Palæos:		Historical discovery of Deep Time
Time		Geology and the discovery of Deep Time - Reading list

Historical discovery of Deep Time

Geology and the discovery of Deep Time - Reading list

"Geologists are very pleasant companions, especially for geologists. It’s their art, to stop at every stone, and carry out an investigation at every layer of earth! […] And that’s why I love this science so much. It is infinite and boundless as all poetry!"

from the La vallèe de Trient by the Swiss author Rodolphe Toepffer (1799-1846) via The History of Geology Yahoo Group

Anonymous - (comment at Geology history in caricatures: Lyell's time circles)

There are some very good books about the concept and discovery of deep time in geology -GOULD shows how the cyclic time was heritage to the 19th century "natural philosophy" from art and religion, for example the depictions of God as the immovable center, surrounded by the eternal moving space and earth.

I enjoyed much the books of CUTLER and REPCHECK, about the discovery of deep time - especially HUTTON finally not only introduced deep time, but he saw geological events as a cyclic, perpetuus events.

The book of RUDWICK is more specific and not only about time and geology, but the development of earth sciences - a unique sorce for lots of informations and depictions

More specific are the papers by BURCHFIELD and ALVAREZ, especially the latter shows how the celestial mechanic of Kepler, and later Newton, prepared geologist to see the earth as perfect machine- working like a clock.

GOULD (1998): Time´s arrow Time´s cycle Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of geological Time.

CUTLER (2003): The Seashell on the Mountaintop - How Nicolaus Steno Solved an ancient Mystery and created a science of the earth.

REPCHECK (2003): The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth’s Antiquity

RUDWICK (2005): Bursting the limits of time - The reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution.

BURCHFIELD (1998): The age of the Earth and the invention of geological time. Lyell: the Past is the Key to the Present. Geological Society. London, Special Publications, 143, 137-143.

ALVAREZ & LEITAO (2009): The neglected early history of geology: The Copernican Revolution as a major advance in understanding the Earth. Geology. v. 38 no. 3 p. 231-234 http://suvratk.blogspot.com/2010/03/tracing-geology-back-to-copernicus.html