The Most Important Geological Site in the World | Dicovery Geology

It was in the summer of 1788 that James Hutton first came here to make a discovery that would transform the way we think of our planet. He came by boat with two companions on a day when the fineness of the weather allowed him to hug the rocky shore. The generations of young geologists that have followed in his footsteps have taken a more direct route, clambering down the steep grassy slope to the wave-pummeled platform below. For some, it's a pilgrimage, because this is hallowed ground. What Hutton found here that day is celebrated as one of the most important geological discoveries in history. Two very different types of rock. One said, marine sandstones and slates from the Silurian age, 430 million years ago, project up as vertical rims. A ragged, eroded surface cuts across these layers. On top, a set of gently sloping beds of red sandstone. Old red sandstone, remnants of a scorching desert, 360 million years ago. Hutton realised that the vertical beds had been laid down horizontal on an ancient sea bed that had been folded and rotated, lifted up and eroded. And that later, red desert sandstones were deposited on top and then tilted. Hutton's genius was to realise that what this needed was immense amounts of time. One of his friends who was there that day reported that the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time. And while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much further reason may sometimes go and imagination can follow. The closure of the Abbot as ocean formed the Caledonian sequence, you see. And we then have a period of erosion and then the old red sandstone is deposited. Now, the time gap between the two is about 65 million years. The gap, the time gap between this being deformed and eroded, etc., and that being deposited is 65 million years. There's a gap here in time. And so it was here, on this pretty ordinary stretch of coast, that the concept of deep time was born.