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Charles Lyell: Sir Charles Lyell
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Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a British geologist. In his Principles of Geology (3 volumes, 1830-33), Lyell conclusively showed that the earth was very old and had changed its form slowly, mainly from conditions such as erosion. Lyell was able to date the ages of rocks by using fossils embedded in the stone as time indicators. Charles Darwin made use of Lyell's data on fossils for his theory of evolution. Lyell himself had believed that the various species of plants and animals had remained unchanged since they were created. When confronted with Darwin's findings, he admitted "I now realize I have been looking down the wrong road."
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In 1847, eminent British geomorphologist Sir Charles Lyell made a second trip to the United States. His itinerary carried him from the Fall Line in South Carolina to the deep south of Alabama. As he travelled through Georgia, he stopped in Baldwin County and observed the agriculture where the original oak-hickory-beech forests of the area had been cleared for production of cotton, and subsistence crops. Although extensive farming practices had been in effect for only three-to-four decades, Lyell noted that severe erosion was occuring in these soils. Lyell published a wood-cut of a large gully (Figure 1), subsequently referred to as “Lyell’s Gully”, that had formed in less than 20 years (Lyell, 1849). Ninety years later, H. Andrew Ireland (1939), an associate geologist with the soil conservaton service, re-exaimend Lyell’s Gully by comparing Lyell’s wood-cut print with survey data and field observations.
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Born at Kinnordy House, near Kirriemuir on 14th November 1797, Sir Charles Lyell is perhaps the most significant figure ever born in Angus. Within his chosen subject of geology he was hugely influential and his encouragement of Charles Darwin helped lay the groundwork for evolutionary biology.
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Sir Charles Lyell was born in Scotland on November 12, 1797. He studied at Oxford University. After graduation he traveled throughout Europe observing geological formations. Later he traveled to the United States of America and continued his field work.
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The Lyell Medal, established in 1875 under the will of Sir Charles Lyell, is cast in bronze and is to be awarded annually (or from time to time) by the Council of the Geological Society. The medallist may be of any country or either sex. Not less than one-third of the annual interest of a sum of £2000 is to be awarded with the medal; the remaining interest, known as the Lyell Geological Fund, is to be given in one or more portions at the discretion of the Council for the encouragement of geological science.
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SIR CHARLES LYELL was born near Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, Scotland, on November 14, 1797. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, in 1819, and proceeded to the study of law. Although he practised for a short time, he was much hampered in this profession, as in all his work, by weak eyesight; and after the age of thirty he devoted himself chiefly to science.
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Sir Charles Lyell