Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. This article is about Earth as a planet. ...

The dominant paradigm of geology has been uniformitarianism (also sometimes described as gradualism), but recently a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed resulting in a gradual change in the scientific consensus, reflecting acceptance of some catastrophic events. For other uses, see Paradigm (disambiguation). ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. ... Gradualism is the belief that changes occur, or ought to occur, slowly in the form of gradual steps (see also incrementalism) In politics, the concept of gradualism is used to describe the belief that change ought to be modified in small, discrete increments rather than abrubt changes such as revolutions... Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of science at a particular time. ...

History of catastrophism

The creationism view

Before uniformitarianism, the dominant belief in many cultures of the creation and development of the world was essentially catastrophism. The biblical account of the Great Flood is a prime example of these beliefs. Earth's history was viewed as the result of an accumulation of catastrophic events over a relatively short time period. It was basically the only way to rationalize the observations of early geologists with a believed short history of Earth before the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... A painting by the American Edward Hicks (1780–1849), showing the animals boarding Noahs Ark two by two. ... This article is on mythology involving great floods. ... The Earth, photographed from Apollo 17 in 1972. ... The Geologist by Carl Spitzweg A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system (see planetary geology). ... Adam and Eve, the first human beings according to Genesis. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Cuvier and the natural theologians

The leading scientific proponent of catastrophism in the early 19th century was the French anatomist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier. His motivation was to explain the patterns of extinction and faunal succession that he and others were observing in the fossil record. While he did speculate that the catastrophe responsible for the most recent extinctions in Eurasia might have been the result of the inundation of low lying areas by the sea, he never made any reference to the Noachian flood. ^[1] Nor did he ever make any reference to divine creation as the mechanism by which repopulation occurred following the extinction event. In fact Cuvier, influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the intellectual climate of the French revolution, avoided religious or metaphysical speculation in his scientific writings. ^[2] Cuvier also believed that the stratigraphic record indicated that there had been several of these revolutions, which he viewed as recurring natural events, amid long intervals of stability during the history of life on earth, and this led him to believe the Earth was several million years old. ^[3] Greek anatome, from ana-temnein, to cut up), is the branch of biology that deals with the structure and organization of living things; thus there is animal anatomy (zootomy) and plant anatomy (phytonomy). ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ... For other uses, see Extinction (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Fossil (disambiguation). ... This article is on mythology involving great floods. ... The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; German: ) was an eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the Age of Reason. ... The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, is basically the study of rock layers and layering. ...

By contrast in England, where natural theology was very influential during the early 19th century, a group of geologists that included William Buckland and Robert Jameson would interpret Cuvier's work in a very different way. Jameson translated the introduction Cuvier wrote for a collection of his papers on fossil quadrapeds that discussed his ideas on castastrophic extinction into English and published it under the title 'Theory of the Earth'. He added extensive editorial notes to the translation that explicitly linked the latest of Cuvier's revolutions with the Biblical flood and the resulting essay was extremely influential in the English speaking world. ^[4]. Buckland spent much of his early career trying to demonstrate the reality of the Biblical flood with geological evidence, and he frequently cited Cuvier's work even though Cuvier had proposed an inundation of limited geographic extent and extended duration, and Buckland, consistent with the Biblical account, was advocating a universal flood of short duration. ^[5] Eventually, Buckland would abandon flood geology in favor of the glaciation theory advocated by Louis Agassiz who had briefly been one of Cuvier's students. As a result of the influence of Jameson, Buckland, and other advocates of natural theology the 19th century debate over catestrophism took on religious overtones in Britain that were not nearly as prominent elsewhere. ^[6] Natural theology is the knowledge of God accessible to all rational human beings without recourse to any special or supposedly supernatural revelation. ... William Buckland (12 March 1784 - 24 August 1856) was a prominent English geologist and palaeontologist who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, a proponent of Old Earth creationism and Flood geology who later became convinced by the glaciation theory of Louis Agassiz. ... For the botanist (1832 - 1908), see Robert Jameson at Gerbera. ... Flood geology (also creation geology or diluvial geology) is a prominent subset of beliefs under the umbrella of creationism that assumes the literal truth of a global flood as described in the Genesis account of Noahs Ark. ... A glaciation (a created composite term meaning Glacial Period, referring to the Period or Era of, as well as the process of High Glacial Activity), often called an ice age, is a geological phenomenon in which massive ice sheets form in the Arctic and Antarctic and advance toward the equator. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Scientific paradigm shift

