The name given to a late 18th-, early 19th-century theory of geology that proclaimed the aqueous creation of all rocks; this theory was opposed to Plutonism or Vulcanism, which argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin. The disagreement between the two schools of thought was one of the great geological arguments of the day. The name “Neptunism was taken from the ancient Roman god of water and of the sea, Neptune; Pluto was the Greek god of Hades, the underworld, and Vulcan was an early Roman deity a fire god associated with volcanoes.
The geologist who founded the Neptunist school was Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817), a lecturer at Freiberg School of Mining. He taught that Earth was originally an irregular solid body covered completely with a heavy, saturated water solution. Over time, solids precipitated out of the water in regular succession. First came the primitive rocks such as granite and gneiss, then the transition rocks such as slates and some limestones, and Anally the recent rocks such as sandstone and other types of limestone. As the water lost its chemical content, it gradually became the salty oceans that we know today. In this scenario volcanoes were local phenomena caused by burning coal seams, and there was no theory concerning Earth’s inner heat.
The name given to a late 18th-, early 19th-century theory of geology that proclaimed the aqueous creation of all rocks; this theory was opposed to Plutonism or Vulcanism, which argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin. The disagreement between the two schools of thought was one of the great geological arguments of the day. The name “Neptunism was taken from the ancient Roman god of water and of the sea, Neptune; Pluto was the Greek god of Hades, the underworld, and Vulcan was an early Roman deity a fire god associated with volcanoes.
The geologist who founded the Neptunist school was Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817), a lecturer at Freiberg School of Mining. He taught that Earth was originally an irregular solid body covered completely with a heavy, saturated water solution. Over time, solids precipitated out of the water in regular succession. First came the primitive rocks such as granite and gneiss, then the transition rocks such as slates and some limestones, and finally the recent rocks such as sandstone and other types of limestone. As the water lost its chemical content, it gradually became the salty oceans that we know today. In this scenario volcanoes were local phenomena caused by burning coal seams, and there was no theory concerning Earth’s inner heat.