Darwin Year at the Society
Although Charles Darwin is justifiably one of the most famous scientists who ever lived, it is a little known aspect of his life that this naturalist (as he described himself) was first and foremost a geologist. Darwin was a Fellow of the Geological Society, and served as the Society’s Publications Secretary – then as now one of the most onerous and responsible Officer posts on Council. Darwin the scientist fledged professionally as a geologist, with a ground-breaking paper on the origin of Pacific atolls. His mission aboard the HMS Beagle, whose voyage was the turning point in his career, included wider investigation of Pacific island and shelf sea geology, and the making of geological maps.
A seies of feature articles in our Fellowship magazine Geoscientist has explored how his observations in Patagonia, and on the glaciers calving into Beagle Channel enabled him to reach a basically correct interpretation of the erratic boulders of Cwm Idwal, North Wales, which had puzzled geologists for decades. His Galapagos researches were by no means confined to tortoise shells and finches’ beaks. Another feature has described how Darwin also studied the lavas of their volcanoes, and published influential works on the subject of crystal settling and fractionation in magmatic melts – a mechanism now accepted as the main means of deriving many different volcanic rock types from the same original source. His geological observations in the Andes highlighted the speed of uplift in growing mountain chains, and of his copious Beagle notes, roughly 75% consist of geological observations.
Indeed, it is arguable that Darwin, great synthesizer that he was, was able to create his theory of evolution by natural selection precisely because he applied to living things the geologist’s method of seeing today’s rocks and landforms not as static things, but as products of a historical process. Thus, when faced with the beaks of Galapagos finches, or the shells of tortoises or the tell-tale imperfections of living things that bear eloquent witness to their historical origin (as opposed to being ideal "designs", created perfect in all respects) Darwin was fitted by his geological training to interpret such features as the product gradual change through deep time.
This was the dimension that Darwin brought to the study of biology, and which earned him his place in the pantheon of science alongside the likes of Newton and Galileo.
To mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, The Geological Society of London held a series of events throughout 2009, and will be participating in in the heritage lottery funded project, 'Charles Darwin: A Genius in the Heart of London' throughout March 2010.
This was the dimension that Darwin brought to the study of biology, and which earned him his place in the pantheon of science alongside the likes of Newton and Galileo.
To mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, The Geological Society of London held a series of events throughout 2009, and will be participating in in the heritage lottery funded project, 'Charles Darwin: A Genius in the Heart of London' throughout March 2010.
