Why is james hutton important

He further identified that the extreme heat and pressure necessary for forming rocks could only come from the interior of the Earth. Hutton later presented his findings to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His theory of plutonism was in direct opposition with the more favored theory of neptunism at the time. James Hutton. Hutton had formulated controversial theories of the origin of the earth and of atmospheric changes known as 'uniformitarianism'.

This paved the way for modern geological science. His ideas about the age of the Earth were in opposition to the prevailing view of the Church, which believed that our planet was only around 6, years old. Hutton disputed the views held at the time by Neptunists, who believed that rocks developed in a great flood. He also disagreed with Plutonists, who thought that all rocks were of igneous origin. Studying formations along Scotland's Berwickshire coast at Siccar Point, Hutton discovered that sedimentary rocks originated through a series of successive floods.

In his book, Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge , he lays out a clear argument for a process of transmutation by natural selection, and does so through analogy with the process of artificial selection click here to link to the relevant passages.

Hutton argues that members of species vary, and that when the environment changes over time, those individuals best adapted to the new environment will survive, while those poorly adapted will perish. Thus, a process of natural selection Hutton did not use this term inevitably leads to change within species over time.

Later he studied chemistry and anatomy in Paris, before obtaining his degree in medicine in from Leyden in the Netherlands. In , he inherited and worked two farms in the Scottish Borders.

He travelled to Norfolk and Flanders to learn new farming methods and employed them on his own lands. After witnessing first-hand the processes of erosion and sediment deposition on his farms, James Hutton became interested in geology. He returned to Edinburgh in , where he developed and finally published his geological theories. Field visits to his three famous unconformity sites in North Arran, Jedburgh and Siccar Point took place in