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{{Short description|Concept of geologic time}}
{{otherOther uses}}
'''Deep time''' is the concept of [[Geologic time scale|geologic time]]. The philosophical concept of deep time was developed in the 18th century by [[Scottish people|Scottish]] geologist [[James Hutton]] (1726–1797);{{sfn|Palmer|Zen}}{{sfn|Kubicek|2008}} his "system of the habitable Earth" was a [[deism|deistic]] mechanism keeping the world would eternally suitable for humans.<ref name="Rudwick68">{{cite book|author=M. J. S. Rudwick|title=Earth's Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYyRBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|date=15 October 2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-20393-5|pages=68–70}}</ref> The modern concept shows huge changes over the [[age of the Earth]] which has been determined to be, after a long and complex history of developments, around 4.55&nbsp;billion years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-science-figured-out-the-age-of-the-earth/|title=How Science Figured Out the Age of Earth|last=Braterman|first=Paul S.|website=Scientific American|access-date=2016-04-17}}</ref>
 
'''Deep time''' is a term introduced and applied by [[John McPhee]] to the concept of [[Geologic time scale|geologic time]] in his book ''[[Annals of the Former World|Basin and Range]]'' (1981), parts of which originally appeared in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine.{{sfn|McPhee|1998|p=77}}
==Scientific concept==
'''Deep time''' is the concept of [[Geologic time scale|geologic time]]. The philosophical concept of deepgeological time was developed in the 18th century by [[Scottish people|Scottish]] geologist [[James Hutton]] (1726–1797);{{sfn|Palmer|Zen}}{{sfn|Kubicek|2008}} his "system of the habitable Earth" was a [[deism|deistic]] mechanism keeping the world would eternally suitable for humans.<ref name="Rudwick68">{{cite book|author=M. J. S. Rudwick|title=Earth's Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYyRBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|date=15 October 2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-20393-5|pages=68–70}}</ref> The modern concept showsentails huge changes over the [[age of the Earth]] which has been determined to be, after a long and complex history of developments, around 4.55&nbsp;billion years.<ref>{{Cite webnews|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-science-figured-out-the-age-of-the-earth/|title=How Science Figured Out the Age of Earth|last=Braterman|first=Paul S.|websitework=Scientific American|access-date=2016-04-17}}</ref>
 
== Concept ==
{{Life timeline}}
James Hutton based his view of deep time on a form of geochemistry that had developed in Scotland and Scandinavia from the 1750s onward.<ref>{{cite book |last = Eddy |first = Matthew Daniel |title = The Language of Mineralogy: John Walker, Chemistry and the Edinburgh Medical School 1750-18001750–1800 |date = 2008 |publisher = [[Ashgate Publishing]] |location = London |page = Ch. 5 |url = https://www.academia.edu/1112014/The_Language_of_Mineralogy_John_Walker_Chemistry_and_the_Edinburgh_Medical_School_1750-1800_2008_}}</ref> As [[mathematician]] [[John Playfair]], one of Hutton's friends and colleagues in the [[Scottish Enlightenment]], remarked upon seeing the [[stratum|strata]] of the [[Unconformity|angular unconformity]] at [[Siccar Point]] with Hutton and [[Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet|James Hall]] in June 1788, "the mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time".{{sfn|Playfair|1805}}<ref>{{cite book |last= McPhee |first= John |date= 1981 |title= Book 1: Basin and Range, in [[Annals of the Former World]] |url= |location= New York |publisher= [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |page= [https://archive.org/details/annalsofformerwo00mcph/page/79 79] |isbn= 0-374-10520-0 |author-link= John McPhee }}</ref>
 