Starting in the late 18th century, scientists began looking to other paradigms for explaining geological formations. Two early proponents of the uniformitarian explanations for the formation of sedimentary rock and the beginnings of an understanding of the immense stretch of geological time or 'Deep time' were the eighteenth century 'father of geology' James Hutton and the nineteenth century geologist Charles Lyell. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Two types of sedimentary rock: limey shale overlaid by limestone. ... The table and timeline of geologic periods presented here is in accordance with the dates and nomenclature proposed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. ... Deep time is the theory that Earth is billions of years old and thus had a long history of development and change. ... James Hutton, painted by Abner Lowe. ... The Geologist by Carl Spitzweg A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system (see planetary geology). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the great French geologist and naturalist Baron Georges Cuvier proposed what came to be known as the Catastrophe theory or Catastrophism. According to the theory, the abrupt faunal changes geologists saw in rock strata were the result of periodic devastations that wiped out all or most extant species, each successive period being repopulated with new kinds of animals and plants, by God's hand. [Charles] Lyell rejected so nonscientific a hypothesis (as did James Hutton before him), and replaced it with the notion that geological processes proceeded gradually - all geological processes. (Lewin, 1993)

Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ... Fauna is a collective term for animal life. ... Interstate road cut through limestone and shale strata in eastern Tennessee In geology and related fields, a stratum (plural: strata) is a layer of rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes it from contiguous layers. ... The hierarchy of scientific classification. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Look up Hypothesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The rise of uniformitarianism

From around 1850 to 1980, most geologists endorsed uniformitarianism ("The present is the key to the past") and gradualism (geologic change occurs slowly over long periods of time) and rejected the idea that cataclysmic events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or floods of vastly greater power than those observed at the present time, played any significant role in the formation of the Earth's surface. Instead they believed that the earth had been shaped by the long term action of forces such as volcanism, earthquakes, erosion, and sedimentation, that could still be observed in action today. In part, the geologists' rejection was fostered by their impression that the catastrophists of the nineteenth century believed that God was directly involved in determining the history of Earth. Catastrophism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was closely tied to religion and catastrophic origins were considered miraculous rather than natural events. ^[7]. For the game, see: 1850 (board game) 1850 (MDCCCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday [1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. ... Gradualism is the belief that changes occur, or ought to occur, slowly in the form of gradual steps (see also incrementalism) In politics, the concept of gradualism is used to describe the belief that change ought to be modified in small, discrete increments rather than abrubt changes such as revolutions... Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998. ... For other uses, see Volcano (disambiguation). ... A miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified. ...

Immanuel Velikovsky's views

In the 1950s, Immanuel Velikovsky propounded catastrophism in several popular books. He speculated that the planet Venus is a former "comet" which was ejected from Jupiter and subsequently 3,500 years ago made two catastrophic close passes by Earth, 52 years apart, and later interacted with Mars, which then had a series of near collisions with Earth which ended in 687 B.C.E., before settling into its current orbit. Velikovsky used this to explain the Biblical plagues of Egypt, the Biblical reference to the "Sun standing still" for a day (explained by changes in Earth's rotation), and the sinking of Atlantis. In general, scientists rejected Velikovsky's theories, often quite passionately. Attempts were made to prevent the publication of his books, and his first publisher, Macmillan, was threatened with a boycott if they did remove Velikovsky from their list of authors. Not all scientists however shared this viewpoint, and Albert Einstein remained a close friend of Velikovsky's until his death. Immanuel Velikovsky photographed by Fima Noveck, ca. ... (*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ... Comet Hale-Bopp Comet West For other uses, see Comet (disambiguation). ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 70 kPa Hydrogen ~86% Helium ~14% Methane 0. ... Two bodies with a slight difference in mass orbiting around a common barycenter. ... The book of Exodus (שמות), chapters 7:14 - 12:42, recounts the story of ten plagues (Eser Ha-Makot עשר המכות in Hebrew): 10 disasters, executed against Egypt by God, in order to convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. ... For other uses, see Atlantis (disambiguation). ...

Catastrophism re-emerging and re-examined by science

Luis Alvarez impact event hypothesis

Main article: Impact event

Over the past 25 years, however, a scientifically based catastrophism has gained wide acceptance with regard to certain events in the distant past. One impetus for this change came from the publication of a historic paper by Walter and Luis Alvarez in 1980. This paper suggested that a 10-kilometer asteroid struck Earth 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. The impact wiped out about 70% of all species, including the dinosaurs, leaving behind the so-called K-T boundary. In 1990, a 180-kilometer candidate crater marking the impact was identified at Chicxulub in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Artists impression of a major impact event. ... Portrait of Luis Alvarez Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) of San Francisco, California, USA, was a famed physicist of Spanish descent, who worked at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... Artists impression of a major impact event. ... // The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Thyreophora Ornithopoda Marginocephalia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. ... The Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction event, also known as the KT boundary (from German: Kreide-Tertiär-Grenzschicht), was a period of massive extinction of species, about 65. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Radar topography reveals the 180 kilometer (112 mile) wide ring of the crater (image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech) Chicxulub Crater (IPA: ) (cheek-shoo-LOOB) is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula, with its center located approximately underneath the town of Chicxulub, Yucatán, Mexico. ... The Yucatán peninsula as seen from space The Yucatán Peninsula separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. ...

Since then, the debate about the extinction of the dinosaurs and other mass extinction events has centered on whether the extinction mechanism was the asteroid impact, widespread volcanism (which occurred about the same time), or some other mechanism or combination. Most of the mechanisms suggested are catastrophic in nature. For other uses, see Extinction (disambiguation). ... An extinction event (also extinction-level event, ELE) is a period in time when a large number of species die out. ...

