Charles Lyell and Principles of Geology

Baron Charles Lyell was a Scottish lawyer, geologist and advocate of uniformitarianism. Famous in
shaping 19th century ideas about science, he wrote the immensely popular
Principles of Geology
(three volumes, 1830-33), which went into 12 editions in his lifetime.
His other works include Elements of Geology and The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.
The year the founder of modern geology, James Hutton, died, Charles Lyell was born.
Life of Sir Charles Lyell in a Nutshell
Charles Lyell was born on November 14, 1797 at Forfarshire, Scotland, the eldest of 10 children. He
entered Exeter, Oxford, where he was captivated by the lectures of William Buckland, a geologist
and clergyman. After getting his B.A. degree, he entered London's Inn to study law in 1819. The
same year, he was also elected to the Linnean and Geographical Societies, where he presented his
first paper, "On a recent formation of freshwater limestone in Forfarshire."

Lyell was later called to the Bar to

serve on the "Western Circuit" for two
years. In 1826, he was elected a fellow
of the Royal Society. The following
year he formally abandoned the legal
profession to pursue geology.
He married Mary Horner in 1832.
From Earth's Catastrophic Theory into
Uniformitarianism
In the dawning of the 19th century, the common belief was that in few major events had shaped the
earth, in between these catastrophic incidents, the Earth had remained unchanged.
Funding his work and from the publication of his books, Charles Lyell traveled the world including
Europe, the U.S. and Canada studying rock formations. His observations led him to replace
catastrophe theory with uniformitarianism, which proposed that the Earth changed gradually as
constantly-present forces acted on it.
He also attributed ages to rock strata, by looking at the fossils that they contained. This introduced a
new way of studying the Earth leading further to modern geology founded by his countryman James
Hutton.
Lyell argued that only a quarter of the surface of the planet can be observed and that the rest lies
beneath the oceans and Earth's surface. He also talked about the deeper effects of lava and rock
strata formation.
Four Tertiary Periods or Ages of Rocks
Lyell studied rock formation and devised a system for dating them, based on fossilized marine shells
he found encased in the layers. He provided them titles and in consultation with mineralogist
William Whewell, Lyell came up with his naming convention.
He divided the period into four epochs with Eocene as the youngest rock and Pleistocene, the oldest
in progression. These names have remained in common use:

EoceneMiocenePliocenePleistoceneFinal Insights on
Lyell
Although Charles Lyell's geological principles greatly
influenced Charles Darwin, Lyell's spiritual beliefs, on
the other hand, conflicted with Darwin's concept of
natural selection.
For his exemplary work in the advancement of geology,
in 1848, he received a knighthood from Queen Victoria, and in 1864, he became a Baron. He died in

London on February 22, 1875, aged 78.

Works by Charles LyellPrinciples of Geology, Three Vols, 1830-1833Elements of Geology, 1838The
Antiquity of Man, 1863Resources: Clark, John, Ed. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary. London:
Chancellor Press, 1978.Farndon, John, etal. The Great Scientists. London: Arcturus Publishing,
2005.McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
Publishers, 2002.Moore, Pete. E=MC2. London: Quintet Publishing Ltd., 2002.