Posted on Jul 4, 2020
James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology | AMNH
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On July 4, 1785, James Hutton, geologist, publicly read an abstract of his Theory of Uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. From the article:
"James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology | AMNH
James Hutton (1726–1797), a Scottish farmer and naturalist, is known as the founder of modern geology. He was a great observer of the world around him. More importantly, he made carefully reasoned geological arguments. Hutton came to believe that the Earth was perpetually being formed; for example, molten material is forced up into mountains, eroded, and then eroded sediments are washed away. He recognized that the history of the Earth could be determined by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the present day. His ideas and approach to studying the Earth established geology as a proper science.
In the late eighteenth century, when Hutton was carefully examining the rocks, it was generally believed that Earth had come into creation only around six thousand years earlier (on October 22, 4004 B.C., to be precise, according to the seventeenth century scholarly analysis of the Bible by Archbishop James Ussher of Ireland), and that fossils were the remains of animals that had perished during the Biblical flood. As for the structure of the Earth, “natural philosophers” agreed that much bedrock consisted of long, parallel layers which occurred at various angles, and that sediments deposited by water were compressed to form stone. Hutton perceived that this sedimentation takes place so slowly that even the oldest rocks are made up of, in his words, “materials furnished from the ruins of former continents.” The reverse process occurs when rock exposed to the atmosphere erodes and decays. He called this coupling of destruction and renewal the “great geological cycle,” and realized that it had been completed innumerable times.
Hutton came to his chosen field by quite a roundabout route. Born in Edinburgh in 1726, he studied medicine and chemistry at the Universities of Edinburgh, Paris, and Leiden, in the Netherlands, and then spent fourteen years running two small family farms. It was farming that gave rise to Hutton’s obsession with how the land could hold its own against the destructive forces of wind and weather he saw at work around him. Hutton began to devote his scientific knowledge, his philosophical turn of mind, and his extraordinary powers of observation to a subject that had only recently acquired a name: geology.
Around 1768 he moved to Edinburgh, where a visitor a few years later described his study as “so full of fossils and chemical apparatus that there is hardly room to sit down.” In a paper presented in 1788 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a newly-founded scientific organization, Hutton described a universe very different from the Biblical cosmos: one formed by a continuous cycle in which rocks and soil are washed into the sea, compacted into bedrock, forced up to the surface by volcanic processes, and eventually worn away into sediment once again. “The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry,” Hutton concluded, “is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.” Relying on the same methods as do modern field geologists, Hutton cited as evidence a cliff at nearby Siccar Point, where the juxtaposition of vertical layers of gray shale and overlying horizontal layers of red sandstone could only be explained by the action of stupendous forces over vast periods of time. There Hutton realized that the sediments now represented by the gray shale had, after deposition, been uplifted, tilted, eroded away, and then covered by an ocean, from which the red sandstone was then deposited. The boundary between the two rock types at Siccar Point is now called the Hutton Unconformity.
The fundamental force, theorized Hutton, was subterranean heat, as evidenced by the existence of hot springs and volcanoes. From his detailed observations of rock formations in Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles, Hutton shrewdly inferred that high pressures and temperatures deep within the Earth would cause the chemical reactions that created formations of basalt, granite, and mineral veins. He also proposed that internal heat causes the crust to warm and expand, resulting in the upheavals that form mountains. The same process causes rock stratifications to tilt, fold and deform, as exemplified by the Siccar Point rocks.
Another of Hutton’s key concepts was the Theory of Uniformitarianism. This was the belief that geological forces at work in the present day—barely noticeable to the human eye, yet immense in their impact—are the same as those that operated in the past. This means that the rates at which processes such as erosion or sedimentation occur today are similar to past rates, making it possible to estimate the times it took to deposit a sandstone, for example, of a given thickness. It became evident from such analysis that enormous lengths of time were required to account for the thicknesses of exposed rock layers. Uniformitarianism is one of the fundamental principles of earth science. Hutton’s theories amounted to a frontal attack on a popular contemporary school of thought called catastrophism: the belief that only natural catastrophes, such as the Great Flood, could account for the form and nature of a 6,000-year-old Earth. The great age of Earth was the first revolutionary concept to emerge from the new science of geology.
