James Hutton - founder of geology
James Hutton (1726–1797), a Scottish farmer and naturalist, is regarded as the founder of modern geology. Above all. he was a great observer of the world around him, but more importantly, he then proceeded to make carefully reasoned geological arguments from the phenomena that he had observed. As a result of this Hutton came to believe that the Earth was undergoing a perpetual process of formation and destruction; for example, that molten material is forced up into mountains, eroded, and then the sediments are washed away. He also argued that the forces visible in the present day are much the same as they were in the past and that therefore the history of the Earth could be determined by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the present day. These ideas and and his approach to studying the Earth established geology as a proper science.