Discover

'Deep time' is the concept of geologic time first recognized in the 1700s in the Western world by Scottish geologist James Hutton^[1] and in 11th century China by the polymath Shen Kuo.
Science in succeeding centuries has established the age of the Earth as between four and five billion years, with an exceedingly long history of change and development.

Contents

Scientific concept

Use of the term

References

See also

External links

Scientific concept

An understanding of geologic history and the concomitant history of life requires a comprehension of time which initially may be more than disconcerting. As mathematician John Playfair, one of Hutton's friends and colleagues in the Scottish Enlightenment, later remarked upon seeing the strata of the angular unconformity at Siccar Point with Hutton and James Hall in June 1788, "the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time."^[2]
Hutton's words, "we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end," are in stark contrast to most creation mythologies, which hold that the Earth has existed for only a few thousands of years. It was both professionally and personally extremely hazardous in Hutton's time to oppose the young Earth creationism doctrine which was then dominant.
Hutton's comprehension of deep time as a crucial scientific concept was developed further by Charles Lyell in his ''Principles of Geology'' (1830-33). Naturalist and evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin studied Lyell's book exhaustively during his expedition on the ''HMS Beagle'' in the 1830s.
Physicist Gregory Benford addresses the concept, in ''Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia,'' as does paleontologist and ''Nature'' editor Henry Gee,^[3][4] in ''In Search of Deep Time.''

Use of the term

The term 'deep time' may first have been used by John McPhee in his 1981 book, ''Basin and Range.''
This work was republished, with four others and additional material, as ''Annals of the Former World:'' five books in one which won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize:

★ ''Basin and range'' (1981) - (see Basin and Range Province)

★ ''In Suspect Terrain'' (1983) - (see Terrain)

★ ''Rising From the Plains'' (1986) - (see Plain)

★ ''Assembling California'' (1993) - (see Geography of California)

★ ''Crossing the Craton'' (1998) - (see Craton)
McPhee's title is taken from James Hutton's own phrase about the geologist's preoccupation with the "annals of a former world," the stories figuratively told by layers of rock laid down over many millions of years.

References

1. The Context of Humanity: Understanding Deep Time A. R. Palmer and E-an Zen
2. Hutton's Unconformity John Playfair
3. A Revolution in Palaeontology: Review of Henry Gee's ''In Search of Deep Time'' Gert Korthof
4. Book review: ''In Search of Deep Time'' Anthony Campbell

See also

★ Clock of the Long Now

★ Geomorphology

★ List of paradigm shifts in science

External links

★ Deep Time in PBS/WGBH ''Evolution'' series. (The site advises: "Shockwave required.")