Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology
In a Series of Essays

First published in 1819, this is G. B. Greenough's influential debunking of geological fallacies popular at the time.

George Bellas Greenough (Author)

9781108035323, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2011

416 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.53 kg

Born in London, the geologist G. B. Greenough FRS (1778–1855) initially studied law. His studies took him to the University of Göttingen where, almost by chance, he attended lectures on natural history. He was immediately hooked, gave up his legal studies, and devoted himself to geology, going on a series of scientific tours of France, Italy, Britain, Ireland and lastly India. He helped to found the Geological Society, and under its auspices, he organised a cooperative project that led to his famous geological map of England and Wales. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1807 for his services to geology. This influential series of essays, published in 1819, debunked a range of geological theories that were popular at the time, and by so doing, Greenough helped to reform much of geological thinking. The book also includes transcripts from his presidential addresses to the Geological Society.

Preface
1. On stratification
2. On the figure of the Earth
3. On the inequalities which existed on the surface of the Earth previously to diluvian action, and on the causes of these inequalities
4. On formations
5. On the order of succession in rocks
6. On the properties of rocks, as connected with their respective ages
7. On the history of strata, as deduced from their fossil contents
8. On mineral veins
Address delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of London, on the 21st of February, 1834
Address delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of London, on the 20th of February, 1835.

Subject Areas: Earth sciences [RB]