The effect that this portrait of an ancient, dynamic planet had on the thinkers who followed in the next century was profound. Charles Darwin, for example, was well acquainted with Hutton’s ideas, which provided a framework for the eons required by the biological evolution he observed in the fossil record. English geologist Sir Charles Lyell, who was born the year Hutton died and whose influential book Principles of Geology won wide acceptance for the Theory of Uniformitarianism, wrote, “The imagination was first fatigued and overpowered by endeavouring to conceive the immensity of time required for the annihilation of whole continents by so insensible a process.” The “ideas of sublimity” awakened by this “plan of such infinite extent,” as Lyell referred to it, inspired not only Hutton’s contemporaries, but generations of geologists to come.
Excerpted from EARTH: INSIDE AND OUT, edited by Edmond A. Mathez, a publication of the New Press. © 2000 American Museum of Natural History."
"James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology | AMNH
James Hutton (1726–1797), a Scottish farmer and naturalist, is known as the founder of modern geology. He was a great observer of the world around him. More importantly, he made carefully reasoned geological arguments. Hutton came to believe that the Earth was perpetually being formed; for example, molten material is forced up into mountains, eroded, and then eroded sediments are washed away. He recognized that the history of the Earth could be determined by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the present day. His ideas and approach to studying the Earth established geology as a proper science.
In the late eighteenth century, when Hutton was carefully examining the rocks, it was generally believed that Earth had come into creation only around six thousand years earlier (on October 22, 4004 B.C., to be precise, according to the seventeenth century scholarly analysis of the Bible by Archbishop James Ussher of Ireland), and that fossils were the remains of animals that had perished during the Biblical flood. As for the structure of the Earth, “natural philosophers” agreed that much bedrock consisted of long, parallel layers which occurred at various angles, and that sediments deposited by water were compressed to form stone. Hutton perceived that this sedimentation takes place so slowly that even the oldest rocks are made up of, in his words, “materials furnished from the ruins of former continents.” The reverse process occurs when rock exposed to the atmosphere erodes and decays. He called this coupling of destruction and renewal the “great geological cycle,” and realized that it had been completed innumerable times.
Hutton came to his chosen field by quite a roundabout route. Born in Edinburgh in 1726, he studied medicine and chemistry at the Universities of Edinburgh, Paris, and Leiden, in the Netherlands, and then spent fourteen years running two small family farms. It was farming that gave rise to Hutton’s obsession with how the land could hold its own against the destructive forces of wind and weather he saw at work around him. Hutton began to devote his scientific knowledge, his philosophical turn of mind, and his extraordinary powers of observation to a subject that had only recently acquired a name: geology.
Around 1768 he moved to Edinburgh, where a visitor a few years later described his study as “so full of fossils and chemical apparatus that there is hardly room to sit down.” In a paper presented in 1788 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a newly-founded scientific organization, Hutton described a universe very different from the Biblical cosmos: one formed by a continuous cycle in which rocks and soil are washed into the sea, compacted into bedrock, forced up to the surface by volcanic processes, and eventually worn away into sediment once again. “The result, therefore, of this physical enquiry,” Hutton concluded, “is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.” Relying on the same methods as do modern field geologists, Hutton cited as evidence a cliff at nearby Siccar Point, where the juxtaposition of vertical layers of gray shale and overlying horizontal layers of red sandstone could only be explained by the action of stupendous forces over vast periods of time. There Hutton realized that the sediments now represented by the gray shale had, after deposition, been uplifted, tilted, eroded away, and then covered by an ocean, from which the red sandstone was then deposited. The boundary between the two rock types at Siccar Point is now called the Hutton Unconformity.