Early [[geologists]] such as [[Nicolas Steno]] (1638-1686) and [[Horace- Bénédict de Saussure]] (1740-1799) had developed ideas of [[Stratum|geological strata]] forming from water through chemical processes, which [[Abraham Gottlob Werner]] (1749–1817) developed into a theory known as [[Neptunism]], envisaging the slow crystallisation of minerals in the ancient oceans of the Earth to form [[rock (geology)|rock]]. Hutton's innovative 1785 theory, based on [[Plutonism]], visualised an endless cyclical process of rocks forming under the sea, being uplifted and tilted, then eroded to form new strata under the sea. In 1788 the sight of [[Hutton's Unconformity]] at Siccar Point convinced Playfair and Hall of this extremely slow cycle, and in that same year Hutton memorably wrote "we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end".{{sfn|Montgomery|2003}}{{sfn|Rance|1999}}
 
Other scientists such as [[Georges Cuvier]] (1769-1832) put forward ideas of past ages, and geologists such as [[Adam Sedgwick]] (1785-1873) incorporated Werner's ideas into concepts of [[catastrophism]]; Sedgwick inspired his university student [[Charles Darwin]] to exclaim "What a capital hand is Sedgewick [sic] for drawing large cheques upon the Bank of Time!".{{sfn|Darwin|1831}} In a competing theory, [[Charles Lyell]] in his ''Principles of Geology'' (1830–1833) developed Hutton's comprehension of endless deep time as a crucial [[Science|scientific]] concept into [[uniformitarianism]]. As a young [[Natural history|naturalist]] and geological theorist, Darwin studied the successive volumes of Lyell's book exhaustively during the [[Second voyage of HMS Beagle|''Beagle'' survey voyage]] in the 1830s, before beginning to theorise about [[evolution]].
 
[[Physicist]] [[Gregory Benford]] addresses the concept in ''Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia'' (1999), as does [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' editor [[Henry Gee]] in ''In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life'' (2001){{sfn|Korthof|2000}}{{sfn|Campbell|2001}} [[Stephen Jay Gould]]'s ''[[Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle]]'' (1987) also deals in large part with the evolution of the concept.
 
[[John McPhee]] discussed "deep time" at length with the layperson in mind in ''Basin and Range'' (1981), parts of which originally appeared in the ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' magazine.{{sfn|McPhee|1998|p=77}} In ''Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle'', Gould cited one of the metaphors McPhee used in explaining the concept of deep time:
 
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[[File:Nature_timespiral_vertical_layout.png|thumb|300px|In this illustration of the [[Big History]] the unit [[Billion years|Ga ("giga-annum")]] has been chosen to bring the different periods and events into graspable numbers.]]
Concepts similar to geologic time were recognized in the 11th century by the [[Islamic geography|Persian geologist]] and [[polymath]] [[Avicenna]] (Ibn Sina, 973–1037),{{sfn|Toulmin|Goodfield|1965|p=64}} and by the [[History of science and technology in China|Chinese naturalist]] and polymath [[Shen Kuo]] (1031–1095).{{sfn|Sivin|1995|pp=iii,23-24}}
TheConcepts similar to geologic time were recognized in the 11th century by the [[RomanGeography Catholicand cartography in the medieval Islamic world|Persian geologist]] and polymath [[theologianAvicenna]],{{sfn|Toulmin|Goodfield|1965|p=64}} and by the [[ThomasHistory Berryof science and technology in China|Chinese naturalist]] (1914–2009)and exploredpolymath [[spiritualityShen Kuo]].{{sfn|spiritualSivin|1995|pp=iii,23-24}} The [[Roman Catholic]] theologian [[Thomas Berry]] explored spiritual implications of the concept of deep time. Berry proposes that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. This view has greatly influenced the development of [[deep ecology]] and [[Ecosophy|ecophilosophy]]. The experiential nature of the experience of deep time has also greatly influenced the work of [[Joanna Macy]].
 
[[H. G. Wells]] and [[Julian Huxley]] regarded the difficulties of coping with the concept of deep time as exaggerated:
The [[Roman Catholic]] [[theologian]] [[Thomas Berry]] (1914–2009) explored [[spirituality|spiritual]] implications of the concept of deep time. Berry proposes that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. This view has greatly influenced the development of [[deep ecology]] and [[ecophilosophy]]. The experiential nature of the experience of deep time has also greatly influenced the work of [[Joanna Macy]].
 
