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This page intentionally left blank **The Chronologers’ Quest** Episodes in the Search for the Age of the Earth PATRICK WYSE JACKSON Trinity College Dublin Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge UK Published in the United States by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org © Patrick N. Wyse Jackson 2006 First published 2006 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Cambridge University Press. To Vanessa in Dublin and Marcus and Eric in Carlisle, Pennsylvania **Contents** List of illustrations List of tables Preface Acknowledgements 1 The ancients: early chronologies 2 Biblical calculations 3 Models of Aristotelian infinity and sacred theories of the Earth 4 Falling stones, salty oceans, and evaporating waters: early empirical measurements of the age of the Earth 5 Thinking in layers: early ideas in stratigraphy 6 An infinite and cyclical Earth and religious orthodoxy 7 The cooling Earth 8 Stratigraphical laws, uniformitarianism and the development of the geological column 9 ‘Formed stones’ and their subsequent role in biostratigraphy and evolutionary theory 10 The hour-glass of accumulated or denuded sediments 11 Thermodynamics and the cooling Earth revisited 12 Oceanic salination reconsidered 13 Radioactivity: invisible geochronometers 14 The Universal problem and Duck Soup Bibliography Index **Illustrations** Frontispiece: The Geological Column. 1.1 Ptah, the Egyptian Creator God. 4 1.2 Tablet with cuneiform inscriptions from the library of Assur-bani-pal, King of Assyria. 5 2.1 The computation of the ages of the world from Cooper’s Chronology (1560). 16 2.2 James Ussher (1580–1656). 17 2.3 First page of James Ussher’s Annales veteris testamenti (1650). 25 3.1 Thomas Burnet (1635–1715). 33 3.2 Title page of Thomas Burnet’s Telluris Theoria Sacra (1681). 40 4.1 Edward Lhwyd (1660–1709). 48 4.2 Fossil cephalopods and gastropods from Edward Lhwyd’s Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia (1699). 53 4.3 Llanberis Pass, North Wales. 56 4.4 Edmond Halley (1656–1742). 59 4.5 Title of Halley’s 1715 paper on lacustrine salination. 61 5.1 Nicolaus Steno (1638–1686). 67 5.2 Steno’s diagram showing the stages of the development of the Tuscan landscape. 68 5.3 John Strachey’s cross-section through the Earth (1725). 76 5.4 Giovanni Arduino’s geological cross-section through the Valle dell’Agno (1758). 80 6.1 James Hutton (1726–1797). 87 6.2 Title page of Hutton’s 1785 abstract. 90 6.3 The Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim, Ireland. 97 6.4 Junction of granite and schist at Glen Tilt, Scotland. 100 6.5 Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland. 102 7.1 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788). 107 7.2 Map of the district around Montbard, France. 112 7.3 Buffon’s forge at Montbard. 113 8.1 Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873). 120 8.2 Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871). 120 8.3 Charles Lyell (1795–1875). 121 8.4 William Smith (1769–1839). 127 8.5 The ‘Temple of Serapis’ near Naples. 132 9.1 Whitby snakestones: Jurassic ammonites Dactylioceras commune. 159 9.2 Plate from William Smith’s Strata Identified by Organized Fossils. 161 9.3 Stratigraphical chart showing characteristic fossils (1896). 163 10.1 John Phillips (1800–1874). 177 10.2 Geological map of the Weald, southeast England. 181 10.3 Charles Darwin (1809–1882). 182 10.4 Charles Doolittle Walcott’s map of the geology of the American mid-West (1893). 191 11.1 William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1824–1907). 198 11.2 Lord Kelvin’s coat of arms. 207 12.1 John Joly (1857–1933). 212 12.2 The Oceans. 218 Ключевые слова: man, cambridge, geologist, john murray, geological survey, ocean, radioactive decay, sodium, oxford, scientific circle, agassiz, idea, smithsonian institution, intellectual circle, fisher unwin, chronology, mary anning, based, situated, general public, royal society, geological magazine, totall destruction, began, rate, royal institution, major, sea, science, scientific, sedimentary record, geological, modern, joly, surface, prime minister, appeared, land, minor adjustment, origin, appalachian mountains, cosmochimica acta, life, contained, wyse jackson, recognised, map, day, anon helps, geological phenomenon, leonard horner, organized fossils, university, study, aegyptiacarum chronico, age, kelvin, rock, giants causeway, north, julian calendar, westminster abbey, earth, darwin, martin rudwick, beche, rzburg, account, god, theory, published, geological society, geological column, water, basalt, large, charles, century, nineteenth century, smith, age earth, geology, ireland, nobel prize, method, england, thought, produced, geological viewpoint, lalla rookh, born, william, royal college, derived, volume, geologists association, international commission, ancients early, geological record, lyell, leading scholar, area, coal measures, press, ussher, appointed, ural mountains, powerful telescope, uranium, animal, cycle, nuclear processes, meteorite, thomson, duck soup, california institute, european language, died, column, wa, death, term, harmelesse strange, aristotelian infinity, imperial college, foure evangelists, universe, ha, hugh torrens, marie curie, phillips, arthurs seat, long, creation, series, hutton, offered, delighted, biblical, secular cooling, biblical teaching, great, geological exploration, heat, paper, fossil, chapter, adam sedgwick, manhattan project, river, material, buffon, nature, dublin, london, presidential address, prime mover, scientific community, british association, wollaston medal, number, devils toenail, american association, roman caesars, geological literature, geological community, geological time, religious orthodoxy, millstone grit, work, period, lhwyd, edmond halley, earths crust, internal mould, natural, james, early, holmes, sedimentary pile, men, formed, calcium carbonate, place, suggested, tidal friction, john, british isles, scrotum humanum, literary society, earlier, year, society, gresham college, history, time, sediment, lead, patterson, cuneiform inscription, edition, journal, ships naturalist, susanna drury, large roll, john lightfoot, english, decay, college, estimate, modern-day nautilus, geological education, royal, popular