The fundamental force, theorized Hutton, was subterranean heat, as evidenced by the existence of hot springs and volcanoes. From his detailed observations of rock formations in Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles, Hutton shrewdly inferred that high pressures and temperatures deep within the Earth would cause the chemical reactions that created formations of basalt, granite, and mineral veins. He also proposed that internal heat causes the crust to warm and expand, resulting in the upheavals that form mountains. The same process causes rock stratifications to tilt, fold and deform, as exemplified by the Siccar Point rocks.
Another of Hutton’s key concepts was the Theory of Uniformitarianism. This was the belief that geological forces at work in the present day—barely noticeable to the human eye, yet immense in their impact—are the same as those that operated in the past. This means that the rates at which processes such as erosion or sedimentation occur today are similar to past rates, making it possible to estimate the times it took to deposit a sandstone, for example, of a given thickness. It became evident from such analysis that enormous lengths of time were required to account for the thicknesses of exposed rock layers. Uniformitarianism is one of the fundamental principles of earth science. Hutton’s theories amounted to a frontal attack on a popular contemporary school of thought called catastrophism: the belief that only natural catastrophes, such as the Great Flood, could account for the form and nature of a 6,000-year-old Earth. The great age of Earth was the first revolutionary concept to emerge from the new science of geology.
The effect that this portrait of an ancient, dynamic planet had on the thinkers who followed in the next century was profound. Charles Darwin, for example, was well acquainted with Hutton’s ideas, which provided a framework for the eons required by the biological evolution he observed in the fossil record. English geologist Sir Charles Lyell, who was born the year Hutton died and whose influential book Principles of Geology won wide acceptance for the Theory of Uniformitarianism, wrote, “The imagination was first fatigued and overpowered by endeavouring to conceive the immensity of time required for the annihilation of whole continents by so insensible a process.” The “ideas of sublimity” awakened by this “plan of such infinite extent,” as Lyell referred to it, inspired not only Hutton’s contemporaries, but generations of geologists to come.
Excerpted from EARTH: INSIDE AND OUT, edited by Edmond A. Mathez, a publication of the New Press. © 2000 American Museum of Natural History."
James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology | AMNH
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BBC Men of Rock 1 of 3 Deep Time
BBC Men of Rock 1 of 3 Deep Time - Iain Stewart tells the story of James Hutton, the founding father of geology. Uploaded for educational purposes, all mater...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on "July 4, 1785, James Hutton, geologist, publicly read an abstract of his Theory of Uniformitarianism for the first time at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh."
BBC Men of Rock 1 of 3 Deep Time - Iain Stewart tells the story of James Hutton, the founding father of geology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYfuI2uZLmg
Images:
1. A portrait of James Hutton (1726–1797) by Sir Henry Raeborn, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
2. Siccar Point seen from above
3. James Hutton 'The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.
4. Memorial Stone in Hutton’s Garden
Biographies:
1. thoughtco.com/about-james-hutton-1224844
2. edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/geological-pioneers/james-hutton
1. Background from {[https://www.thoughtco.com/about-james-hutton-1224844]}
"Biography of James Hutton, Founder of Modern Geology
By Heather Scoville
Updated July 18, 2019
James Hutton (June 3, 1726–March 26, 1797) was a Scottish doctor and geologist who had ideas about the formation of the Earth that became known as Uniformitarianism. Although not an accredited geologist, he spent much time hypothesizing that the Earth's processes and formation had been going on for eons and were continuing to the present. Charles Darwin was well-acquainted with Hutton’s ideas, which provided a framework for his work in biological evolution and natural selection.
