Principle of Uniformitarianism
Dana Desonie, Ph.D.
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Printed: November 24, 2015
AUTHOR
Dana Desonie, Ph.D.
www.ck12.org
C HAPTER
Chapter 1. Principle of Uniformitarianism
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Principle of
Uniformitarianism
• Explain how scientists use knowledge of Earth in the present to understand Earth’s history.
What does this mean: "the present is the key to the past"?
How can what you see in this photo help you to figure out what happened in Earth’s history? You can see the molten
lava and what it looks like when it cools. If you see that type of rock in an outcrop you can assume that it formed
from molten lava. This reveals the best tool for understanding Earth history that Earth scientists have. They use what
they know about materials and processes in the present to figure out what happened in the past.
Ask a Question –Earth History
The outcrop in the Figure 1.1 is at Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park, Utah. It has a very interesting pattern
on it. As a geology student you may ask: how did this rock form?
If you poke at the rock and analyze its chemistry you will see that it’s made of sand. In fact, the rock formation is
called the Navajo sandstone. But knowing that the rock is sandstone doesn’t tell you how it formed. It would be
hard to design an experiment to show how this rock formed. But we can make observations now and apply them to
this rock that formed long ago.
Uniformitarianism
James Hutton came up with this idea in the late 1700s. The present is the key to the past. He called this the principle
of uniformitarianism. It is that if we can understand a geological process now and we find evidence of that same
process in the past, then we can assume that the process operated the same way in the past.
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FIGURE 1.1
Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National
Park, Utah.
Let’s go back to that outcrop. What would cause sandstone to have layers that cross each other, a feature called
cross-bedding?
Answer a Question –Earth History
In the photo of the Mesquite sand dune in Death Valley National Park, California ( Figure 1.2), we see that wind
can cause cross-bedding in sand. Cross-bedding is due to changes in wind direction. There are also ripples caused
by the wind waving over the surface of the dune.
FIGURE 1.2
The Mesquite sand dune in Death Valley
National Park, California.
This doesn’t look exactly like the outcrop of Navajo sandstone, but if you could cut a cross-section into the face of
the dune it would look very similar.
Since we can observe wind forming sand dunes with these patterns now, we have a good explanation for how the
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Chapter 1. Principle of Uniformitarianism
Navajo sandstone formed. The Navajo sandstone is a rock formed from ancient sand dunes in which wind direction
changed from time to time.
This is just one example of how geologists use observations they make today to unravel what happened in Earth’s
past. Rocks formed from volcanoes, oceans, rivers, and many other features are deciphered by looking at the
geological work those features do today.
Summary
• You may need to apply what you know about the present to determine what happened in the past.
• The idea that the present is the key to the past was recognized by James Hutton in the late 1700s.
• If you see something forming by a process today and then find the end results of that process in the rock
record, you can assume that the the process operated the same way in the past.
Explore More
Use this resource to answer the questions that follow.
http://sciencestage.com/v/17802
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What did James Hutton mean by uniformitarianism?
Are there forces from the past that we can’t observe today? What is the rate of the forces?
Why couldn’t Meteor Crater in Arizona be formed by a meteor impact?
Why is it catastrophic events that we mostly see in the geological record?
Was the carving of the Grand Canyon the result of a catastrophe? Explain your answer.
Review
1. What does an Earth scientist often need to answer a question about something that happened in Earth’s distant
past?
2. James Hutton is sometimes called the father of geology. Why does he merit that title?
3. If you found a layer of ancient lava rock within a sandstone outcrop, what could you say about that lava rock
using the principle of uniformitarianism?
References
1. Tristan Higbee. Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park, Utah . CC BY 2.0
2. Image copyright Dean Pennala, 2013. The Mesquite sand dune in Death Valley National Park, California. .
Used under license from Shutterstock.com
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