This presentation shows how scientists use geological principles to reconstruct Earth’s history and to understand the processes that shape the Earth.
This slide defines what is meant by geology as a field of study and describes what natural phenomena and physical properties and processes that geologists study today and in the past.
This slide illustrates the linkage between the development of the scientific method and the emergence and development of geology as a distinct field of study.
This slide emphasizes the important role that scientific observation plays in geology in terms of explaining how the Earth evolved into its modern form. It is important to understand that early geologists used an early form of the Scientific Method to make observations about the Earth. In the past, geologists used their careful observations of the natural world to develop basic descriptions of the Earth’s rock record, to put these rocks into a relative order in terms of time, and to conceptualize and explain the natural forces and processes that formed and shaped the Earth.
This slide profiles early workers in geology and outlines their contribution to the field of geology.
This slide describes the contributions of Nicholas Steno to the field of geology.
This slide outlines the contributions of James Hutton to geology. Many consider Hutton to be the “Father of Modern Geology.”
This slide features some of the specific geological observations that Hutton made in more than one location and that led him to propose his Principle of Uniformitarianism.
This slide describes the contributions of Charles Lyell to geology.
This slide outlines Smith’s contributions to the field of geology.
This slide shows through comparison between mud cracks in the two pictures, that geological forces that result in distinctive geological features have remained exactly the same through geological time.
The Grand Canyon provides compelling evidence that geological forces act on rock over very long time periods.
This slide is an overview of the use of relative dating techniques in geology.
This slide is an overview of absolute dating techniques used in geology.
This slide presents the “big picture” problems of interest to geologists in the past, as well as those working in geology today.