EPISODE:
ALPINE REVOLUTIONS
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"We certainly obtain . . . a more plausible explanation of the
phaenomena observed, than by the supposition of a huge mass of water
overwhelming the whole land"
Leonce
Elie de Beaumont (1798 – 1874) extended his 1829-1830 theory that there had
been a succession of mountain-building episodes over geologic time ("epoques
de soulevement") to include erratic transportation: while mountains were the
result of Earth periodically contracting as it gradually cooled, when mountain
building occurred, as in the Alps, elevation allowed the escape of internal heat
which melted existing ice and the resulting deluge spread erratics and diluvium
throughout the region. Thus Elie de Beaumont provided yet another possible cause
for the conventional "flood" hypothesis of erratic transportation.
"Upheaved strata forming mountains .
.
Alps. St. Gothard to the right."
(de la Beche 1830)
The British geologist Henry T. De La Beche (1796-1855), reviewed
this idea and added a crucial observation with respect to mountains: "we
certainly obtain, by means of this ready mode of transport, and the sudden
action of a large body of water rushing down the valleys, a more plausible
explanation of the phaenomena observed, than by the supposition of a huge mass
of water overwhelming the whole land, - which does not afford us a good
explanation of the nearly equal transport outwards, down so many principal
valleys, of solid matter derived from the central parts of the chain" (de la
Beche 1834, p.388-389
Furthermore, de la Beche also extended Elie de Beaumont's ideas to
included the lowland diluvium of northern Europe: "The other great accumulation
of erratic blocks seems due to some more general cause, since not only are the
blocks scattered in great abundance over Northern Europe, in a manner to show
their northern origin, but those which occur in the northern parts of America,
apparently in equal abundance, also point to a similar origin. We hence infer
that some cause, situated in the polar regions, has so acted as to produce this
dispersion of solid matter over a certain portion of the earth's surface. We
know of no agent capable of causing the effect required, but moving water. We
therefore further infer that some cause has produced an action of water in the
polar regions which has scattered blocks of rock outwards from a somewhat
central situation. Now, if mountains can be produced in the manner noticed in a
former part of this volume, there is no reason, that we are aware of, why a
sudden elevation of land should not be produced beneath the polar seas as in any
other part of the earth's surface, and if such elevation were so produced, the
necessary consequences would be a wave or waves proportioned to the disturbing
force. Such waves would necessarily tend to float the northern glaciers with
their usual burden of blocks of rock, lifting them to the southward ; but their
principal action would be felt where they reached the coasts, and the waves from
being little more than great undulations of water, became huge breakers,
acquiring a violent forward motion, and a consequent abrading and transporting
power, which can be well appreciated when it is recollected that those
relatively minute waves which break on coasts during gales of wind have the
power to destroy large solid pieces of compact masonry, and to hurl the
disjointed fragments before them. The effects observed would correspond with
this hypothesis, for all the blocks have not come from great distances : they
have been detached from various points. Many erratic blocks in England can be
traced northwards to their parent rocks in the British Islands, and Prof.
Hitchcock has shown that the like can be done in the United States. The great
mass of blocks scattered in such abundance over parts of Germany, Sweden, Poland
and Russia, are evidently derived from rocks known to exist to the northward of
them, their mineralogical and other characters being sufficiently marked. Many
of the effects which would be produced by the breaking of such waves will be
obvious; among the rest we should expect considerable local accumulations of
rocks derived from different quarters. This seems to be well shown in the
diluvium of Holderness, on the coast of Yorkshire, where, according to Mr.
Phillips, a clay envelops various fragments of rocks, apparently derived from
Norway, the highlands of Scotland, the mountains of Cumberland, and from
Yorkshire itself, while no small portion seems to have been transported from the
seacoast of Durham and the vicinity of Whitby ; the fragments being rounded in
proportion to the distance whence they were derived" (de la Beche 1834,
p.389-390).
Charles G.B. Daubeny (1795-1867) argued more
or less in the same fashion in favor of widespread diluvial action although,
unlike an increasing majority geologists at this time, he was somewhat anxious
to maintain the possibility of a Scriptural connection: "The doctrine in
question [that of Elie de Beaumont] has the further
advantage of rendering the accounts of such catastrophes, which are handed down
to us on the authority both of history and tradition, consistent with
probability, instead of opposed to it; in harmony with scientific research,
instead of involving, as Voltaire rashly asserted, a physical impossibility ;
and thus, if not directly confirming the Mosaic history on this particular
point, removing at least those obstacles to its reception that might exist, if
we considered the event related as out of the course of nature, and only to be
explained by the instrumentality of causes unknown to us at present, and which
had disappeared without leaving any traces of their existence behind them."
The
Rev. Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) supported Elie's theory of successive
epochs of uplift, which he termed a "grand key to the mysteries of Nature,"
against Charles Lyell's strict uniformitarianism (see below); but he also
famously distanced himself (and geology) from a Scriptural connection in a
Presidential Address to the Geological society: "our diluvial gravel was
probably not the result of one, but of many successive periods. But what I then
stated [last year] as a probable opinion, may, after the Essays of M. de
Beaumont, be now advanced with all the authority of established truth : and
among the many obligations we owe to this accomplished observer, I may mention
the new and instructive views he has given us of the origin of the great masses
of old detritus lying scattered over the lower regions of the earth."
