"James Hutton." Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://ncse.com/image/james-hutton>.

James Hutton is a Scottish geologist born in 1726. He studied medicine and farming, in 1768 he set up his own business producing sal ammoniac from coal soot. Hutton investigated methods of coalmining and canal building, conducted experiments with chemicals and collected fossils. He was also concerned by how marine fosslis reached mountain tops.

"marine fossils." Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamantine/1804254673/>.

Not only Hutton wondered how did marine fossils reach mountain tops, many others did as well. Those who believed they had an explanation fell into two groups. Neptunists and Plutonists.

"Melting ice increase sea levels." Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/melting-polar-ice-raise-sea-levels-4-feet-2100.php>.

The Neptunists believed that everything on Earth could be removed from its place and deposited somewhere else due to the rising and falling of sea levels and during global floods.

"volcanoes." Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.solarnavigator.net/volcanoes.htm>.

Opposing the Neptunists were the Plutonists. They noted that volcanoes changed the face of the Earth. The Plutonists raised questions like where did the water go if it wasn’t a flood and were not able to really explain how fossils got up there.

"Soil erosion." Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.scienceclarified.com/El-Ex/Erosion.html>.

Hutton was able to figure out the soil was created by the erosion of rocks and particles, they were continually washed away by streams and rivers and deposited somewhere else. However, there had to be an additional process which will keep the cycle going. He came up with a conclusion, fossils on mountain tops were not lifted up there by floods nor volcanoes. Instead, they went up there themselves.

https://mail.google.com/a/aucegypt.edu/?AuthEventSource=SSO#inbox

Geology became a very fascinating subject for people during the XIXth century, and especially in Great Britain. That interest led to the creation of the “ Geological Society “, in 1807, in London, which became an important institution in the country.

• http://www.s-g-n.eg2.fr/Page%20conference%20AP%20Villers.html•  • Huting fossils became a hobby for many gentlemen of that time. Among the founding members of the Geological

Society, we find James Parkison, better known for the disease that took his name rather than for his little contribution to Geology, as well as Roderick Murchison whose book “ The Silurian System “ was one of the most important best-sellers of the century.

• http://www.nndb.com/people/055/000100752/•  • But one of the greatest figures of Geology is by far the Reverend William Buckland of Oxford, an incomparable

scholar who became an expert on fossilized feces. Buckland was also greatly interested by all the living species and conducted lots of experiments throughout his life. It’s Buckland that encouraged Charles Lyell to devote his life to geology.

• http://theora.com/msdb.php/OriginOfSpecies/msdbCat/subject/10%20-%20On%20The%20Geological%20Succession%20of%20Organic%20Beings

•  • Charles Lyell, borne in a prosperous and intellectual family the year Hutton died, had started a career in law

before he meet Buckland who definitely gave him the passion for geology. Indeed, Lyell became one of the most important master in Geology and taught that subject at King’s College in London for few years. He mostly followed the ideas of Hutton that he elaborated in his famous book “ The Principles of Geology “, published in 1830 and 1833. He is view as the father of modern geology.

• http://www.animatedbible.freehomepage.com/Flood.htm•  • After the controversy between the Neptunians and the Plutonists, another took place between Hutton’s and Lyell’s

days. The new controversy was opposing the Catastrophists, close to the reverend Buckland and who believed that the Earth underwent many cataclysmic events, especially floods like the Noah’s flood, to the Uniformitarians who belied that the Earth was changing its shape through a long and slow process. Although Hutton was the founder of the uniformitarianism, Lyell is still considered as the master of this idea.

• "Earth's Axis and Poles Shifting." ~~Just ME in T Musings~~. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2011/04/earths-axis-and-poles-shifting.html>.

• Lyell Believed that Earth shifts were uniform and steady, that everything that happend in the past could still be explained by the events happening today, such as earthquakes, tsunami and other natural disasters

• "Science Photo Library: Stock Science and Specialist Images and Footage." Stock Science and Specialist Images and Footage. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/download_lo_res.html?id=670014231>.

• Outset geologists tried to categorize rocks by periods in which they were laid down, but there were often bitter disagreements where to put them down.

• Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://www.stephenjaygould.org/images/stephenjaygould.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.stephenjaygould.org/original.html&usg=__Kem3WI2U5mZexWLNAvOhydhQ9tQ=&h=309&w=304&sz=30&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=A23XR26Agj85lM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=146&ei=XhiiTcmxFcGeOr366DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstephen%2Bjay%2Bgould%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=132&vpy=110&dur=1624&hovh=226&hovw=223&tx=134&ty=97&oei=XhiiTcmxFcGeOr366DQ&page

• Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, historian of science and a biologist. He was the founder of the theory of “the punctuated equilibrium” which states that evolutionary changes occur rapidly and alternate with very long periods of evolution stability.

• eb. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sjgarchive.org/library/text/timeArrow/images/cover2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sjgarchive.org/library/text/timeArrow/cover.htm&usg=__cQKaaYZyQS1Yw06d4qlzYUw0nzE=&h=571&w=400&sz=74&hl=en&start=0&zoom=0&tbnid=oQCpB-wKl4ZyiM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=85&ei=zBmiTZypLIqbOpqFgTU&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtime%2527s%2Barrow,%2Bstephen%2Bgould%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=655&vpy=101&dur=9&hovh=134&hovw=94&tx=106&ty=67&oei=zBmiTZypLIqbOpqFgTU&page=1&ndsp

• In his book which explains the history of geology, Stephan Jay Gould stated that “until Lyell published his book, most thinking people accepted the idea that the earth is young”, this a contradictory to Marting J.S Rudwick who said that all the geologist whose work was taken seriously by other geologists installed a definite timescale for the earth’s age. Not even the Bible. It has been stated that god created earth in the beginning, but when in the beginning? It may be corresponding to millions of years.

• Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://www.faithinterface.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/hebrew_bible-730052.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.faithinterface.com.au/science-christianity/why-i-am-not-a-young-earth-creationist&usg=__ZgJ2NJiqDZYDZmJurIQgf7v91Uk=&h=266&w=400&sz=35&hl=en&start=53&zoom=1&tbnid=IFnjR7TIZmsQvM:&tbnh=154&tbnw=205&ei=UxqiTar6DcWp8AP

• Edmond Halley, an English astronomer and geophysicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley’s comet, which is the most popular of the short period comets (comets that have an orbital of less than 200 years.

• Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://www.okeartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Scientist-Edmond-Halley_Photo-300x253.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.okeartist.com/tag/edmond-halley-autobiography&usg=__t7NiBuMNjVyVGFxjngkpFYSfQ5I=&h=253&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=89&zoom=1&tbnid=u33T6z_gLQZ7cM:&tbnh=158&tbnw=186&ei=fRuiTcaxIJOo8APqjqyoAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dedmond%2Bhalley%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbm%3Disch0%2C2274&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=276&oei=XhuiTZOXEs2cOvPR4OMK&page=5&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:89&tx=128&ty=65&biw=1366

• Georges-Louis Lerclerc, Comte de Buffon, a French naturalist whose work influenced the next two generations of naturalists. He published thirty six pamphlets of his histoire naturelle during his life time, in addition to further research.

• As we know, the earth radiates a certain amount of heat for atmospheric reasons.

• Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pattybrdarphoto.com/israel/DeadSeaSalt2LargeNtcln.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.pattybrdarphoto.com/israel/037deadsea.html&usg=__4GMwHJNYvm3witZaNk1_B0dSyS4=&h=400&w=593&sz=39&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=E-fDJ3HOjawtoM:&tbnh=153&tbnw=198&ei=9huiTeCNGM-cOsSC_TQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsea%2Bsalt%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=903&vpy=379&dur=208&hovh=184&hovw=273&tx=142&ty=209&oei=9huiTeCNGM-

• These estimates contradict Darwin’s announcement in 1859, in “on the origins of species” where he informed that the geological process that created the Weald in England had taken 306662400 years to complete.

• Web. 10 Apr 2011. <http://www.google.com.eg/imgres?imgurl=http://yourparanormal.com/uploads/yourparanormal.com/2007/06/stone_spheres.jpg&imgrefurl=http://yourparanormal.com/stone-spheres-of-costa-rica/&usg=__XvCdcJ0n1SK4ZlTIVavffwLHG-s=&h=599&w=554&sz=101&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=hKgJo53_sHGhhM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=129&ei=mR-iTbTkJsihOq6GpTU&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspheres%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D667%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=373&oei=mR-iTbTkJsihOq6GpTU&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&tx=102&ty=20>.

• But then the question came to Lord Kelvin; a mathematical physicist who is one of the most extraordinary figures of all centuries. He has been known as having the greatest “ intelligence, lucidity and mobility of thought”.