Catastrophism

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Artist's concept of a catastrophic asteroid impact with the Earth.

Catastrophism is the assumption that entire strata systems, and even groups of systems, were accumulated in a hydraulic cataclysm matching the description of sudden catastrophic events. Within creationism such an event did occur according to the biblical account of the global flood in the time of Noah.

1 Historical Development
2 Evidence of Catastrophism
3 Related References
4 See Also

Historical Development

The concept was first promoted by Georges Curvier, a famous French comparative anatomist and vertebrate palaeontologist. It was expressed quite concisely in the release of the, Discourse on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe in 1812 by Curvier. It was concluded that throughout Earth's history many catastrophic near global or regional floods had happened.

It wasn't until 1830 to 1833, when Charles Lyell (1797–1875), who was actually a lawyer published his influential three-volume work entitled, Principles of Geology. This in turn re-established uniformitarianism and dealt a major blow to catastrophism with its eventual traction gained within the European geologists mind. What the Pinciples of Gelogy emphasized was the concept of slow, gradual gathering of sediments. It developed a framework that is still used today to interpret gelogic formations and changes. Charles Lyell embraced the assumption that present-day rates of change and magnitude should be used to interpret the past record of geological activity. [1]

Evidence of Catastrophism

It is unquestionable that the earth's history has been violent. However, life remains and flourishes. The central focus of the creation vs. evolution debate is whether catastrophes in earth's past were the result of natural processes over millions of years, or a catastrophic flood of global proportions as described in the Bible as God's judgment.

If we assume the geologic column was formed during the global flood, then this deluge was also accompanied by numerous volcanic flows and quite possibly meteor bombardments. What we see all over the world consistent with a global flood is layers upon layers of sedimentary rock or strata with millions of fossils in it. Several sites provide us with examples of large-scale catastrophic processes important for understanding the mechanisms responsible for the formation of the earth's strata.