CLAA05H3 Chapter 19: EESA06-Ch.19 Notes.pdf
Document Summary
Until the 1800s, almost all people living in western culture accepted the church concept of earth being few thousand years old. James hutton, a scotsman who is regarded as the father of modern geology, realized that geologic features could be explained through present day processes. (fig. 19. 1) Charles lyell referred to hutton"s concept that geologic processes operating at present are the same processes that operated in the past as the principle of uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism: the principle that geologic processes at present are the same processes that operated in the past. In fact, the present is the key to the past . We realize that geology involves time periods much greater than a few thousands of years. (yea, a fact indeed ) Dating based on radioactivity allows us to determine a rock"s numerical age (also known as absolute age). Numerical age: age given in years or some other unit of time.
