart from processes like erosion or weathering. All three of Steno’s principles are used to help us better understand sediments
today. We have learned several different things thanks to these geologists. Things like actualism, uniformitarianism, and the principles of sedimentary rocks. Without the discoveries and ideas brought to us by Hutton, Lyell, and Steno we would not have been able to discover several of the things we know today.