Having accepted a cause, Sedgwick then famously diverged significantly from
the views of Daubeny and other Scripturalists (whom he did not mention by name): ". . . the
vast masses of diluvial gravel, scattered almost over the surface of the earth,
do not belong to one violent and transitory period . . . It was indeed a most
unwarranted conclusion, when we assumed the contemporaneity of all the
superficial gravel on the earth. We saw the clearest traces of diluvial action,
and we had, in our sacred histories, the record of a general deluge. On this
double testimony it was, that we gave a unity to a vast succession of phenomena,
not one of which we perfectly comprehended, and under the name diluvium, classed
them all together. . . Our errors were, however, natural, and of the same kind
which led many excellent observers of a former century to refer all the
secondary formations of geology to the Noachian deluge. . . . We ought, indeed,
to have paused before we first adopted the diluvian theory and referred all our
old superficial gravel to the action of the Mosaic flood."
But note that Sedgwick was opposed only to the
Scriptural
connection and not to catastrophes in general, which he believed the rock record
contained in ample volume (including the recent diluvial gravels). There was
nothing in Sedgwick's work either that suggested glaciation at this time.
There is no doubt that the "diluvial" hypothesis was
well-entrenched and theoretically sophisticated in the early 1830s. Sedgwick
believed it explained a good deal more than Lyell's "local" and "present"
causes.
NOTE: While Elie's theory of mountain-building met with
general approval at the time, it was not one that Charles Lyell approved of (as
strongly noted by Daubeny):
Lyell, a uniformitarian in the strict sense, worked hard to interpret and
explain phenomena on the basis of currently observable phenomena and he drew
upon Charles Darwin's observations of uplift in the Andes to argue for less
dramatic upheavals on Earth's surface (Cannon 1960, p.41-42; Lyell p.338-351).
Lyell (p. 148) suggested another explanation for Alpine erratics (see
"Uniformitarian Drift"). On the other hand, in 1831, Sedgwick argued
"That the system of M. Elie de Beaumont is directly opposed to a fundamental
principle vindicated by Mr. Lyell, cannot admit of doubt. And I have decided to
the best of my judgment, in favour of the former author, because his
conclusions are not based upon any a priori reasoning [i.e.
as he saw Lyell's uniformitarianism], but on the evidence of facts . . ."
QUESTIONS
- As your review the use
that Charpentier ("An incredible hypothesis") and de la Beche made of Elie
de Beaumont's ideas, which hypothesis seems to be the most solid? Argue your
case for one or the other. What was Charpentier "up against" in proposing
Alpine glaciations as he did?
- In using Elie de
Beaumont's mountain-building, Charpentier found an explanation for the
extension of glaciers in the colder temperatures that higher elevation would
induce. How did de la Beche use Elie de Beaumont's ideas?
- What differences and
similarities are there between de la Beche's ideas and James Hall's?
REFERENCES
Cannon, W.F. 1960 The Uniformitarian-Catastrophist
Debate. Isis v.51(1) p.38-55
Elie de Beaumont, L. 1830 (1829-1830) Sur quelque-unes
des révolutions de la surface du globe, présentant differents exemples de
coincidence entre le redressement des couches de certains systèmes de montagnes,
et les changements soudains qui 'ont produit les lignes de demarcation qu'on
observe entre certains étages consecutifs des terrains de sédiment (Memoire
extrait des Annales de Science naturelles, v.18 (1829) p.5-25, 284-416; v.19
(1830) p.5-99, 177-240) (Chez Crochard Libraire Editeur, Paris)
http://books.google.com/books?id=-BArAAAAYAAJ&ots=c0W3e4t-Xg&pg=PA3#v
[This was Louis Agassiz's personal copy.]
ORIGINAL 1829:
p.5-25
http://books.google.com/books?id=6XcCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA5#v
p.284-416
http://books.google.com/books?id=6XcCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA284#v
ORIGINAL 1830:
p.5-99
http://books.google.com/books?id=4oE5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA5#v
p.177-240
http://books.google.com/books?id=4oE5AAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA177#v
ENGLISH EXTRACT: de la Beche, H.T. 1831 Researches on
some of the revolutions which have taken place on the Surface of the Globe;
presenting various examples of the coincidence between the elevation of beds in
certain systems of mountains, and the sudden changes which have produced the
lines of demarcation observable in certain stages of the sedimentary deposits.
The Philosophical Magazine v.X (Jul-Dec, 1831) p.241-264
http://books.google.com/books?id=xIIqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA241#v
Daubeny, C. 1831 On the Diluvial Theory,
and on the origin of the valleys of Auvergne. The Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal, Jan-Mar 1831 p.201-228
http://www.google.com/books?id=9w0XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201#v
de la Beche, H.T. 1834 Researches in theoretical geology
(London, Charles Knight)
http://books.google.com/books?id=iQYFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA386#v
de la Beche, H.T. 1830 Sections and views illustrative of geological phenomena.
(Treuttel & Wurtz, London)
http://books.google.com/books?id=6DQAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PT16#v
Gould, S.J.
1985 The freezing of Noah. p. 114-25 in S.J. Gould The flamingo’s smile
(W.W. Norton, New York)
Lyell, C.
1833 Principles of geology, volume 3 (John Murray, London)
http://www.google.com/books?id=zqkJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR3
Sedgwick, A. 1831
Address to the Geological Society, delivered on the Evening of the 18th of
February 1831, by the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, M.A. F.R.S. &c. on retiring from
the President's Chair. The Philosophical Magazine [New Series.] v.IX (Jan.-June.
1831) no.LII (April) p.281-317
http://www.google.com/books?id=OkIwAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA281
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