Skip to main content Skip to Search Box

Definition: uniformitarianism from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

In geology, the principle that processes that can be seen to occur on the Earth's surface today are the same as those that have occurred throughout geological time. For example, desert sandstones containing sand-dune structures must have been formed under conditions similar to those present in deserts today. The principle was formulated by Scottish geologists James Hutton and expounded by Charles Lyell.

essays

Geology


uniformitarianism

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in geology, doctrine holding that changes in the earth's surface that occurred in past geologic time are referable to the same causes as changes now being produced upon the earth's surface. This doctrine, the basic concept of which was first advanced by the Scottish geologist James Hutton in his Theory of the Earth (1785, 1795), was further expounded by another Scotsman, John Playfair, in his Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory (1802). It made little progress, however, against the teachings of the school of Abraham Gottlob Werner, a German geologist, and as a theory of dynamic geology it was overshadowed by the doctrine of catastrophism , of which the major supporter was the French naturalist G. L. Cuvier. This was in large measure because uniformitarianism seemed in several ways to be contrary to religious beliefs. It required an immensely long period of time for the consummation of geological processes (thus disturbing the accepted biblical chronology) and set aside all remarkable…
123 results

Full text Article Uniformitarianism

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Biology & the Environment
Date: 1785 In his 1785 work, Theory of the Earth , Scottish naturalist James Hutton put forth a hypothesis that came to be known as uniformitarianism. It can be summed up in eight words: “The present is the key to the past.” It assumes that the geological processes observed today are the same…
| 229 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article uniformitarianism

From Encyclopedia of Evolution
Uniformitarianism is an assumption and a procedure that underlies much of modern geological science. It began mainly with the geological studies of Sir Charles Lyell and his predecessors such as James Hutton, although Lyell called it simply uniformity. Lyellian uniformitarianism can be summarized as…
| 943 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article uniformitarianism

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in geology, doctrine holding that changes in the earth's surface that occurred in past geologic time are referable to the same causes as changes now being produced upon the earth's surface. This doctrine, the basic concept of which was first advanced by the Scottish geologist James Hutton in his…
| 250 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Uniformitarianism

From A Concise Dictionary of Paleontology
Until the eighteenth century, the accepted view was that life on Earth has been affected throughout its history by sudden catastrophic events— such as great floods, widespread volcanic eruptions, and rapid formation of mountain chains—which led to the more or less universal destruction of all life…
| 213 words

Full text Article UNIFORMITARIANISM

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Is uniformitarianism necessary? Is Uniformitarianism Necessary? Journal of Science, Volume 263 , 1965 (p. 223 ). English biologist Uniformitarinism, on the other hand, has with equal justice [to Catastrophism] insiste... …
| 269 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article uniformitarian principle

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
A fundamental principle of historical analysis which states that the forces governing LANGUAGE CHANGE are the same today as they were in the past. Linguists can thus study ‘the past through the present’; that is, studies of CHANGE IN PROGRESS in contemporary speech communities (for which linguistic…
| 136 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article uniformitarian

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
| 31 words

Full text Article uniformitarian

From Collins English Dictionary
| 29 words

Full text Article uniformitarian

From The Macquarie Dictionary
| 54 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article uniformitarianism

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
| 96 words
Key concepts:

Stack overflow
More Library Resources