Plutonism (historical)
The Plutonismus was an ideological view that the same geological doctrine receded, originally stemming According rocks of volcanic forces. It was opposed to the school of Neptunism , according to which rock layers are formed by sediment deposition from water. Between 1790 and 1830, the Plutonism-Neptunism dispute was at the center of a controversy over geological development theories and led to the emergence of modern geology.
The plutonism theory was mainly developed by the Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726–1797) and states that the main creative forces of the earth come from the “central fire” in the earth's interior. The formation of rocks , the formation of mountains and continents and volcanism can be derived from this, the formation of the earth is a dynamic process.
This teaching was opposed to the Neptunism theory of the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817), who saw the origin of the formation of rocks - based on a hypothetical "primeval sea" - in the water. In doing so, he tied in with the biblical creation story as well as the common disaster theories of the time. He interpreted volcanism as an insignificant geological phenomenon that would be caused in the youngest crust of the earth by coal or seam fires. A supporter of the Neptunists (who at times also wavered between the camps) was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .
The dispute between Plutonists and Neptunists in the so-called "Heroic Age of Geology" between around 1790 and 1830 played an essential role in the development of modern geology. At first, both theories remained plausible and were applied according to the respective circumstances.
The controversy, however, mainly led to research into the succession of individual rock layers, the composition and the fossils contained therein, whereby the Neptunist theory was initially in the foreground. Fossils were first used as reference fossils to classify the rock layers in which they were embedded.
This led to the publication of the first geological maps (e.g. by William Smith ) around 1815 , in which the vertical succession of rock layers was shown in profile. In the course of the 19th century, however, the evolutionist ideas of Hutton increasingly prevailed, not least promoted by the biological evolution theory of Charles Darwin .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ A gift to Goethe , University of Jena. Plate with the contact area from Hornfels to granite in the Bodetal in the Harz. According to the Neptunists, granite was an ancient rock deposited in the sea.