Fast Facts: James Hutton
• Known For: Founder of modern geology
• Born: June 3, 1726 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Parents: William Hutton, Sarah Balfour
• Died: March 26, 1797 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Education: University of Edinburgh, University of Paris, University of Leiden
• Published Works: Theory of the Earth
• Children: James Smeaton Hutton
Early Life
James Hutton was born on June 3, 1726, in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of five children born to William Hutton and Sarah Balfour. His father, who was a merchant and treasurer for the city of Edinburgh, died in 1729, when James was only 3 years old. He also lost an older brother at a very young age.
His mother did not remarry and was able to raise Hutton and his three sisters on her own, thanks to the wealth his father had built before his death. When Hutton was old enough, his mother sent him to the High School of Edinburgh, where he discovered his love of chemistry and mathematics.
Education
At the young age of 14, Hutton was sent off to the University of Edinburgh to study Latin and other humanities courses. He was made the apprentice of a lawyer at age 17, but his employer did not believe that he was well-suited for a career in law. Hutton decided to become a physician to be able to continue his studies in chemistry.
After three years in the medical program at the University of Edinburgh, Hutton finished his medical studies in Paris before receiving his degree from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1749.
Personal Life
While studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Hutton fathered an illegitimate son with a woman who lived in the area. He named his son James Smeaton Hutton. Although he financially supported his son, who was raised by his mother, Hutton did not take an active role in raising the boy. Following the birth in 1747, Hutton moved to Paris to continue his medical studies.
After finishing his degree, instead of moving back to Scotland, the young doctor practiced medicine in London for a few years. It is not known whether this move to London was prompted by the fact that his son was living in Edinburgh, but it is often assumed that is why he chose not to move back to Scotland. Soon, however, Hutton decided that practicing medicine was not for him.
Before he had started his medical studies, Hutton and a partner had become interested in sal ammoniac, or ammonium chloride, a chemical used in making medicines as well as fertilizers and dyes. They developed an inexpensive method of manufacturing the chemical that became financially rewarding, enabling Hutton in the early 1750s to move to a large plot of land he had inherited from his father and become a farmer. Here he began to study geology and came up with some of his best-known ideas.
By 1765, the farm and the sal ammoniac manufacturing company were providing enough income that he could give up farming and move to Edinburgh, where he could pursue his scientific interests.
Geological Studies
Hutton did not have a degree in geology, but his experiences on the farm gave him the focus to form theories about the formation of the Earth that were novel at the time. Hutton hypothesized that the interior of the Earth was very hot and that the processes that changed the Earth long ago were still at work millenniums later. He published his ideas in his book, "The Theory of the Earth," in 1795.
Hutton asserted in the book that life also followed this long-term pattern. The concepts in the book about life changing gradually by these same mechanisms since the beginning of time were in line with the principles of evolution well before Charles Darwin came up with his theory of natural selection.
Hutton's ideas drew much criticism from most geologists of his time, who followed a more religious line in their findings. The prevailing theory at the time of how rock formations had occurred on Earth was that they were a product of a series of "catastrophes," such as the Great Flood, that accounted for the form and nature of an Earth that was thought to be only 6,000 years old. Hutton disagreed and was mocked for his anti-Biblical account of the Earth's formation. He was working on a follow-up to the book when he died.
Death
James Hutton died in Edinburgh on March 26, 1797, at age 70 after suffering poor health and pain for a number of years caused by bladder stones. He was buried in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Churchyard.
He left no will, so his estate passed to his sister and, on her death, to Hutton's grandchildren, the children of his son, James Smeaton Hutton.
Legacy
In 1830, geologist Charles Lyell rephrased and republished many of Hutton's ideas in his book "Principles of Geology" and called them Uniformitarianism, which became a cornerstone of modern geology. Lyell was an acquaintance of Robert FitzRoy, captain of the HMS Beagle on Darwin's voyages. FitzRoy gave Darwin a copy of "Principles of Geology," which Darwin studied as he traveled and collected data for his work.
It was Lyell's book, but Hutton's ideas, that inspired Darwin to incorporate the concept of an "ancient" mechanism that had been at work since the beginning of the Earth in his own world-changing book, "The Origin of the Species." Thus, Hutton's concepts indirectly sparked the idea of natural selection for Darwin.
