The best geologists in history

Throughout the history of our planet there have been many changes at the geological level. These changes have been studied thanks to the great contribution that science has made in our society. The person who studies geology is known as a geologist. Throughout the history of mankind there have been geologists who have provided a great deal of valuable information on the evolution and functioning of our planet. Therefore, they have been considered the best geologists in history.

In this article we are going to tell you who the best geologists in history are and what they have contributed to the scientific community.

The best geologists in history

Nicolas Steno

He could not be missing in the group of the best geologists in history. Surely you have ever heard of Nicolas Steno. He is the protagonist of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century in terms of geology. And this was the first geologist in history. He studied medicine and traveled all over Europe living in Tuscany. Where the first group of scientists arose who were protected by the Grand Duke Fernando II de Medici to carry out their research.

His writing began thanks toa dissection of a shark commissioned by his patrons who led him to publish the Canis carchariae. Thanks to the interpretation of the terrestrial strata and the fossil records he was able to summarize the principles of layering in the famous work Prodomus. The fact is that the strata have a principle of original horizontality and lateral continuity. That is, the substrate above it is younger than the one below it. Like substrates, they have a lateral continuity in time.

Nicolás Steno was the one who showed that our planet had a history that could be identified by reading the rocks. Thanks to this discovery, the modern concept of geological time.

James hutton

James hutton He was the protagonist of the illustration thanks to his theory of Plutonism. At this time there was Neptunism and catastrophism that were the predominant ideas. This geologist defended the endogenous origin of granites and volcanic rocks. This model was called Plutonism. Thanks to his exploits, he has been included in the group of the best geologists in history.

Later he began to define the concept of the geological cycle and pointed out that geological processes act for a long time and that catastrophes and divine interventions are needed to explain the history of the Earth. He was also the forerunner of actualism and the conception of deep time. Years later this concept would be popularized by Charles Lyell.

Willian smith

This scientist was a surveyor who primarily studied the London Basin during the industrial revolution. One of the problems that this man came to be unable to stand out so much is that he had a social level that did not allow him to study at the university. Unable to study at the university, he began to work as a surveyor apprentice, which at that time was a highly valued profession.

Surveyors were of great importance in the coal mines, in the development of the industrial engine and in the construction of canals by which to transport water. In the London Basin, there were simple geological structures with well differentiated levels. He was able to verify the fossils that the layers had when the railway existed. These layers always happened in a defined order. This is how each epoch of the corresponding fossils could be established. Thanks to these fossils it was possible to give a relative age to the strata.

Thanks to this scientist, the supposed birth of the biostratigraphy. He also made the first geological map in history represented on a topographic map. It could be worked in different colors and it was a map that changed the world.

Georges Cuvier

He was one of the great anatomists of his time and enjoyed great prestige and influence. He not only studied geology but was also in charge of reviewing the knowledge that was had about animals. Georges Cuvier was the founder of paleontology as a science and he was the first to verify important facts. Among these important events were the biological extinctions and catastrophes that have existed on our planet. These are all sudden and terrible events that have altered life on Earth.

The main work of this scientist was the main point of the anti-evolutionist thought of the time. He showed great abilities to be able to rebuild fossils and even from small fragments.

Charles lyell

Another scientist who belongs to the group of the best geologists in history. He was a lawyer by training and the main person responsible for the dissemination of all ideas about actualism. of Hutton. These ideas indicated that the present is the key to the past. A century after the birth of Charles lyell and it was from Hutton's death that Charles Darwin modeled the principles of geology.

alfred wegener

They were a German scientist, geophysicist, meteorologist. alfred wegener the developer of the Theory of continental drift. He was mainly trained as an astronomer but later he devoted himself to meteorology. It has gone down in history for being the first to defend the geological hypothesis that consisted of the relation of the drift of the continents. He died frozen in Greenland in 1930, on an expedition where he was looking for evidence to support his hypothesis.

Among the data on which he relied to defend the theory of continental drift mentioned that a single continent existed millions of years ago, which it named Pangea. Over the years, this supercontinent was fragmented and the separation began. In the end, the continents were taking the position they have today. He was also based on some of the fossils he was able to record and on the contours of the present-day continents that fit together with striking similarity.

The theory of continental drift was correct but incomplete. Later it became known thanks to the Tectonic plates that they exist convection currents in the terrestrial mantle that are the ones that cause the movement of the continents. Alfred Wegener could not give proof of why the continents shifted.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about the best geologists in history.