istoryworld
Events relating to geology
The earth condenses into a solid sphere, with an inner core which is extremely dense and hot
The earth's surface settles into a heaving turmoil of rock and water
The entire land surface of the earth merges into a single continent, known as Pangaea, which after about 50 million years splits in two
The process of continental drift, beginning 200 million years ago, results eventually in our present arrangement of six continents
Australia becomes a separate land mass, isolating its living creatures. They evolve into many species unique to the area
The ice ages set in, to continue throughout most of human history
James Hutton describes to the Royal Society of Edinburgh his studies of local rocks , launching the era of scientific geology
English surveyor William Smith compiles a manuscript, Order of the Strata, revealing chronology through fossils in rocks
Louis Agassiz builds a hut on the Aar glacier in Switzerland and succeeds in recording gradual movement of the ice
Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz argues, in his Study on Glaciers, that much of Europe was recently in the grip of an ice age
German scientist Alfred Wegener, impressed by the neat fit between the coasts of Africa and South America, proposes the theory of continental drift
English geologist Arthur Holmes publishes The Age of the Earth, offering evidence that the planet is at least 1.6 billion years old
US seismologist Charles Richter devises a scale for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes
Scientists at the US Geological Survey develop the theory of plate tectonics as the explanation of continental drift
A massive earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan causes a huge tsunami resulting in massive devastation for miles inland