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Article ID: CBB001211668

Darwin the Geologist: Between Lyell and von Buch (2010)

Gohau, Gabriel (Author)

Comptes Rendus Biologies
Volume: 333, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 95-98

Publication Date: 2010
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “A non-Darwinian Darwin”
Language: English

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Upon returning from his voyage on the Beagle, Darwin prepared reports of his geological observations. Together, these reveal Darwin's approach to reasoning about geology. Darwin argued that successive terraces prove a very gradual elevation of the coast that lagoon islands show a reciprocal sinking of the oceanic oor. Hence, Darwin reinforced Lyell's uniformitarian, or steady state theory. Unlike lagoon islands, the movement of erratic boulders onto the plains is evidence of forces, which do not now exist. Darwin and Lyell attributed this movement to oating icebergs. However, mountain formation remained dif cult for them to explain with reference to contemporary causes. Lyell discovered uplifts in Scandinavia, which resulted from epirogenesis, whereas mountain formation is an orogenesis, which involves both folding and uplift. Darwin was more impressed by uplift than by folds. However, when in Cordillera he saw strata overturned by masses of injected rock, proving successive periods of violence, Darwin took a position, which was closer to the plutonic theories of von Buch and Humboldt than it was to Lyell's uniformitarian views.

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Article Gayon, Jean; Veuille, Michel (2010) A Non-Darwinian Darwin: An Introduction. Comptes Rendus Biologies (pp. 83-86). unapi

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