THE BASALT CONTROVERSY I (PART 15)

摘要

Information on the history of volcanology is surprisingly hard to find. The following general references were particularly helpful in the preparation of this chapter and are strongly recommended: Ashworth (2004), Sigurdsson (1999), Simkin and Siebert (1994), and the Smithsonian Institution 's Global Volcanism Program. Repchek (2003) has pointed out that the term 'scientist' was not coined until the 1830s, and that individuals who studied science before then called themselves 'natural philosophers.' Starting as early as 1644, Rene Descartes, Nils Steenson (Nicolaus Steno), and others chose geological topics such as minerals, fossils, volcanoes, and sedimentary layering for study. However, the word geologist did not appear until the 1780s (Vaccari, 1998). In this series, the first scientists who studied the earth are called geologists.