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MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES
Basic principles of geology. History and essence of scientific discovery
Directory / The most important scientific discoveries The fact that the earth has its own history has been recognized since time immemorial: the cosmogony of the Hindus, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks paint more or less grandiose pictures of the past life of our planet. They already contain in fabulous form two basic theories, two antitheses, which then developed over many centuries, until one of them triumphed over its rival. The main idea of Indian cosmogony - the alternation of periods of destruction that destroyed the earthly shell and its population, with periods of rest and creation - expressed in the hymns of the Veda, is repeated in the writings Cuvier, Elie de Beaumont, d'Orbigny and others. However, this idea not only "survived"; it developed and grew with the accumulation of geological knowledge. Theories that dominated the performance Lyell to the scientific field, represent only variations on this ancient theme. But the opposite idea - the idea of slow development - is also old. Ovid expounds in his "Metamorphoses" the views Pythagoras, borrowed by the latter, in turn from the Indian sages, are the views according to which nothing disappears and is not created in the world in general and on Earth in particular, but everything changes and turns into a continuous process of development. The history of geology is the history of attempts to put these ideas into scientific form, that is, to connect them with real phenomena instead of fictional ones. The brilliant Leonardo de Vinci did not recognize cataclysms that push and destroy continents, raise mountains, and destroy flora and fauna in the blink of an eye. The slow but relentless activity of water, atmosphere, wind leads, in the end, to the transformation of the earth's surface. "Coasts grow, moving into the sea, reefs and capes are destroyed, inland seas dry up and turn into rivers." Rocks with the remains of plants and animals were once deposited in water, the activity of which, according to Leonardo, must be considered the main geological factor. He rejects the flood, which allegedly brought the shells to the tops of the mountains at a time when the sea covered them ten cubits, "as the one who measured it says," and laughs at "another sect of the ignorant," in whose opinion these shells were formed by the action of the stars. . In his views, the principle of uniformitarianism was quite scientifically formulated, with the help of which the edifice of modern geology was erected much later. But these views did not and could not have any influence on Leonardo's contemporaries. This whole long period, covering almost three centuries (XVI-XVIII), can be called the preparatory period of geology. It has been proven that the materials that make up the earth's crust are not mixed in disorder, but are arranged in more or less uniform layers or layers; fossils constantly accompany known strata; these layers vary in antiquity and can be classified according to their age. From these truths they finally passed to general geological theories. In the eighteenth century, two as many as the Neptunian and the Volcanic, or the theories of Werner and Hutton, appear. Werner, based solely on mineralogical features, gave a general classification of rocks, dividing them into primary, transitional and secondary. With the exception of primary, all other rocks - not excluding granites and basalts - were deposited one after another from the primitive ocean, a chaotic liquid - "tepayit" - containing in solution the entire future thickness of the earth's crust. They were deposited, of course, in the form of horizontal layers, but over time they were agitated, distorted, broken, uplifted, overturned due to various reasons - mainly failures in underground voids formed between different layers even during their deposition from the primary chaotic fluid. Thus the earth's surface assumed its present configuration, with its irregularities, seas and continents, mountains and valleys. Werner's theory represents the first attempt to put into scientific form the ancient idea of catastrophism. It draws a sharp line between the past and the present of our planet. In turn, uniformitarianism found its defender in the person of the Scot Hutton, whose theory was called plutonic, or volcanic, since he recognized underground fire as one of the most important geological figures. The rocks that make up the modern earth's crust were not deposited from the primary chaotic fluid and were not immediately deposited, Hetton taught, they represent the result of numerous successive processes. There were continents that were destroyed by the action of waters; the products of this destruction were deposited on the bottom of the oceans; again heaved up in the form of continents by the action of underground fire and again collapsed and eroded ... Modern strata of layered rocks - from the most ancient to the latest - are not at all primary sediment: all these are derivatives, later formations, the results of repeated swelling and destruction of the earth's crust. The forces that acted at the same time continue to act today, there is no difference between the past and the present; in the history of the world there is no beginning, no end in sight; the present is only a moment in the infinite and homogeneous process of the development of the universe. Among the participants in the formation of the earth's crust, an enormous role was played, according to Hutton, by volcanic forces. He proved the fiery origin of granite and suggested that many of the sedimentary water rocks subsequently changed under the influence of heat (the so-called metamorphic rocks). These are two important acquisitions that science owes to the Scottish scientist. As a general theory, his teaching was not much superior to Werner's - for nothing that proceeded from a completely opposite principle. Hutton's basic idea - the unity of the past and present forces of nature - is completely justified, but expressed in such a general form, it did not explain the phenomena occurring in reality. The theories of Hutton and Werner incited a bitter, long and fruitless war between the Neptunists and the vulcanists, which ended to the general satisfaction after the most stubborn fighters of both camps had to agree that the earth's crust has gone through, so to speak, both fire and water, and that it consists from fiery (granite, basalt, etc.), water (sandstones, limestones, etc.) and metamorphic (crystalline schists) rocks. More and more, the need for a general theory that would connect the accumulated materials with a universal scheme, giving at the same time an answer to private, specific, definite questions that arose upon closer acquaintance with the facts, was felt more and more strongly. This theory was created by the English scientist Lyell. Charles Lyell (1797–1875) was born in Forfar, Scotland, on his father's estate, Kinnordy. In the fourth year of