skunkbear: Here’s a fun story: the ghost island of 1831! It was given various names by the many men who claimed it – “Julia,” “Ferdinandea,” “Graham Island.” When it disappeared, those men mostly forgot about it. But Charles Lyell, a good friend and colleague

skunkbear:

Here’s a fun story: the ghost island of 1831! It was given various names by the many men who claimed it – “Julia,” “Ferdinandea,” “Graham Island.” When it disappeared, those men mostly forgot about it. 

But Charles Lyell, a good friend and colleague of Charles Darwin, was really excited about the island. He saw this underwater volcano as evidence of this theory of geologic uniformitarianism (the idea that the forces we see at work in the world today have always been shaping the world) and wrote about it the second volume of his major work. It was called Principles of Geology: being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth’s surface, by reference to causes now in operation.

You can learn more about lava (and see this story fully animated) in Skunk Bear’s latest video: THE LAVA AFFAIR.