Uniformitarianism is an most important unifying concepts in the geosciences.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, in the study of Earth, uniformitarianism's theory suggest that Earth’s geologic processes acted in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity in the past as they do in the present and that such uniformity is sufficient to account for all geologic change. This principle is fundamental to geologic thinking and underlies the whole development of the science of geology.
First known use of the term uniformitarianism was in 1832 by William Whewell, a University of Cambridge scholar. Before it was introduced, the prevailing view (called catastrophism) was that Earth had originated through supernatural means and had been affected by a series of catastrophic events such as the biblical Flood. In contrast to catastrophism, uniformitarianism postulates that phenomena displayed in rocks may be entirely accounted for by geologic processes that continue to operate—in other words, the present is the key to the past.
Today, most theories of landscape evolution use the concept of uniformitarianism to describe how the various landforms of the Earth came to be.
Learn more about the concept of uniformitarianism at Encyclopædia Britannica.
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