Book
1830
Principles of Geology
Charles Lyell
Argues that the same slow processes visible today — erosion, sedimentation, gradual uplift — are sufficient to explain the entire rock record given enough time, displacing sudden catastrophe as geology's default explanation.
Read itWhere it is now wrong
Lyell's strict uniformitarianism — that rates of change have always been what they are now — is now qualified, since sudden events plainly do shape the record. It also predates radiometric dating and plate tectonics, so the ages and the mechanisms are both superseded.
Before you start
FreeAdvancedabout 29 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026
Filed under Geology in Earth & Environmental Science.