Sources
• "James Hutton: Scottish Geologist." Encyclopedia Brittanica.
• "James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology." The American Museum of Natural History.
• "James Hutton." Famous Scientists."
2. Background from {[https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/geological-pioneers/james-hutton/}
James Hutton (1726-1797) made a considerable contribution to our understanding of Earth processes and of the immensity of ‘deep time’. Although trained as a physician, he spent a significant portion of his life as a farmer. He was an outstanding natural philosopher and was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Hutton was born in Edinburgh on 3rd June 1726. At the age of 14 he went to Edinburgh University to study humanities and medicine. Later he studied chemistry and anatomy in Paris, before obtaining his degree in medicine in 1749 from Leyden in the Netherlands. In 1750, he inherited and worked two farms in the Scottish Borders. He travelled to Norfolk and Flanders to learn new farming methods and employed them on his own lands. The James Hutton Institute (Scotland’s research institute for land, crops, water and the environment) takes Hutton’s name in recognition of his innovation in agriculture. After witnessing first-hand the processes of erosion and sediment deposition on his farms, James Hutton became interested in geology.
He returned to Edinburgh in 1767, where he developed and finally published his geological theories. He was an important contributor to the Scottish Enlightenment, a period when Edinburgh, described by Tobias Smollett as “a hotbed of genius”, saw the rise of revolutionary ideas in sciences and humanities. Hutton enjoyed the company of people like Sir James Hall of Dunglass, James Watt, Adam Smith and Joseph Black.
Hutton’s Theory of the Earth was presented in 1785 in front of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, then published in 1788 and enlarged to two volumes in 1795. Hutton realised that the processes of erosion, deposition and uplift were connected and operated continuously, driven by the Earth’s internal heat, in a way not previously understood. Field visits to his three famous unconformity sites in North Arran, Jedburgh and Siccar Point took place in 1787-88. All provided evidence in support of his theory. He died on 26th March 1797, and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh (see page 24 of Edinburgh Geologist Issue 63, pdf 3.45Mb). James Hutton is now recognised as the Father of Modern Geology.
Hutton realised that the processes of erosion, deposition and uplift were connected and operated continuously, driven by the earth’s internal heat, in a way not understood at the time. At Siccar Point in 1788, he finally found the clear evidence he needed to demonstrate his understanding of the processes and cycles that shaped the Earth.
Hutton arrived at Siccar Point by boat, accompanied by Sir James Hall of Dunglass and John Playfair. Playfair wrote: “Dr Hutton was highly pleased with appearances that set in so clear a light the different formations, and where all the circumstances were combined that could render the observation satisfactory and precise … We felt necessarily carried back to a time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of the supercontinent ocean… The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far back into the abyss of time; and whilst we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much further reason may sometimes go than imagination may venture to follow.”
Hutton inferred from the sharp junction between the two sets of rocks that an enormous interval of time was required for the underlying strata to be folded and eroded before the overlying sandstones were deposited. The fundamental geological principle of deep time was thus established and Hutton famously concluded his work Theory of the Earth with: “We find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end”. Since then different geological eras have been recognised and dated, and we now know that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old.
Hutton’s discoveries fulfilled a tremendous mission: placing geology in a much wider time frame than the popular belief that the Earth was created in 4004 BC (as calculated by Bishop Ussher in 1650). This enabled geology to become a science in its own right with Hutton as its founding father.
The Hutton Memorial Garden, Edinburgh
This garden marks the exact site of Hutton’s house and garden at the original 3 St John’s Hill, the house where he lived for almost 30 years and where he died on 26th March 1797. The garden was created in 1997. It contains examples of important rock types associated with Hutton’s life. Two boulders showing granitic veins came from Glen Tilt which John Clerk of Eldin visited with James Hutton and illustrate Hutton’s work on the origin of granite from September 1785. The other three boulders are of conglomerate carried by ice and water came from Barbush on the edge of Dunblane. These illustrate Hutton’s understanding of the cyclicity of geological processes. The garden can be accessed from Veiwcraig Gardens off Holyrood Road, take the steps up to the garden from the first bend of the road, near to the Holyrood Road NCP Car Park – Edinburgh EH8 9UL."
