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Darwin Correspondence Project

Geology

Darwin's work on species shows many marks of his geological training. While he was attached to the Beagle from 1831 to 1836, Darwin actually spent about two-thirds of his time ashore, where geology was his single most frequent pursuit. After his return, he published three books on geology and developed a major theory of crustal uplift and subsidence which became the basis of an innovative explanation for the origin of coral reefs.  Geology provided the long time span needed for a slowly acting process like natural selection to work, and tools for the reconstruction of processes operating in the distant past.  In the last book published during his life, Darwin returned to geological studies by studying the action of worms, demonstrating the profound impact that these seemingly insignificant creatures had in the economy of nature.


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Adam Sedgwick
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw40351/Adam-Sedgwick?
Adam Sedgwick by Samuel Cousins, after Thomas Phillips mezzotint, published 1833, NPG D5929Adam Sedgwick by Samuel Cousins, after Thomas Phillips mezzotint, published 1833, NPG D5929
mw40351
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Darwin’s introduction to geology

Darwin collected minerals as a child and was introduced to the science of geology at the University of Edinburgh, but he only became actively interested in the subject as he was completing his degree at Cambridge.

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A correct globe with the new discoveries, ca 1775
https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ORCS-00001-00001/1
A correct globe with the new discoveries, ca 1775
ORCS.1.01
Cambridge University Library

How old is the earth?

One of Darwin’s chief difficulties in making converts to his views, was convincing a sceptical public, and some equally sceptical physicists, that there had been enough time since the advent of life on earth for the slow process of natural selection to have produced the plants and animals they saw around them.

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One of Darwin's annotated geological drawings
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-00050/95
One of Darwin's annotated geological drawings
CUL DAR 50: C9
Cambridge University Library

Darwin & Geology

The lessons Darwin learned from Adam Sedgwick at Cambridge, and in the field in North Wales, stood him in good stead during the Beagle voyage. While he was attached to the Beagle from 1831 to 1835, Darwin actually spent about two-thirds of his time ashore, where geology was his single most frequent pursuit. From the Beagle‘s first landfall at the Cape Verde islands, to the heights of the Andes, and the coral reefs of the Pacific, Darwin’s notes on geology accumulated twice as fast as those on zoology and botany combined.

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Volcano of Osorno, from Chiloé
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-07984/35
The volcano of Mt Osorno, Chile, from a contemporary sketch by the Beagle’s artist, Conrad Martens
CUL Add. 7984
Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s earthquakes

Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of violent natural events that they were perfectly placed to study.

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Charles Lyell
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-00157-A/187
Charles Lyell
CUL DAR 157a: 107
Cambridge University Library

Darwin & the Geological Society

The science of geology in the early nineteenth century was a relatively new enterprise forged from the merging of several distinct traditions of inquiry, from mineralogy and the very practical business of mining, to theories of the earth’s origin and the study of its inhabitants through the fossil record.  When Darwin arrived in London in 1836 after the Beagle voyage, he found a thriving collective enterprise centred on the regular evening meetings of the Geological Society at Somerset House.  Darwin’s reputation preceded him at the society as his former geology teacher,

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Darwin’s hand-coloured geological map of islands off the South American coast
Darwin’s hand-coloured geological map of islands off the South American coast
CUL DAR 44: 13
Cambridge University Library

The geology of the Beagle voyage

The primary concern that linked much of Darwin’s geological work in the Beagle years was to understand the changing relation between the levels of land and sea. As he studied the shores of South America, and discovered shells inland at thousands of feet above sea level, he became convinced that the continent had been gradually uplifted.  His conviction was strengthened in February 1835, when he was witness to an earthquake that raised the harbour at Concepcion, Chile, several feet out of the Pacific Ocean. He went on to argue that coral atolls were formed when islands in the tropical ocean gradually sank, in the reverse of the process that raised South America.  Find out more about Darwin's geological discoveries here.

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Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy
https://archive.org/stream/philtrans01825665/01825665#page/n45/mode/2up
Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy
Archive.org/Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

Darwin & Glen Roy

Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology.  In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled to the Scottish Highlands to study the so-called parallel roads of Glen Roy.

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Darwin’s hand-coloured cross-sectional view of the reef at Cocos (Keeling) atoll
Darwin’s hand-coloured cross-sectional view of the reef at Cocos (Keeling) atoll
CUL DAR 44: 24
Cambridge University Library

Darwin & coral reefs

The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself have ensured his place as a scientific thinker. Explore the genesis of his theory during the voyage of HMS Beagle.

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Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
CUL DAR 257: 114
Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles

Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and finally a comprehensive taxonomical study of the entire group. Despite struggling with a recurrent illness, he continued to write on geologicy, and published notes on the use of microscopes.  Three more children, Elizabeth, Francis, and Leonard, were born during this period, but the death of Darwin's father in 1848 left the family well-provided for.  

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Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker, from the portrait by George Richmond, 1855
CUL 456.c.91.891
Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network

The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society, travelling often to London and elsewhere to attend meetings and confer with colleagues, including the man who was to become his closest friend, Joseph Dalton Hooker. Down House was altered and extended to accommodate Darwin’s growing family; and, with his father’s advice, Darwin began a series of judicious financial investments to ensure a comfortable future for all those under his care.

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