WHAT IS THE THEORY OF CATASTROPHISM? - SCIENCE - 2025

The theory of catastrophism establishes that the Earth and a large part of its components have been formed through the succession of catastrophic events that have caused the disappearance of certain species, animals and plants, and have allowed the appearance of others. It had its peak during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Catastrophism proposes the hypothesis that the origin of the Earth through a sudden event of great magnitude. The manifestation of natural events of great destructive capacity such as earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, among others, are the elements that it uses.

Catastrophism has been questioned, since it establishes that only from catastrophic events do great earth changes occur. However, it must be taken into account that in prehistory the climatic and natural conditions of the Earth were not the same as they are today, and that over time, great natural changes have occurred without the need for destructive natural phenomena.

There are those who even today continue to defend some postulates of catastrophism, developing currents and derived thoughts that are scientifically accepted.

History of the theory of catastrophism

The beginnings of catastrophism have their origin with the works of the Irishman James Ussher and his chronology on Earth, who tried to attribute an age in the Universe and some causes to its formation.

In 1650 Ussher wrote the book The Annals of the World, and based on the Bible, he proposed:

• That the creation of the Earth took place on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC
• The expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise took place on Monday, November 10, 4004 BC. C.
• The end of the Universal Flood took place on Wednesday, May 5, 2348 BC. C.

Obviously, these data were wrong, since the age of the Earth is currently estimated to be about 4.47 billion years and the same for the Solar System.

Later, one of the main promoters and defenders of the catastrophizing theory was the French paleontologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).

Cuvier claimed that the most significant geological and biological changes on Earth were not due to slow and gradual processes (like many other natural phenomena), but to sudden, sudden and violent processes; catastrophic, in short.

Cuvier influenced a good part of his positions with creationist and even biblical theories, which gives the theory of catastrophism a great religious imprint, since it takes biblical events such as the Great Flood and Noah's Ark as a reference as justification for the presence of certain fossils discovered, for example.

The Church, eventually, would take advantage of that unification between the scientific and religious character that would adopt the theories of catastrophism for its own benefit and use it as a basis to provide greater truth to its own biblical statements.

The foundations that Cuvier laid with the theory of catastrophism allowed us to advance, giving rise to uniformism, a paradigm that would give rise to modern geology as a professional science.

Based on this new theory, it was possible to verify that the conditions of the Earth have evolved over time, and the changes have not been due only to violent and catastrophic phenomena.

Characteristics of the catastrophizing theory

Cuvier affirmed that the natural events of greater magnitude and destructive capacity were those responsible for generating the most notable physical changes on Earth, as well as having a great influence on the presence of animal and plant species throughout Prehistory and History.

In this way, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and other catastrophic geological and meteorological phenomena would be the main responsible for these changes.

At present, it has been possible to determine the influence that, for example, volcanic eruptions have on adjacent ecosystems, and their ability to "restart" on soils and vegetation.

However, other phenomena such as tornadoes and even earthquakes (depending on their magnitude), may not be strong enough to cause really considerable changes.

Perhaps one of the few phenomena resolved through catastrophism was the extinction of the dinosaurs due to a sudden and highly violent event, such as a meteorite.

Religious implications

The theory of catastrophism is a paradigm highly permeated by ecclesiastical and biblical influence. By the time of its public manifestation, the Church had great power over academic research.

Cuvier perceived a certain relationship between some phenomena of creationist theory and its catastrophic postulates, which he was in charge of comparing, allowing one to provide the other's answers.

For this reason, stories such as Noah's Ark take place in the theory of catastrophism as a justification for the presence of certain species and the extinction and fossilization of others. The Church took advantage of this to shield some of its most incredible stories with scientific support.

New notions about terrestrial antiquity

Catastrophism was one of many attempts to determine the age of the Earth and, perhaps, the reason for its location in the galaxy and the universe, as well as its unique conditions for supporting life.

Like any good paradigm, although it could not be maintained over time, catastrophism served to give way to new perspectives on geological knowledge and modernize the processes of terrestrial study and reflection.

This would occur with the appearance of uniformitarianism or actualism, promoted by Hutton in 1788 in his "Theory about the Earth", which would establish that the major earth changes have been gradual over time and not subject to a few severe events.

New implications

With the passage of time, catastrophic approaches have been renewed, giving rise to a paradigm known as neocatastrophism, which seeks to establish the relationship between catastrophic events (previously seen as the main cause of changes) in the gradual changing process. from the earth.

This new perception is professionally worked and adds to modern geological efforts to continue deciphering the unknowns of the Earth.

References

1. Brown, HE, Monnett, VE, & Stovall, JW (1958). Introduction to Geology. New York: Blaisdell Editors.
2. Bryson, B. (2008). A short history of almost everything. Barcelona: RBA Books.
3. Palmer, T. (1994). Catastrophism, Neocatastrophism and Evolution. Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in association with Nottingham Trent University.
4. Pedrinaci, E. (1992). Catastrophism versus actualism. Didactic implications. Science Teaching, 216-222.
5. Rieznik, P. (2007). In defense of catastrophism. V International Marx and Engels Colloquium. Buenos Aires: Center for Marxist Studies.