The observation of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 cometary collision with Jupiter illustrated that catastrophic events occur as natural events. Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, taken on May 17, 1994. ...

Catastrophism theory and Moon-formation

Modern theories also suggest that Earth's anomalously large moon was formed catastrophically. In a paper published in Icarus in 1975, Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis proposed that a stochastic catastrophic near-miss by a large planetesimal early in Earth's formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago blew out rocky debris, remelted Earth and formed the Moon, thus explaining the Moon's lesser density and lack of an iron core. See giant impact theory for a more detailed description. This article is about Earths moon. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. William K. Hartmann is a noted planetary scientist, author, and writer, and is currently a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. ... Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and in debris disks. ... This article is about Earths moon. ... The Big Splash The giant impact theory (or Big Splash or Big Whack; cf. ...

Comparing and combining catastrophism with uniformitarianism

One of the key differences between catastrophism and uniformitarianism is that to function, uniformitarianism requires the assumption of vast timelines, whereas catastrophism can function with or without assumptions of long timelines.

Today most geologists combine catastrophist and uniformitarianist standpoints, taking the view that Earth's history is a slow, gradual story punctuated by occasional natural catastrophic events that have affected Earth and its inhabitants. The Earth, photographed from Apollo 17 in 1972. ...

See also

• Uniformitarianism
• Gradualism
• Paradigm shift
• Punctuated equilibrium (occasional periods of sudden change in evolution)
• Supervolcano
• Flood basalt
• Volcanic winter
• Glacial lake outburst flood
• Megatsunami
• History of geology
• History of paleontology
• Kronos: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis
• Pensée (Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered)
• Society for Interdisciplinary Studies

Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. ... Gradualism is the belief that changes occur, or ought to occur, slowly in the form of gradual steps (see also incrementalism) In politics, the concept of gradualism is used to describe the belief that change ought to be modified in small, discrete increments rather than abrubt changes such as revolutions... Paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. ... Punctuated equilibrium (or punctuated equilibria) is a theory in evolutionary biology which states that most sexually reproducing species will show little to no evolutionary change throughout their history. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... A supervolcano refers to a volcano that produces the largest and most voluminous kinds of eruption on Earth. ... Moses Coulee showing multiple flood basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. ... A volcanic winter is the reduction in temperature caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the sun, usually after a volcanic eruption. ... Hubbard Glacier, Alaska squeezes towards Gibert Point on May 20, 2002. ... Megatsunami (often hyphenated as mega-tsunami, also known as iminami or “wave of purification”) is an informal term used mostly by popular media and popular scientific societies to describe a very large tsunami wave beyond the typical size reached by most tsunamis (usually around 10 metres). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The history of paleontology has been an ongoing effort to understand the history of life on Earth by understanding the fossil record left behind by living organisms. ... Kronos Journal Kronos: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Synthesis published articles on a wide range of subjects as diverse as ancient history, catastrophism and mythology. ... Information Editor(s) Stephen L. Talbott Advisor(s) David N. Talbott Founded 1972 Owner Student Academic Freedom Forum Circulation 10,000-20,000 Pensée: Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered (IVR) was a special series of ten issues of the magazine Pensée produced to encourage continuing critical analysis of all questions... The SIS logo The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS) is a membership-based organization formed in 1974 in response to the growing interest in the works of modern catastrophists, notably the highly controversial Dr Immanuel Velikovsky.[1] Based in the United Kingdom, it publishes the journals, Chronology & Catastrophism Review, a...

Notes

References

• Lewin, R. (1993). Complexity, Dent, London, p. 75.
• Palmer, T. (1994) Catastrophism, Neocatastrophism and Evolution. Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in association with Nottingham Trent University. ISBN 0-9514307-1-8 (SIS) ISBN 0-905488-20-2 (Nottingham Trent University)
• Rudwick, Martin J.S. The Meaning of Fossils. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago 1972. ISBN 0-226-73103-0
• McGowan, Christopher The Dragon Hunters. Persus Publishing: Cambridge MA 2001. ISBN 0-7382-0282-7

The SIS logo The Society for Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS) is a membership-based organization formed in 1974 in response to the growing interest in the works of modern catastrophists, notably the highly controversial Dr Immanuel Velikovsky.[1] Based in the United Kingdom, it publishes the journals, Chronology & Catastrophism Review, a... Martin J. S. Rudwick is an emeritus professor of History at the University of California, San Diego and an affiliated research scholar at Cambridge Universitys Department of History and Philosophy of Scince. ...

External links

• Catastrophism and Mass Extinctions
• The Fall and Rise of Catastrophism
• Venus in the Corner Pocket : The Controversial Theories of Immanuel Velikovsky
• "The origin of the moon'.
• Saturnian Cosmology
• Catastrophism! Man, Myth and Mayhem in Ancient History and the Sciences
• Answers In Creation - Catastrophism Article
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: "Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism"
• Super floods and Catastrophism: The Controversial Theories of Hans-Joachim Zillmer