Concepts
Catastrophism
kuh-TAS-truh-fiz-um
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The theory that Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope, standing opposite uniformitarianism's slow incremental change. Georges Cuvier popularised the concept in the early 19th century while avoiding religious speculation in his scientific writings, and the modern consensus accepts that some catastrophic events occurred in the geologic past while regarding them as extreme examples of explicable natural processes.
Facts
Origin YearCuvier's earliest documented statement of the idea, in an 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants; he elaborated it at length later, in 1812 and again in 1825. Cross-Tradition Connections
Critiqued Here
Uniformitarianism, Concepts Catastrophism contrasts with uniformitarianism; since their 19th century disputes the consensus accepts some catastrophic events as extreme examples of explicable natural processes.
In Discipline
Proposed By
Cuvier popularised the concept in the early 19th century, proposing that new life-forms had moved in after local floods.
Sources
1. Georges Cuvier (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationCatastrophism sectionQuote, Catastrophism section
All of these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe.
Catastrophism (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
In geology, catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.
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