EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Figure 12.1: The geologic time scale. One of the first scientists to understand geologic time was James Hutton. In the late 1700s, he traveled around Great Britain and studied sedimentary rocks and their fossils. He believed that the same processes that work on Earth today formed the rocks and fossils from the past.

Detailed explanation-2: -Between the years of 1785 and 1800, James Hutton and William Smith advanced the concept of geologic time and strengthened the belief in an ancient world. Hutton, a Scottish geologist, first proposed formally the fundamental principle used to classify rocks according to their relative ages.

Detailed explanation-3: -Scientists use the geologic time scale to illustrate the order in which events on Earth have happened. The geologic time scale was developed after scientists observed changes in the fossils going from oldest to youngest sedimentary rocks.

Detailed explanation-4: -Due to the fact that early geologists had no way of knowing how the discoveries of the Earth were going to develop, geologist over time have put the time scale together piece by piece.