Siccar Point | Hutton’s Unconformity | Scotland

Not far from Edinburgh, Siccar Point is a rocky promontory that has become a place of pilgrimage for geologists from across the globe. James Hutton, father of modern geology, visited Siccar Point by boat in 1788, an event which led to a profound change in the way the history of the Earth was understood. A man ahead of his time, James Hutton used the evidence from Siccar Point to decode Earth processes and to argue for a much greater length of geological time than was popularly accepted. As John Playfair later recorded of their visit “The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time”. A concept of ‘deep time’ emerged with the recognition that the geological processes occurring around us today have operated over a long period and will continue to do so into the future. James Hutton found the decisive evidence he sought for his Theory of the Earth, Hutton’s Unconformity, the never-ending cycles of creation and destruction that shape our landscape today. Hutton’s theory overturned the last vestiges of the Biblical account of a world shaped by the receding waters of a universal flood. Controversial in its day, Hutton’s work is now a foundation stone in the science of geology. You can visit Siccar Point today, and see the spectacular junction between two distinctive types of rock, just as Hutton himself found it. Client: Dynamic Earth / Juniper Leaf Education Production & Post: Play North Music: Kai Engel | Marée | Brume