Uniformitarianism

Unifomitarianism- The theory that:

1. Earth is always-changing place.

2. The same forces of change at work today were at work in the past.

Some of the forces that uniformitarianism may include are erosion or continental drift.

I chose the topic of uniformitarianism because I think that its cool that the Earth's forces have not changed over billions of years, and these forces will most likely continue forever.

One example is continental drift. Continental drift is a theory that the tectonic plates are moving all the time this causes earthquakes and this has been happening forever.

Here is two pictures.

Grand Canyon                                                Continental Drift

The grand canyon is a form of uniformitarianism because over time a force callederosion has eroded away the mountains turning them into cliffs and then eventually the grand canyon.

Another change that uniformitarianism has made is the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea was a supercontinent that was every continent that we have today put together. Over time, little by little, the continents began to pull away and formed into two continents called Laurasia and Gondwanaland. And then the forces of continental drift pulled the continents even farther apart to form the seven continents that we have today, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Scientist say that if you put compare the shapes of each continent they might go together and form a supercontinent like Pangaea. And that over millions of years the continents will move inch by inch each year and then soon form another supercontinent.

According to Reijer Hooykaas, uniformitarianism is a family of four related propositions, not a single idea.

1.Uniformity of law- the laws of nature are constant.

2.Uniformity of kind- past and present causes are all of the same kind, have the same energy, and produce the same effects.

3.Uniformity of degree- geological circumstances have not changed over time.

4.Uniformity of methodology- the appropriate hypothesis for explaining the geological past are those with analogy in the present.

For some visual wikipedia of this topic click here

I got my picture of the grand canyon here 

For the picture of continental drift go here

To learn more about uniformitarianism click here

To learn about scientist Reijer Hooykaas click here

I have highlighted some of the important ideas or words in red.