<blockquote>"The use of different scales is simply a matter of practice"," they said in ''[[The Science of Life]]'' (1929). "We very soon get used to maps, though they are constructed on scales down to a hundred-millionth of natural size. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. to grasp geological time all that is needed is to stick tight to some magnitude which shall be the unit on the new and magnified scale—a million years is probably the most convenient—to grasp its meaning once and for all by an effort of imagination, and then to think of all passage of geological time in terms of this unit."<ref>H. G. Wells, Julian S. Huxley, and G. P. Wells, ''The Science of Life'' (New York: The Literary Guild, 1934; orig. publ. 1929), p. 326.</ref></blockquote>
[[H.G. Wells]] and [[Julian Huxley]] regarded the difficulties of coping with the concept of deep time as exaggerated:
 
== See also ==
<blockquote>
"The use of different scales is simply a matter of practice", they said in ''[[The Science of Life]]'' (1929). "We very soon get used to maps, though they are constructed on scales down to a hundred-millionth of natural size. .&nbsp;.&nbsp; to grasp geological time all that is needed is to stick tight to some magnitude which shall be the unit on the new and magnified scale—a million years is probably the most convenient—to grasp its meaning once and for all by an effort of imagination, and then to think of all passage of geological time in terms of this unit."<ref>
H.G. Wells, Julian S. Huxley, and G.P. Wells, ''The Science of Life'' (New York: The Literary Guild, 1934; orig. publ. 1929), p. 326.
</ref>
</blockquote>
 
* {{annotated link|Timeline of human evolution}}
==See also==
* {{annotated link|History of life}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Big{{annotated link|History]] of Earth}}
* {{annotated link|Big History}}
* [[Deep history]]
* [[Clock{{annotated link|Chronology of the Long Now]]Universe}}
* {{annotated link|Clock of the Long Now}}
* [[General relativity]]
* [[{{annotated link|Deep history]]}}
* [[Geomorphology]]
* {{annotated link|Formation of the Solar System}}
* [[Orders of magnitude (time)]]
* {{annotated link|Long-term nuclear waste warning messages}}
* [[Palaeoarchaeology]]
* ''[[{{annotated link|The World Without Us]]'', a non-fiction book by [[Alan Weisman]].}}
{{div col end}}
 
== Notes and references ==
==Footnotes==
{{reflist|30em}}
 
==References Sources ==
;=== Web ===
* {{cite web |url= http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/bookreviews/r/gee.html |title= Book review: ''In Search of Deep Time'' |authorlinkauthor-link= Anthony Campbell (physician) |first= Anthony |last= Campbell |year= 2001 |refaccess-date=harv 2006-11-17 |archive-date= 2007-01-02 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070102025927/http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/bookreviews/r/gee.html |url-status= dead }}
* {{cite web|last=Darwin|first=C. R.|url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-101.html|title=Darwin Correspondence Project - Letter 101 — Darwin, C. R. to Fox, W. D., (9 July 1831)|date=1831-07-09|ref=harv|access-date=26 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116035539/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-101.html|archive-date=16 January 2009|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web |url= http://wasdarwinwrong.com/kortho49.htm |title= A Revolution in Palaeontology: Review of Henry Gee's ''In Search of Deep Time'' |authorlinkauthor-link= Gert Korthof |first=Gert |last=Korthof|year= 2000|ref=harv}}
* {{cite web |url=http://nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/Montgomery_v51n5.pdf |title=Siccar Point and Teaching the History of Geology |accessdateaccess-date=2008-03-26 |first=Keith|last= Montgomery |year=2003 |format=pdf |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin]] |ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal |url= http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustain2.htm |title= The Context of Humanity: Understanding Deep Time |firstfirst1=A. R. |lastlast1=Palmer |first2=E-an |last2=Zen |editor= Critical Issues Committee |journal=[[Geological Society of America]] |year=|ref=harv }}
* {{cite web |url= http://geowords.com/histbookpdf/a22.pdf |title= Hutton's unconformities |first= Hugh |last= Rance |year= 1999 |format= pdf |work= Historical Geology: The Present is the Key to the Past |publisher= QCC Press |accessdateaccess-date= 2008-10-20 |ref= harv |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081203173042/http://www.geowords.com/histbookpdf/a22.pdf |archive-date= 2008-12-03 |url-status= dead }}
 
