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A common historical myth is that Victorian geology was torn between religious traditionalists and secular geologists. In fact long before the Victorian period all accredited geologists (with very few exceptions) agreed that the earth was millions of years old, that strata were layers from different times and the Book of Genesis was either not incompatible with the findings of modern geology or irrelevant to them. For many Victorians geology was the most exciting science. It was new (the Geological Society of London was founded in 1807), its sometime controversial findings were well-attested and respected, and it had a wide amateur following. Geology made obvious the vast age of the earth and the apparent succession of living forms that had inhabited it. Much of Victorian science centred on stratigraphy, mineralogy and palaeontology. The Geological Survey of Great Britain (1835; offsite) was the largest professional scientific organization maintained by Victorian governments. — John van Wyhe
Important figures in nineteenth-century geology
- Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), paleontologist, systematist
- Mary Anning (1799-1847), fossilist
- William Buckland (1784-1856), geologist
- Robert Chambers (1802-1871), journalist, natural philosopher
- Biographical Introduction
- Introduction to Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
- The Social and Industrial Contexts of RVestiges of the Natural History of Creation
- Chambers' New Evolutionary Narrative I: Astronomy and Geology
- Chambers' New Evolutionary Narrative II: Theology and the Origins of Life
- Chambers' New Evolutionary Narrative III: Mankind, Psychology and Our Place in the Cosmos
- The Critical Response to Vestiges
- Explanations: A Sequel
- Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), anatomist, paleontologist
- Henry de la Beche (1796-1855), geologist, paleontologist
- James David Forbes (1809-1868), glaciologist, physicist
- James Hutton (1726-1797), geologist
- Charles Lyell (1797-1875), geologist
- Hugh Miller (1802-1856), geologist
- Richard Owen (1804-1892), philosophical anatomist, paleontologist
- Adam Sedgwick (1854-1913), geologist
- William “Strata” Smith (1769-1839): Geology and Coal
- Smith’s Explanation of His Map of Geological Strata in England and Wales
- A County-by-County Geological Description of England’s Counties.html"
- The History of the Idea of Geological Strata before William Smith’s Formulation and Map
- John Tyndall (1820-1893), physicist, naturalist
- Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), naturalist
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Last modified 18 August 2023