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BBC Men of Rock 1 of 3 Deep Time - Iain Stewart tells the story of James Hutton, the founding father of geology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYfuI2uZLmg
Images:
1. A portrait of James Hutton (1726–1797) by Sir Henry Raeborn, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
2. Siccar Point seen from above
3. James Hutton 'The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.
4. Memorial Stone in Hutton’s Garden
Biographies:
1. thoughtco.com/about-james-hutton-1224844
2. edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/geological-pioneers/james-hutton
1. Background from {[https://www.thoughtco.com/about-james-hutton-1224844]}
"Biography of James Hutton, Founder of Modern Geology
By Heather Scoville
Updated July 18, 2019
James Hutton (June 3, 1726–March 26, 1797) was a Scottish doctor and geologist who had ideas about the formation of the Earth that became known as Uniformitarianism. Although not an accredited geologist, he spent much time hypothesizing that the Earth's processes and formation had been going on for eons and were continuing to the present. Charles Darwin was well-acquainted with Hutton’s ideas, which provided a framework for his work in biological evolution and natural selection.
Fast Facts: James Hutton
• Known For: Founder of modern geology
• Born: June 3, 1726 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Parents: William Hutton, Sarah Balfour
• Died: March 26, 1797 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Education: University of Edinburgh, University of Paris, University of Leiden
• Published Works: Theory of the Earth
• Children: James Smeaton Hutton
Early Life
James Hutton was born on June 3, 1726, in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of five children born to William Hutton and Sarah Balfour. His father, who was a merchant and treasurer for the city of Edinburgh, died in 1729, when James was only 3 years old. He also lost an older brother at a very young age.
His mother did not remarry and was able to raise Hutton and his three sisters on her own, thanks to the wealth his father had built before his death. When Hutton was old enough, his mother sent him to the High School of Edinburgh, where he discovered his love of chemistry and mathematics.
Education
At the young age of 14, Hutton was sent off to the University of Edinburgh to study Latin and other humanities courses. He was made the apprentice of a lawyer at age 17, but his employer did not believe that he was well-suited for a career in law. Hutton decided to become a physician to be able to continue his studies in chemistry.
After three years in the medical program at the University of Edinburgh, Hutton finished his medical studies in Paris before receiving his degree from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1749.
Personal Life
While studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Hutton fathered an illegitimate son with a woman who lived in the area. He named his son James Smeaton Hutton. Although he financially supported his son, who was raised by his mother, Hutton did not take an active role in raising the boy. Following the birth in 1747, Hutton moved to Paris to continue his medical studies.
After finishing his degree, instead of moving back to Scotland, the young doctor practiced medicine in London for a few years. It is not known whether this move to London was prompted by the fact that his son was living in Edinburgh, but it is often assumed that is why he chose not to move back to Scotland. Soon, however, Hutton decided that practicing medicine was not for him.
Before he had started his medical studies, Hutton and a partner had become interested in sal ammoniac, or ammonium chloride, a chemical used in making medicines as well as fertilizers and dyes. They developed an inexpensive method of manufacturing the chemical that became financially rewarding, enabling Hutton in the early 1750s to move to a large plot of land he had inherited from his father and become a farmer. Here he began to study geology and came up with some of his best-known ideas.
By 1765, the farm and the sal ammoniac manufacturing company were providing enough income that he could give up farming and move to Edinburgh, where he could pursue his scientific interests.