;Books
=== Books ===
*{{cite book|last=McPhee|first=John|title =[[Annals of the Former World]]|chapter=Basin and Range|year=1998|isbn=0-374-10520-0| origyear= 1981|page=77|ref=harv|authorlink=John McPhee}}
* {{cite book|firstlast=Jack Ialenti|lastfirst=RepcheckVincent|title =Deep TheTime Man Who Found TimeReckoning: [[JamesHow Hutton]]Future andThinking theCan Discovery of theHelp Earth's AntiquityNow|chapterurl=Chapters 2 and 5 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/deep-time-reckoning|location= [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] |publisher=[[PerseusThe MIT Press Books]]|year=2003|isbn=0-7382-0692-X|ref=harv2020}}
* {{cite book |last=McPhee |first=John |date=1998 |title=Annals of the Former World |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux}} <!-- as it appears in book but apparently invalid |isbn=0-347-10520-0 -->
*Rossi, Paolo (1984). ''The Dark Abyss of Time: The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico'', tr. by Lydia Cochrane, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.&nbsp;338, {{ISBN|0226728358}}.
* {{cite book | last = Sivin | first = NathanJack | authorlink last= Nathan SivinRepcheck | title =The ScienceMan inWho AncientFound ChinaTime: ResearchesJames Hutton and Reflectionsthe |Discovery publisherof =the AshgateEarth's Publishing [[Variorum]] seriesAntiquity |chapter=Chapters year2 =and 19955 | location = [[BrookfieldCambridge, VermontMassachusetts|Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Perseus pagesBooks]] |year= III, 23–242003 | refisbn=harv 0-7382-0692-X}}
* Rossi, Paolo (1984). ''The Dark Abyss of Time: The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico'', tr. by Lydia Cochrane, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.&nbsp;338, {{ISBN|0226728358}}.
*{{cite book|authorlink=Stephen Toulmin |authorlink2=June Goodfield|first=Stephen |last=Toulmin|first2=June |last2= Goodfield |year=1965|title= The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time| page=64 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book | last = Sivin | first = Nathan | author-link = Nathan Sivin | title = Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections | publisher = Ashgate Publishing [[Variorum]] series | year = 1995 | location = [[Brookfield, Vermont]] | pages = III, 23–24 }}
*{{cite book|last=White|first=Andrew Dickson|authorlink=Andrew Dickson White|title=A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom|url= http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/andrew_white/Chapter5.html|location= [[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]]|year=1896|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|authorlinkauthor-link=Stephen Toulmin |authorlink2author-link2=June Goodfield|firstfirst1=Stephen |lastlast1=Toulmin|first2=June |last2= Goodfield |year=1965|title= The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time| page=64 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|ref=harv}}
*{{cite book|last=Winchester|first=Simon |authorlink= Simon Winchester|title= [[The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology]]|chapter = Chapter 2 |location=[[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2001|isbn=0-06-019361-1|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|last=White|first=Andrew Dickson|authorlinkauthor-link=Andrew Dickson White|title=A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom|url= http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/andrew_white/Chapter5.html|location= [[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]] |year=1896|ref=harv}}
;Journals
* {{cite book|last=Winchester|first=Simon |authorlinkauthor-link= Simon Winchester|title= [[The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology]]|chapter = Chapter 2 |location=[[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2001|isbn=0-06-019361-1|reftitle-link=harvThe Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology }}
*{{cite journal|last1=Ialenti|first1=Vincent|date=|title=Adjudicating Deep Time: Revisiting The United States’ High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Project At Yucca Mountain|journal=Science & Technology Studies|volume=27|issue=2|pages=|via=|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457896}}
 
