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Darwin's Geology editorial Darwin’s geology The Charles Darwin bicentennial celebrates the man who recognized natural selection and changed the world’s views on evolution. However, his contributions to geology should not be overlooked. 12 February marks the 200th anniversary a principle that later became known as coral reefs that seem to rise from the deep of the birth of Charles Darwin. As the uniformitarianism. At the time, this was ocean. Prevailing theory at the time held world prepares to celebrate Darwin in stark contrast to geological theory that that the atolls were formed as corals took Day and the 150th anniversary of the called for sudden, catastrophic events, root and grew on undersea craters. Yet in publication of On the Origin of Species unlike any ever witnessed, able all his travels, Darwin never encountered in October, attention is — quite to immediately flood oceans or anything that could explain the presence rightly — focused on Darwin’s contributions raise mountains. of such large and oddly shaped craters to our understanding of evolution and Darwin’s letters to his mentor throughout the oceans. life on Earth. However, given the focus John Stevens Henslow, a professor of Instead, Darwin looked to the of Nature Geoscience, we would like to botany at Cambridge University, were low-lying islands fringed by coral reefs, note that Darwin also contributed to our later read to the Cambridge Philosophical such as those in the Maldives. He heard understanding of geology. Society, and described his observations stories from the residents of islands lost Darwin, like many intellectuals of of ongoing uplift in the Andes, as well through earthquakes and erosion. He his era, was well versed in a variety of as interpretations of tilting and igneous proposed that as low-lying islands sink natural sciences, as well as in medicine activity. Darwin took extensive notes into the sea, coral reefs that fringe the and theology. When he set forth on his on the active geology of South America island grow upward, eventually nearing first voyage aboard theHMS Beagle, and went on to publish three books on the surface. After some time, the island he was armed with Charles Lyell’s the subject (all of which preceded his would be lost, but the reefs remain, contentious book Principles of Geology, as publications on evolution). This early continuing to compensate relative sea level well as his specimen collecting equipment geological work already showed Darwin as rise by their growth. Many of Darwin’s (S. Herbert, Charles Darwin, Geologist, an independent thinker unimpressed by geological theories, along with those of his Cornell Univ. Press; 2005). The Beagle’s majority opinion, a quality much needed contemporaries, were superseded by plate voyage took him to landscapes that for his later, much more provocative tectonics. However, his work on coral reefs naturally posed geological questions. publications on evolution. still stands. In one instance, he encountered a band The lush fauna and the shapes As he travelled the world, collected of rocks, high in the cliffs of Santiago, and formations of coral reefs held a fossils and observed the fauna and flora Cape Verde, that was well above sea particular fascination for Darwin. One around him, Darwin never neglected to level, yet full of marine fossils. As the of his earliest publications was entitled note and seek to understand the geology of journey continued, Darwin’s accumulating The Structure and Distribution of Coral his destinations. We at Nature Geoscience observations led him to support Lyell’s Reefs (Smith Elder; 1842). The manuscript are pleased to draw some of the attention theory that the Earth’s surface was describes the coral atolls he encountered that is being bestowed on this great man in shaped largely by the gradual changes throughout the Pacific Ocean. Atolls are his double-anniversary year to his interest that were observed occurring at present, shallow lagoons surrounded by large and achievements in geology. ❐ o.com / Vold77 o.com T ockpho T iS NATURE nature geoscience | VOL 2 | FEBRUARY 2009 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience 81 © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
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