The Science Book

115

See also: Nicholas Steno 55 ■ James Hutton 96–101 ■ Mary Anning 116–17 ■

Louis Agassiz 128–29

I

n the mid to late 18th century,

the need to find fuels and ores

to power Europe’s Industrial

Revolution spurred a growing

interest in producing geological

maps. German mineralogists

Johann Lehmann and Georg

Füchsel produced detailed aerial

views showing topography and

rock strata. Many subsequent

geological maps did little more than

show the surface distribution of

different rock types—until the

pioneering work of Georges Cuvier

and Alexandre Brongniart in

France, who mapped the geology

of the Paris Basin in 1811, and

William Smith in Britain.

First national map

Smith was a self-taught engineer

and surveyor who produced the first

nationwide geological map in 1815,

showing England, Wales, and part

of Scotland. By amassing samples

from mines, quarries, cliffs, canals,

and road and railroad cuttings,

Smith established the succession

of rock strata, using Steno’s

principles of stratigraphy and

identifying each stratum by its

characteristic fossils. He also drew

vertical sections of the succession

of strata and the geological

structures into which they had

been formed by earth movements.

Over the next few decades, the

first national geological surveys

were established, and they set

about methodically mapping their

entire countries. The correlation of

strata of similar age across national

boundaries was achieved by

international agreement in the

latter part of the 19th century. ■

A CENTURY OF PROGRESS

MAPPING THE

ROCKS OF

A NATION

WILLIAM SMITH (1769 –1839)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Geology

BEFORE
1669 Nicholas Steno publishes
the principles of stratigraphy
that will guide geologists’
understanding of rock strata.

1760s In Germany, geologists
Johann Lehmann and Georg
Füchsel make some of the first
measured sections and maps
of geological strata.

1813 English geologist Robert
Bakewell makes the first
geognostic map of rock types
in England and Wales.

AFTER
1835 The Geological Survey
of Great Britain is founded to
conduct systematic geological
mapping of the country.

1878 The first International
Geological Congress is held in
Paris. Congresses have been
held every three to five years
ever since.

Organized fossils are to

the naturalist as coins

to the antiquary.

William Smith