Early Developments in the Study of Fluvial Sediments
7
A-·RtVER. B-WEIR. C-GATE.
D-AR£A. E-MEADOW. F-F:ENCE. G-DlTCH.
Fig. 2.1. Early interest in fluvial sedimentation: extraction of tin from placer gravels. From "De Re Metallica" by
Georgius Agricola, 1556. (Hoover and Hoover 1950)
fauna, rushes, grasses and tree stems indicated deposition in fresh water.
In 1770, the French naturalist Jeanne Etienne
Guettard (!715-1786) published a memoir "On the
degradation of mountains effected in our time by
heavy rains, rivers and the sean in which he noted the
petrographic variations in the detritus of different
river basins. He was aware of the way in which a river
basin acts as a long-term, but nevertheless temporary, site of sediment storage in its journey to the sea,
and observed how the thickness of alluvium increases toward the river mouth. Guettard interpreted the «poudingues" (English: puddingstone, an
early term for conglomerate) of the basin as fl uviatile
in origin, comparing them to the modern gravels
carried by the River Seine.
The origin of valleys by the erosive action of
streams was first clearly taught from actual examples
by Desmarest in a memoir published in 1774, even
though others before him, including TargioniTozzetti, De Saussure and Guettard, had put forward
similar conclusions in earlier publications.
The theory of uniformitarianism is attributed to
James Hutton (1726- 1797), although many of the
ideas that contributed to his theory had appeared
before his time. Hutton's first paper on this subject
appeared as an extended abstract in 1785 (Bailey
1967), but his principal work was published 10 years
later as a four-part book (Hutton 1795). His main
contribution to sedimentary geology was the prin�
ciple that most of the features we see in ancient rocks
can be explained by processes taking place at the
present day, and that apparently imperceptible processes can have profound effects if they continue
long enough. Hutton was also, of course, the chief
protagonist of the Plutonist theories of earth history, in opposition to Abraham Gottlab Werner
(1749-1817), the principal Neptunist. According to
Werner, alluvial deposits were part of the youngest
of his four layers of water-laid rocks, immediately
7
A-·RtVER. B-WEIR. C-GATE.
D-AR£A. E-MEADOW. F-F:ENCE. G-DlTCH.
Fig. 2.1. Early interest in fluvial sedimentation: extraction of tin from placer gravels. From "De Re Metallica" by
Georgius Agricola, 1556. (Hoover and Hoover 1950)
fauna, rushes, grasses and tree stems indicated deposition in fresh water.
In 1770, the French naturalist Jeanne Etienne
Guettard (!715-1786) published a memoir "On the
degradation of mountains effected in our time by
heavy rains, rivers and the sean in which he noted the
petrographic variations in the detritus of different
river basins. He was aware of the way in which a river
basin acts as a long-term, but nevertheless temporary, site of sediment storage in its journey to the sea,
and observed how the thickness of alluvium increases toward the river mouth. Guettard interpreted the «poudingues" (English: puddingstone, an
early term for conglomerate) of the basin as fl uviatile
in origin, comparing them to the modern gravels
carried by the River Seine.
The origin of valleys by the erosive action of
streams was first clearly taught from actual examples
by Desmarest in a memoir published in 1774, even
though others before him, including TargioniTozzetti, De Saussure and Guettard, had put forward
similar conclusions in earlier publications.
The theory of uniformitarianism is attributed to
James Hutton (1726- 1797), although many of the
ideas that contributed to his theory had appeared
before his time. Hutton's first paper on this subject
appeared as an extended abstract in 1785 (Bailey
1967), but his principal work was published 10 years
later as a four-part book (Hutton 1795). His main
contribution to sedimentary geology was the prin�
ciple that most of the features we see in ancient rocks
can be explained by processes taking place at the
present day, and that apparently imperceptible processes can have profound effects if they continue
long enough. Hutton was also, of course, the chief
protagonist of the Plutonist theories of earth history, in opposition to Abraham Gottlab Werner
(1749-1817), the principal Neptunist. According to
Werner, alluvial deposits were part of the youngest
of his four layers of water-laid rocks, immediately