An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth
An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth is a book published in February 1778 book by John Whitehurst , in which he tried, the opposing views of the origin of the world as a new theory Neptunists and Plutonists represented, common to a Unite point of view. The book became known through the very extensive and detailed drawings of layers of earth and their evaluation in the appendix to the book. They are considered to be the first publications of geological strata profiles .
Emergence
Preparatory work for the book began as early as 1763 with Whitehurst's first excursions into the Derbyshire mountains , which he supplemented with visits to mines in order to obtain expanded stratification profiles of geological structures. These profiles then formed the basis of the first geological maps of the area.
At the time the book was written, two basic theories about the development of the earth and its rocks were particularly controversial: the Neptunists took the view that all rocks sedimented out of a water layer around the globe and were supported by those scientists who believed the Bible as the basis of all scientific studies Looking at work. They faced the plutonists, who assumed very extensive, sudden changes in the earth due to great catastrophes and fires in the earth's interior. In his investigations in Derbyshire, Whitehurst found primarily the thesis of the Plutonists confirmed, but due to his profound Christian conviction he could not break away from the idea of leaving the Bible as the basis of his worldview.
theory
According to Whitehurst's imagination, the earth was made up of a multitude of small parts which, under the influence of gravity (just discovered by Isaac Newton ), joined together to form a sphere, which in turn formed an atmosphere and was completely surrounded by a thick layer of water. Due to the tidal action of the moon, according to Whitehurst, smaller and larger islands were formed, which were inhabited by antediluvian plants and animals: the Garden of Eden. At the same time, various layers of sediment separated out of the water layer, which lay in concentric spherical shells around the original rock and were compressed to stone by the pressure of the water masses and the sediments deposited above.
The increasing pressure caused by the stone formation then led, according to Whitehurst, to the heating of the earth's interior. Water penetrating through cracks in the rock would then have led to enormous steam explosions, which would have torn the globe into small pieces again, but which would have been held together by gravity. Large parts of the belt of water surrounding the earth would have seeped into the resulting cracks and caves, exposing areas of the ocean floor and the mountains created by the steam explosions. In the Bible this would be documented as a deluge and the receding of the waters. According to Whitehurst, animals and plants of the first epoch were buried among the rubble and later formed the fossils that Whitehurst found in different layers.
Effects
Whitehurst's theory of the formation of the earth was immediately rejected on all sides. The plutonists in particular pointed out that Whitehurst ignored his own research results, because in the appendices of his book there were references to various fossil-containing layers that were separated from fossil-free layers. This would contradict the idea of the simultaneous extinction of all species in one great catastrophe. Criticism grew louder when Whitehurst added additional maps and profiles to the appendices in a second edition in 1786, documenting the same phenomenon.
Whitehurst's book became famous despite the rejection of the theory set up in it, because it was the first to set up and publish a system of geological cartography. Not only was there a third edition of the book (1792) four years after Whitehurst's death, but also many reprints in the following century.