18-19th Century, German

(C. Schweizer 2007)

Neptunism & Plutonism

Late 18th, Abraham Gottlob Werner’s (1749–1817), Neptunist theory - Neptunism

• based exclusively on geognostical observations, in Saxony
• rocks formed from the crystallization of minerals and subsequent sedimentation of substances dissolved in an initial universal ocean.
• sedimentation
  • Ocean's ground: formed from a primeval solid core of granite, then, a regular order of sedimented rock specimens
  • The continents: a series of layers, the oldest and hardest being granite while newer layers showed an increasing number of fossils.
• Volcanoes: had a minor effect
• Rocks: mostly resulted from precipitates settling out of water
• Modern geology: Sedimentary rock

Timeline:

• James Hutton’s (1726–1797): Plutonism
  • which is important in the formation of the Earth’s core, gradually arching the Earth’s crust layers.
  • burst giving rise to volcanic events and pouring out the liquid magma, which would become solid by cooling (Oldroyd 1996, p. 93)
• Charles Lyell (1797–1875), Principles of Geology: his own actualism, and also supported Plutonism
• John Playfair (1748–1819), Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth: re-established Plutonism
• Leopold von Buch (1774–1853), Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859): also defended Plutonism
  • they're both students of Werner
  • Buch: Earth has strong action of fire, leading to spontaneous eruptions of the Earth’s crust by the breaking out of lava, formed the ‘elevation craters’ (Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli, the Peak of Tenerife on the Canary Islands)
• Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff (1771–1837), Geschichte der durch Ueberlieferung nachgewiesenen natürlichen Veränderungen der Erdoberflache, supported Lyell's actualism

Goethe & Sternberg

Outline:

• 1820-1832, correspondence; They had common interests in botany, palaeobotany, geology, mineralogy and meteorology.
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
  • 1775, Weimar, Goethe was called to the court of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach
  • 1785, frequented the Bohemian thermal spas: Karlsbad, Franzensbad and Teplitz - excursions, exploring the geology of the surroundings and collecting whole suites of rock and mineral species
  • 1821–1823, visited Marienbad; 1822, met Caspar Sternberg
• Caspar Maria Count Sternberg (1761–1838)
  • self-taught scientist in botany, meteorology, palaeontology, geology and mineralogy.

Kammerbühl Rocks Origin Problem:

• Goethe and Sternberg's question was relating to the possible volcanic origin observed from the hill Kammerbühl near Eger
• Modern geology's workaround: this problem have been solved, see Fejfar, O. & Steininger, F. F. 1999. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: ‘Brunnengast, Geolog und Spaziergänger’—erdwissenschaftliche Beobachtungen in ​Böhmen
• Goethe and Sternberg's original concerns: Whether the Earth’s crust had been created either
  • Werner's Neptunisism: by precipitation of the basalt from the sea
  • Buch & Humboldt's volcanist theory: by solidification of erupted lava at the surface of the molten rocks according to
  • Hutton’s Plutonism: by solidification of liquid hot magma in magma chambers
• 1822, 21 samples collected around Eger were sent to Sternberg’s Museum, Prague
  • Goethe concluded that Kammerbühl was pyrotypic - had arisen under the influence of fire.
  • though didn't accept either the volcanistic theory or Plutonism
• 1809, Goethe accepted Werner’s Neptunism
  • concluded that Kammerbühl rocks were not erupted from deeper earth strata - as suggested by volcanistic theory - but were produced from molten mica schist underwater. The layered strata on the northeastern side of the hill were attributed to a steady aqueous sedimentation process.
  • Goethe has studied Schelling's philosophy since 1798
• 1820, Goethe re-published 1809's essay as Der Kammerberg bei Eger. Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, 1820a
• 1823, Goethe sent suites of minerals and suites of rock species to the museum

(p.65)

deep time

The concept of deep time was populated by John McPhee, and this concept was originally a Huttonian one, laterly adoped by Charles Lyell.

The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—no prospect of an end. James Hutton, Theory of the Earth, Chap I, Section IV.

Such views of the immensity of past time, like those unfolded by the Newtonian philosophy in regard to space, were too vast to awaken ideas of sublimity unmixed with a painful sense of our incapacity to conceive a plan of such infinite extent. Worlds are seen beyond worlds inuneasurably distant from each other, and beyond them al innumerable other systems are faintly traced on the confines of the visible universe. Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, Volume 1, Chapter IV. p. 63

theory of punctuated equilibrium

punctuated equilibria was proposed by paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge (pdf), built upon Ernst Mayr's model of geographic speciation.