*{{cite journal |title= Ages in Chaos: James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time |last=Kubicek |first=Robert |journal= [[The Historian (journal)|The Historian]]|volume=70| issue=1|isbn=0-7653-1238-7 |date= 2008-03-01|pages=142–143 |ref=harv}}
;=== Journals ===
*{{cite journal |title= Hutton's Unconformity |first=John|last=Playfair|journal= Transactions of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]|volume= V |issue=III|year=1805|ref=harv}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Ialenti|first1=Vincent|date=|title=Adjudicating Deep Time: Revisiting The United States’States' High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Project At Yucca Mountain|journal=Science & Technology Studies|year=2014|volume=27|issue=2|pagesdoi=|via=|url=https:/10.23987/paperssts.55323 |ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457896|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal |title= Ages in Chaos: James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time |last=Kubicek |first=Robert |journal= [[The Historian (journal)|The Historian]] |volume=70| |issue=1 |isbn=978-0-7653-1238-79 |date= 2008-03-01 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/agesinchaosjames0000unse/page/142 142–143] |refurl=harvhttps://archive.org/details/agesinchaosjames0000unse/page/142 }}
* {{cite journal |title= Hutton's Unconformity |first=John|last=Playfair|journal= Transactions of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]|volume= V |issue=III|year=1805|ref=harv}}
 
== External links ==
* [https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201209-the-benefits-of-embracing-deep-time-in-a-year-like-2020 "The benefits of embracing 'deep time' in a year like 2020" (Vincent Ialenti)]—[[BBC Future]].
* [http://www.chronozoomprojectchronozoom.com/ ChronoZoom] is a timeline for Big History being developed for the [[International Big History Association]] by [[Microsoft Research]] and [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/low_bandwidth.html Deep Time] in [[Evolution (TV series)|''[[Evolution'' (TV series)]].'' Note: thisThis [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]/[[WGBH-TV|WGBH]] website advises [[AdobeFlash Player]] and [[Shockwave|shockwave Player]] requiredinstallation.
*[http://deeptime.info/ Deep Time - A History of the Earth : Interactive Infographic]
* [http://wwwdeeptime.deeptimewalk.org/kitinfo/app Deep Time Walk App - A new storyHistory of the living Earth: Interactive Walking ExperienceInfographic]
* [http://www.deeptimewalk.org/kit/app Deep Time Walk App – A new story of the living Earth: Interactive Walking Experience]
*[https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/09/28/351692717/embracing-deep-time-thinking "Embracing 'Deep Time' Thinking" (Vincent Ialenti)] NPR Cosmos & Culture.
* [https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/09/2128/350344129351692717/ponderingembracing-deep-time-could-inspire-new-ways-to-view-climate-changethinking "PonderingEmbracing 'Deep Time' Could Inspire New Ways To View Climate ChangeThinking" (Vincent Ialenti)] NPR Cosmos & Culture.
* [https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/09/2821/351692717350344129/embracingpondering-deep-time-thinkingcould-inspire-new-ways-to-view-climate-change "EmbracingPondering 'Deep Time' ThinkingCould Inspire New Ways to View Climate Change" (Vincent Ialenti)] NPR Cosmos & Culture.
 
{{Time Topics}}
{{Chronology}}
{{Big History}}
{{Authority control}}
 
[[Category:Evolution]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deep Time}}
[[Category:Geochronology]]
[[Category:Historical geology]]
[[Category:History of Earth science]]
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[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:1981 neologisms]]