page_title: Charles Lyell
section_title: Volcanoes and geological dynamics
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Lyell / Scientific contributions / Volcanoes and geological dynamics
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Luftaufnahme des Vesuvs English: Vesuvius from plane Français&#160;: Vue aérienne du Vésuve. Italiano: Il Vesuvio. Русский: Кратер вулкана Везувий. Svenska: Vesuvius. 日本語: 空中写真. Português: Vista aérea do Vesúvio. Català: El Volcà Vesuvi a l'actualitat. El Mont Vesuvi a l'actualitat. Suomi: Ilmakuva Vesuviuksesta. Қазақша: Везувий әуеден суреті. Српски / srpski: Везув - купа и кратер. Вулкан Везув. Bahasa Melayu: Pemandangan Vesuvius dari udara. עברית: הלוע בראש וזוב. Eesti: Vesuuv, Itaalia. Azərbaycanca: Vezuvi vulkanı. मराठी: व्हेसुव्हियसचे आकाशातून घेतलेले चित्र. Íslenska: Loftmynd af Vesúvíusi. മലയാളം: വെസ്യൂവസിന്റെ ഒരു ആകാശ വീക്ഷണം. വെസൂവിയസ് അഗ്നിപർവതത്തിന്റെ മുഖം ഇന്ന് - വിമാനത്തിൽ നിന്നെടുത്ത ചിത്രം - സ്പാർട്ടക്കസിന്റെ കലാപത്തിന്റെ ആദ്യകേന്ദ്രം വെസൂവിയസിന്റെ മുടിയായിരുന്നു. Afrikaans: Vesuvius. Vesuvius. Кыргызча: Везувий вулканынын кратери. ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche: ۋېزۇۋىي. Sardu: Su vulcanu Vesuvio.
context_page_description: Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining Earth's history. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which presented to a wide public audience the idea that Earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, operating at similar intensities. The philosopher William Whewell termed this gradualistic view "uniformitarianism" and contrasted it with catastrophism, which had been championed by Georges Cuvier and was better accepted in Europe. The combination of evidence and eloquence in Principles convinced a wide range of readers of the significance of "deep time" for understanding the Earth and environment.
  Lyell's scientific contributions included a pioneering explanation of climate change, in which shifting boundaries between oceans and continents could be used to explain long-term variations in temperature and rainfall. Lyell also gave influential explanations of earthquakes and developed the theory of gradual "backed up-building" of volcanoes. In stratigraphy his division of the Tertiary period into the Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene was highly influential.
context_section_description: Before the work of Lyell, phenomena such as earthquakes were understood by the destruction that they brought. One of the contributions that Lyell made in Principles was to explain the cause of earthquakes. Lyell, in contrast focused on recent earthquakes (150 yrs), evidenced by surface irregularities such as faults, fissures, stratigraphic displacements and depressions.
  Lyell's work on volcanoes focused largely on Vesuvius and Etna, both of which he had earlier studied. His conclusions supported gradual building of volcanoes, so-called "backed up-building", as opposed to the upheaval argument supported by other geologists.
caption: Lyell argued that volcanoes like Vesuvius had built up gradually.
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