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Capstone 62

- In ancient times, people like Pliny the Younger, Aristotle, and Herodotus made early observations about natural phenomena like earthquakes and volcanoes based on limited information. This early work was built upon by Arab intellectuals in the Dark Ages. - In the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci observed that fossils were once living organisms and that the land was once covered by the sea. The term "geology" was first used in its modern sense in 1603. - Foundational concepts in geology like stratigraphy and theories of the formation of the Earth from vapor to solid surface were developed in the late 17th century by scientists like Nicolas Steno, René Descartes, and Gottfried Wilhelm Le

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46 views1 page

Capstone 62

- In ancient times, people like Pliny the Younger, Aristotle, and Herodotus made early observations about natural phenomena like earthquakes and volcanoes based on limited information. This early work was built upon by Arab intellectuals in the Dark Ages. - In the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci observed that fossils were once living organisms and that the land was once covered by the sea. The term "geology" was first used in its modern sense in 1603. - Foundational concepts in geology like stratigraphy and theories of the formation of the Earth from vapor to solid surface were developed in the late 17th century by scientists like Nicolas Steno, René Descartes, and Gottfried Wilhelm Le

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ela kikay
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© © All Rights Reserved
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However, even in ancient times people thought about the causes of phenomena such as earthquakes

and volcanoes. Pliny the Younger recorded the plinian eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, while philosophers
such as Aristotle, Lucretius and Herodotus, made astute observations based on meager information, and
these data were preserved and developed through the Dark Ages by Arab intellectuals such as the
polymath Avicenna (981–1037) (Lyell, 1830). Then, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Leonardo
da Vinci observed that fossils had once been living organisms and that the land had once been covered
by the sea (Richter, 1880). In 1603, Ulisse Aldrovandi first used the term ‘geology’ in its modern sense in
Bologna (Vai, 2003). So it was with the development of the Enlightenment, that ancient ideas were re-
examined and new thoughts advanced. Bishop Nicolas Steno, the founder of modern geology,
developed the concept of stratigraphy in Florence in 1669 with the principle of superposition. Then, in
the late seventeenth century, René Descartes in France followed by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in
Germany formulated the hypothesis of the formation and development of our planet from vapor
through molten rock to the solid surface (Holmes and Holmes, 1978).

Geology is a discipline in which time plays a fundamental role. Indeed, it forms the very backbone of this
discipline. Furthermore, as it covers a timespan of over 4 billion years, it is necessary to divide this time
into separate intervals. The only record of Earth's history, its past time, is the rock record. And this rock
record is subdivided into stratigraphic intervals of varying thickness and referred to by a hierarchal set of
units (Erathems, Systems, Series and Stages). These material rock units (i.e. stratigraphic intervals) serve
as the basis for the corresponding units of the Geologic Time Scale (Eras, Periods, Epochs, and Ages).
These stratigraphic intervals are more or less thick, and they serve to establish correlations between
different geographical terrains that are often very distant from one another. Since life spread over the
Earth in abundance, 550 million years ago (Ma), Erathems, Systems, Series, and Stages are distinguished
on the basis of their fossil content, and more generally by crises in the living world.

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