EOSC 326 Lecture : Module A.pdf
8 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
In the western tradition, one of the earliest and most influential figures in the interpretation of geological time was james ussher (1581 - 1665), archbishop of armagh. An important historical figure in his own right, ussher also published a chronology of earth"s history using all dates mentioned in the. Using this technique, he established the first day of creation to be october 22, 4004 bc. This date would make the earth a little over 6,000 years old! Figure 1. 1 james ussher (1581 - 1665), archbishop of armagh. As science continued to develop during the 1700s, people started to become dissatisfied with ussher"s estimated age for the planet. One such scientist and notable natural historian was george louis de buffon (1707 - 1788). Believing the earth to have been initially as a hot molten mass, buffon heated iron spheres (which he thought was a reasonable model for the structure of the planet) and calculated the time they took to cool.
