History of Earth Sciences

Pierre Savaton is an associate professor (HDR) in epistemology and the history of science at the Université de Caen Normandie, France. He is also a member of COFRHIGEO.

• Presentation of Field "History of Science". xiJean-Claude DUPONTIntroduction xiiiPierre SAVATONChapter 1. What Earth Sciences Existed in Greco-Roman Antiquity? 1Frédéric LE BLAY1.1. Defining the field: Aristotelian meteorology 21.2. The movements of the Earth 61.3. Probing the bowels of the Earth: networks and cavities 141.4. The subterranean fire hypothesis 181.5. The Earth and its materials 211.6. Toward a history of the Earth: floods and variations in sea level 261.7. Conclusion 311.8. References 32Chapter 2. Studying and Knowing the Earth in the Middle Ages 37Joëlle DUCOS and Fleur VIGNERON2.1. The Earth and stones: knowledge scattered across multiple fields 372.2. Sources and authors of the medieval west 422.3. Medieval debates on the Earth 492.4. Conclusion 632.5. References 64Chapter 3. Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment 73Gaston GODARD3.1. The origin of fossils and stones 743.2. From an immutable Earth to a dynamic Earth 923.3. Conclusion 1003.4. References 101Contents viiChapter 4. Crystallography: 17th–19th Centuries 109Bernard MAITTE4.1. The first studies 1094.2. 17th century: the intervention of physicists; Huygens contradicted by Newton 1134.3. 18th century: from the crystals of the natural sciences to mathematics 1164.4. René-Just Haüy's study 1244.5. The early 19th century: the roles of physicists and philosophies of nature 1354.6. Space groups and Curie's principle 1444.7. Mineralogy at the end of the century and its development prospects 1484.8. References 152Chapter 5. Geology and Visual Discourse: The Birth of the Geological Map 157Pierre SAVATON5.1. Statistics and inventories plotted on maps 1595.2. Physical geography 1665.3. Geognosy and geognostic maps 1685.4. Geological maps 1765.5. From map to map: geological cartography in 19th-century France 1835.6. Conclusion 1865.7. References 186Chapter 6. Birth and Development of Stratigraphy 191Philippe GRANDCHAMP6.1. The birth certificate of stratigraphy 1916.2. The impasse of Wernerian lithostratigraphy 1936.3. The emergence of paleontological stratigraphy 1956.4. An alternative path: purely geometric stratigraphy 2056.5. The invention of a key concept: the stratigraphic stage 2116.6. Toward the international stratigraphic scale 2146.7. Conclusion 2186.8. References 222Chapter 7. History of Mobilist Ideas: Wegener's Model 227Philippe Le VIGOUROUX7.1. The Earth globe: a fixist conception under tension 2287.2. The invention of mobilism 2387.3. The reception of Wegener's theory 2637.4. Conclusion 2707.5. References 274List of Authors 281Index of Terms 283Index of Names 287