Time Matters: Geology's Legacy to Scientific Thought

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

1 Geological time.

1.1 Introduction.

1.2 The historical perspective.

1.2.1 The march of the scientists.

1.2.2 The atomic age.

1.3 Geological time and the age of Mother Earth.

2 Dating rocks.

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 The nature of stratigraphy and the principles of relative dating.

2.3 Biostratigraphy.

2.4 Radiometric dating.

2.4.1 Potassium.

2.4.2 Rubidium.

2.4.3 Uranium.

2.4.4 Carbon.

2.4.5 Mass spectrometer.

2.5 Dating by fi ssion tracks.

2.6 Magnetism.

2.6.1 Thermal remnant magnetism.

2.6.2 Depositional remnant magnetism.

2.6.3 Palaeo-magnetism and Polar wandering.

3 The origins of the geological time scale.

3.1 Introduction.

3.2 Jurassic.

3.3 Carboniferous.

3.4 Triassic.

3.5 Tertiary.

3.6 Cambrian.

3.7 Silurian.

3.8 Devonian.

3.9 Permian.

3.10 Mississippian.

3.11 Quaternary.

3.12 Ordovician.

3.13 Cretaceous.

3.14 Pennsylvanian.

3.15 Proterozoic.

3.16 Archean and Hadean.

4 Plutonism versus Neptunism.

4.1 Introduction.

4.2 Neptunism.

4.3 Plutonism.

5 Uniformitarianism versus Catastrophism.

5.1 Introduction.

5.2 Catastrophism.

5.3 Diluvialism.

5.4 Uniformitarianism.

5.5 Mass extinctions.

5.6 Alternating warm and cold conditions.

5.7 Catastrophes and the nature of science.

5.8 Palaeogeography and Earth history.

6 Evolution.

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 Darwin and evolution.

6.3 Punctuated equilibrium and geographic speciation.

6.4 Intermediates - what are we looking for?

7 Evolution versus Creationism.

7.1 Introduction.

7.2 Fossils.

7.2.1 The Medieval view.

7.2.2 The 17th- and 18th-century view.

7.2.3 The 19th-century view.

7.2.4 Mantell versus Owen.

7.3 Famous Evolution versus Creation debates.

7.3.1 Huxley versus Wilberforce.

7.3.2 Huxley versus Gladstone.

7.3.3 The abolition of the equal time laws in America.

7.3.4 The nature of life and science, and Evolution versus Creationism.

7.4 Lagerstatten.

8 Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics.

8.1 Introduction.

8.2 Mountain building.

8.3 Isostasy.

8.4 Continental Drift.

8.5 Plate Tectonics.

9 What have we learnt?

Bibliography.

Index.