Geological Studies
Hutton did not have a degree in geology, but his experiences on the farm gave him the focus to form theories about the formation of the Earth that were novel at the time. Hutton hypothesized that the interior of the Earth was very hot and that the processes that changed the Earth long ago were still at work millenniums later. He published his ideas in his book, "The Theory of the Earth," in 1795.
Hutton asserted in the book that life also followed this long-term pattern. The concepts in the book about life changing gradually by these same mechanisms since the beginning of time were in line with the principles of evolution well before Charles Darwin came up with his theory of natural selection.
Hutton's ideas drew much criticism from most geologists of his time, who followed a more religious line in their findings. The prevailing theory at the time of how rock formations had occurred on Earth was that they were a product of a series of "catastrophes," such as the Great Flood, that accounted for the form and nature of an Earth that was thought to be only 6,000 years old. Hutton disagreed and was mocked for his anti-Biblical account of the Earth's formation. He was working on a follow-up to the book when he died.
Death
James Hutton died in Edinburgh on March 26, 1797, at age 70 after suffering poor health and pain for a number of years caused by bladder stones. He was buried in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Churchyard.
He left no will, so his estate passed to his sister and, on her death, to Hutton's grandchildren, the children of his son, James Smeaton Hutton.
Legacy
In 1830, geologist Charles Lyell rephrased and republished many of Hutton's ideas in his book "Principles of Geology" and called them Uniformitarianism, which became a cornerstone of modern geology. Lyell was an acquaintance of Robert FitzRoy, captain of the HMS Beagle on Darwin's voyages. FitzRoy gave Darwin a copy of "Principles of Geology," which Darwin studied as he traveled and collected data for his work.
It was Lyell's book, but Hutton's ideas, that inspired Darwin to incorporate the concept of an "ancient" mechanism that had been at work since the beginning of the Earth in his own world-changing book, "The Origin of the Species." Thus, Hutton's concepts indirectly sparked the idea of natural selection for Darwin.
Sources
• "James Hutton: Scottish Geologist." Encyclopedia Brittanica.
• "James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology." The American Museum of Natural History.
• "James Hutton." Famous Scientists."
2. Background from {[https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/geological-pioneers/james-hutton/}
James Hutton (1726-1797) made a considerable contribution to our understanding of Earth processes and of the immensity of ‘deep time’. Although trained as a physician, he spent a significant portion of his life as a farmer. He was an outstanding natural philosopher and was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Hutton was born in Edinburgh on 3rd June 1726. At the age of 14 he went to Edinburgh University to study humanities and medicine. Later he studied chemistry and anatomy in Paris, before obtaining his degree in medicine in 1749 from Leyden in the Netherlands. In 1750, he inherited and worked two farms in the Scottish Borders. He travelled to Norfolk and Flanders to learn new farming methods and employed them on his own lands. The James Hutton Institute (Scotland’s research institute for land, crops, water and the environment) takes Hutton’s name in recognition of his innovation in agriculture. After witnessing first-hand the processes of erosion and sediment deposition on his farms, James Hutton became interested in geology.
He returned to Edinburgh in 1767, where he developed and finally published his geological theories. He was an important contributor to the Scottish Enlightenment, a period when Edinburgh, described by Tobias Smollett as “a hotbed of genius”, saw the rise of revolutionary ideas in sciences and humanities. Hutton enjoyed the company of people like Sir James Hall of Dunglass, James Watt, Adam Smith and Joseph Black.
Hutton’s Theory of the Earth was presented in 1785 in front of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, then published in 1788 and enlarged to two volumes in 1795. Hutton realised that the processes of erosion, deposition and uplift were connected and operated continuously, driven by the Earth’s internal heat, in a way not previously understood. Field visits to his three famous unconformity sites in North Arran, Jedburgh and Siccar Point took place in 1787-88. All provided evidence in support of his theory. He died on 26th March 1797, and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh (see page 24 of Edinburgh Geologist Issue 63, pdf 3.45Mb). James Hutton is now recognised as the Father of Modern Geology.
