James Hutton

James Hutton (1726-1797), British geologist, who originated the modern theory of the gradual evolution of the earth's crust. Hutton was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the universities of Edinburgh, Paris, and Leiden. Although trained as a physician, he never practiced medicine, working instead as an agricultural chemist and then as a mineralogist and geologist.

Hutton is often called the father of geology. He rejected the theory of catastrophism, which was popular among scientists of his time. Catastrophism claimed that only major catastrophes could change the basic formation of the earth. Hutton formulated the uniformitarian theory of geology, which suggested that such processes as sedimentation, volcanism, and erosion caused changes in the surface of the earth and had been operating in the same manner and at the same rate over a very long period of time. Thus, he saw the earth as being much older than had been previously thought; this aroused strong opposition from those who believed in James Ussher's biblical chronology published in 1650, which stated that the world was created in 4004 bc (bce). Hutton summarized his theories in Theory of the Earth (2 volumes, 1795). See Geography; Geology; Geomorphology.