his life, Lyell learned to read, and in the eighth he entered the school of Dr. Davis in the city of Ringwood. In his ninth year he was transferred to Dr. Radcliffe's School in Salisbury, a fashionable school where the sons of local influential people were taught Latin. After two years at Radcliffe School, Lyell was transferred to Dr. Bailey's School in Midhurst. This school was very different from the previous ones - it did not have such a family, home character. After parting with the school, Lyell entered the University of Oxford. Little by little, geology took the dominant place in his studies. He began to undertake whole trips with a geological purpose. So, in 1817, he visited the island of Staffa, where he examined Fingal's cave, famous among aesthetes for the songs of Ossian, among geologists - for wonderful basalt pillars, a very curious geological phenomenon. The next year he traveled with his father, mother and two sisters to France, Switzerland and Italy. Five or six years after completing his course at Oxford, Lyell constantly made trips to England and the mainland, having the opportunity to verify and consolidate by his own observation the information gleaned from books. Lyell learned a lot in personal communication with the most prominent geologists in Europe. Finally, the inspection of collections and museums served as a good addition to the material gleaned from books, in the field and in conversations with scientists. In 1822, Lyell made a trip to Winchelsea, a place of great geological interest, since here he could observe a vast expanse of land, relatively recently freed from under the sea. In 1823 he undertook an excursion to Sussex and the Isle of Wight, where he studied the relations of certain strata, which had hitherto remained obscure. Lyell dedicates the next year to geological excursions in England. Pretty soon, his article appeared in one of the magazines, in which he sets out his credo, the main idea of his future work. But Lyell had not yet appreciated all the difficulties of the work ahead of him. He thought that his role would be limited mainly to that of a compiler. He decided to write a textbook on geology, an ordinary compiling textbook, a brief summary of the materials accumulated in science, of course, differently illuminated than those of previous researchers. It turned out, however, that it was impossible to write a compilation, but something more could and should be done. In 1828, he undertook with his friend Murchison a long geological excursion to France, Italy and Sicily. The main goal of this expedition was the closest acquaintance with the sediments of the Tertiary era. According to the existing theory, there was a gap between the Tertiary and the modern era, a break. "The course of events has changed", the old world perished, destroyed by some catastrophe, and a new one was erected. Lyell's earlier excursions made him doubt the validity of these conclusions; now he ventured to test his doubts by studying the Tertiary deposits all the way from France to Sicily. His research completely destroyed the old views. Comparing Tertiary fossils with modern ones, he concluded that they represent one inseparable whole: Tertiary precipitation, climate, population imperceptibly pass into modern ones. Nothing speaks in favor of huge general catastrophes breaking the chain of phenomena; on the contrary, everything points to a slow, continuous and uniform process of development. It is clear what enormous significance these conclusions had for the theory of uniformitarianism. The catastrophists were losing their main support: the existence of a sharp break between the present and the past. The first volume of Lyell's Fundamentals of Geology was published in 1830, the second in 1832, and the third in 1833. It is difficult to define in a few words the meaning of this book. It does not fit into a short formula, is not expressed in bright discoveries. His whole book as a whole represents a discovery. In Lyell's book, the activity of the modern forces of nature for the first time appeared in its true light. He showed that, firstly, the work of these "weak" agents actually leads to colossal results, continuing for an indefinite time, and, secondly, that it really continues for an indefinite time, imperceptibly merging with the past. The first and second volumes of the Basic Principles are devoted to the study of modern forces. The theory of metamorphism, the germ of which we find in Hutton, was developed by Lyell and brought into connection with his general system. Among the rocks that make up the earth's crust, strata of crystalline schists play a prominent role, showing signs of fiery (crystalline stratification) and water (layering) work. According to Lyell's theory, "the age of each metamorphic formation is twofold: first we must figure out the period when it appeared as a water sediment in the form of silt, sand, marl or limestone, and then determine the time when it received a crystalline structure. In accordance with this definition the same stratum may be very ancient in relation to the time of its sedimentation and new in relation to the period in which it acquired a metamorphic character. And in this case, there is no need to ascribe to the previously acting forces a special energy, unlike the example of the present calm era. Sedimentary rocks from ancient times and now have changed and are changing under the influence of plutonic agents of the same intensity. But ancient deposits have been exposed to these agents longer, and therefore have changed more. At first glance, these strong changes seem to be the result of equally strong causes; however, a detailed study reveals in them only the result of a large number of actions, such as the present ones. Finally, Lyell studied the question of the role of organic agents in the history of the earth's crust no less completely and thoroughly. He destroyed the previous opinion about interruptions in the history of the organic world - about the destruction and emergence of entire faunas and floras - proving (for the Tertiary era) that with a more careful study we discover here, too, a gradual development, in harmony with the gradual transformation of the inorganic environment. Lyell's system marked the beginning of geology as a rigorous inductive science. His method was accepted because of its inner necessity. Physical geology, which he placed on solid ground, continued to develop with astonishing rapidity. The deeper and more thoroughly modern phenomena were studied, the brighter the history of the earth's crust was covered, which, of course, spurred researchers on. In France and Germany, the old theories were still held together more or less artificially by the influence of academic scientists, but along with them a new trend was developing. In the 50s and 60s, the theory of uniformitarianism gained dominance everywhere. Geology has come a long way since the first edition of the Basic Principles. But one thing can be said: science has rushed along the path blazed by Lyell. Author: Samin D.K.
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