Hutton, James

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topic: Geology
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry (other articles)
Last Updated: April 21, 2007
A portrait of James Hutton (1726–1797) by Sir Henry Raeborn. (Portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)
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A portrait of James Hutton (1726–1797) by Sir Henry Raeborn. (Portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.)

James Hutton (1726-1797), a Scottish geologist considered to be the founder of modern geology. In the rocks of Scotland, Hutton found fingers of granite reaching well into sedimentary rocks and saw this as evidence of subterranean fire and heat. He also found neatly deposited layers of sedimentary rocks overlaying rock layers that were almost vertical. The lower layers of rock, he concluded, must have been deposited eons before, and then later upturned. Based on these findings, Hutton was the first to describe the vast expanses of time in Earth's history. These finding were reported in 1785 in a paper entitled Theory of the Earth, often cited as one of the seminal foundations of geological theory.

Further Reading
James Hutton Biography (University of St. Andrews, Scotland, School of Mathematics and Statistics)
James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology (American Museum of Natural History)
JamesHutton.org Homepage

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2007. "Hutton, James." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [Published in the Encyclopedia of Earth April 21, 2007; Retrieved April 29, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Hutton,_James>
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