While people have studied the Earth since the Middle Ages and beyond, geology did not

make
significant advancements until the 18th century when the scientific community began to look beyond
religion for answers to their questions.

Today there are plenty of impressive geologists making important discoveries all the time. Without the
geologists in this list, however, they might still be looking for answers between the pages of a Bible.

While people have studied the Earth since the Middle Ages and beyond, geology did not make
significant advancements until the 18th century when the scientific community began to look beyond
religion for answers to their questions.

Today there are plenty of impressive geologists making important discoveries all the time. Without the
geologists in this list, however, they might still be looking for answers between the pages of a Bible. 

01

of 08

James Hutton

 James Hutton.

National Galleries of Scotland/Getty Images

James Hutton (1726–1797) is considered by many to be the father of modern geology. Hutton was born
in Edinburgh, Scotland and studied medicine and chemistry throughout Europe before becoming a
farmer in the early 1750s. In his capacity as a farmer, he constantly observed the land around him and
how it reacted to the erosional forces of wind and water.

Among his numerous groundbreaking achievements, James Hutton first developed the idea
of uniformitarianism, which was popularized by Charles Lyell years later. He also dismantled the
universally accepted view that the Earth was just a few thousand years old.

02

of 08

Charles Lyell

 Charles Lyell.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a lawyer and geologist who grew up in Scotland and England. Lyell was a
revolutionary in his time for his radical ideas regarding the Earth's age.
Lyell wrote Principles of Geology, his first and most famous book, in 1829. It was published in three
versions from 1930-1933. Lyell was a proponent of  James Hutton's idea of uniformitarianism, and his
work expanded upon those concepts. This stood in contrast to the then-popular theory of
catastrophism.

Charles Lyell's ideas greatly influenced the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. But,
because of his Christian beliefs, Lyell was slow to think of evolution as anything more than a possibility.

03

of 08

Mary Horner Lyell

 Mary Horner Lyell. Public Domain

While Charles Lyell is widely known, not many people realize that his wife, Mary Horner Lyell (1808-
1873), was a great geologist and conchologist. Historians think that Mary Horner made significant
contributions towards her husband's work but was never given the credit that she deserved.

Mary Horner Lyell was born and raised in England and introduced to geology at a young age. Her father
was a geology professor, and he ensured that each of his children received a top-notch education. Mary
Horner's sister, Katherine, pursued a career in botany and married another Lyell - Charles' younger
brother, Henry.

04

of 08

Alfred Wegener

 Alfred Lothar Wegener.

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Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), a German meteorologist and geophysicist, is best remembered as the

Wegener was a notable polar explorer and meteorologist, pioneering the use of weather balloons in
tracking air circulation. But his biggest contribution to modern science, by far, was introducing the
theory of continental drift in 1915. Initially, the theory was widely criticized before being verified by the
discovery of mid-ocean ridges in the 1950s. It helped spawn the theory of plate tectonics.

Days after his 50th birthday, Wegener died of a heart attack on a Greenland expedition.

05
of 08

Inge Lehmann

A Danish seismologist, Inge Lehmann (1888-1993), discovered the core of the Earth and was a leading
authority on the upper mantle. She grew up in Copenhagen and attended a high school that provided
equal educational opportunities for males and females - a progressive idea at the time. She later studied
and obtained degrees in mathematics and science and was named the state geodesist and head of the
department of seismology at the Geodetical Institute of Denmark in 1928.

Lehmann began studying how seismic waves behaved as they moved through the interior of the Earth
and, in 1936, published a paper based on her findings. Her paper proposed a three-shelled model of the
Earth's interior, with an inner core, outer core and mantle. Her idea was later verified in 1970 with
advances in seismography. She received the Bowie Medal, the top honor of the American Geophysical
Union, in 1971.

06

of 08

Georges Cuvier

 Georges Cuvier.

Underwood Archives/Getty Images

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), regarded as the father of paleontology, was a prominent French naturalist
and zoologist. He was born in Montbéliard, France and attended school at the Carolinian Academy in
Stuttgart, Germany.

Upon graduation, Cuvier took a position as a tutor for a noble family in Normandy. This allowed him to
stay out of the ongoing French Revolution while beginning his studies as a naturalist.

At the time, most naturalists thought that an animal's structure dictated where it lived. Cuvier was the
first to claim that it was the other way around.

Like many other scientists from this time, Cuvier was a believer in catastrophism and a vocal opponent
of the theory of evolution.

07

of 08

Louis Agassiz

 Louis Agassiz.

De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images

Agassiz was born in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and attended universities in his home
country and in Germany. He studied under Georges Cuvier, who influenced him and launched his career
in zoology and geology. Agassiz would spend much of his career promoting and defending Cuvier's work
on geology and the classification of animals.

Enigmatically, Agassiz was a staunch creationist and opponent of Darwin's theory of evolution. His
reputation is often scrutinized for this.

08

of 08

Other Influential Geologists

 Florence Bascom (1862-1945): American geologist and first female hired by the USGS; expert in
petrography and mineralogy who focused on the crystalline rocks of the United States
Piedmont. 

 Marie Tharp (1920-2006): American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who

 John Tuzo Wilson (1908-1993): Canadian geologist and geophysicist that proposed the theory
of hotspots and discovered transform boundaries. 

 Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839): German geologist and mineralogist that developed the
qualitative Mohs scale of mineral hardness in 1812. 

 Charles Francis Richter (1900-1985): American seismologist and physicist that developed the
Richter magnitude scale, the way that earthquakes were quantitatively measured from 1935-
1979. 

 Eugene Merle Shoemaker (1928-1997): American geologist and founder of astrogeology; co-
discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn Shoemaker and astronomer David
Levy.