Hutton realised that the processes of erosion, deposition and uplift were connected and operated continuously, driven by the earth’s internal heat, in a way not understood at the time. At Siccar Point in 1788, he finally found the clear evidence he needed to demonstrate his understanding of the processes and cycles that shaped the Earth.
Hutton arrived at Siccar Point by boat, accompanied by Sir James Hall of Dunglass and John Playfair. Playfair wrote: “Dr Hutton was highly pleased with appearances that set in so clear a light the different formations, and where all the circumstances were combined that could render the observation satisfactory and precise … We felt necessarily carried back to a time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of the supercontinent ocean… The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far back into the abyss of time; and whilst we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much further reason may sometimes go than imagination may venture to follow.”
Hutton inferred from the sharp junction between the two sets of rocks that an enormous interval of time was required for the underlying strata to be folded and eroded before the overlying sandstones were deposited. The fundamental geological principle of deep time was thus established and Hutton famously concluded his work Theory of the Earth with: “We find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end”. Since then different geological eras have been recognised and dated, and we now know that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old.
Hutton’s discoveries fulfilled a tremendous mission: placing geology in a much wider time frame than the popular belief that the Earth was created in 4004 BC (as calculated by Bishop Ussher in 1650). This enabled geology to become a science in its own right with Hutton as its founding father.
The Hutton Memorial Garden, Edinburgh
This garden marks the exact site of Hutton’s house and garden at the original 3 St John’s Hill, the house where he lived for almost 30 years and where he died on 26th March 1797. The garden was created in 1997. It contains examples of important rock types associated with Hutton’s life. Two boulders showing granitic veins came from Glen Tilt which John Clerk of Eldin visited with James Hutton and illustrate Hutton’s work on the origin of granite from September 1785. The other three boulders are of conglomerate carried by ice and water came from Barbush on the edge of Dunblane. These illustrate Hutton’s understanding of the cyclicity of geological processes. The garden can be accessed from Veiwcraig Gardens off Holyrood Road, take the steps up to the garden from the first bend of the road, near to the Holyrood Road NCP Car Park – Edinburgh EH8 9UL."
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OU BBC S236 Ep 01 of 16 James Hutton Geologist Geology
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OU BBC S236 Ep 01 of 16 James Hutton Geologist Geology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jF77mVS08
Image:
1. Famous Scots - Scottish National Portrait Gallery Frieze - Portrait of a Nation including James Hutton, geologist;
Mungo Park, explorer; Sir Ralph Abercromby, Lieutenant-General; Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, Lieutenant-General; Sir John Moore, Lieutenant-General; Sir Henry Raeburn Portrait painter; Lord Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic; Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet; John Hunter, surgeon and anatomist; Robert Burns, poet; James Hutton, geologist; Thomas Telford, civil engineer, James Watt, inventor of steam engine; Robert Adam, architect; James Bruce, explorer and travel writer; James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson; Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, Admiral;
2. High up on the outside of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery is a statue of Hutton, with hammer and rock in hand (sculptor David Watson Stevenson)
3. Hutton’s grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh
4. In this spectacular exposure, the gap in time represented by the unconformity is about 65 million years!
Background from [https://edinburghgeolsoc.org/downloads/James-Hutton-LBGC-leaflet.pdfm {[https://edinburghgeolsoc.org/downloads/James-Hutton-LBGC-leaflet.pdf]}
(1726 – 1797) Scotland between the years of 1730 and 1790 enjoyed a spell of intense intellectual activity known as the Scottish Enlightenment – a unique period in history, one of optimism, improvement and discoveries in industry, commerce, agriculture, science and the arts. James Hutton’s life (1726-1797) spanned this period and he made a considerable contribution to our understanding of Earth processes and of the immensity of ‘deep time’. Although trained as a physician, he spent much of his life as an agriculturalist, working on the farms which he had inherited. He was an outstanding natural philosopher and was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Hutton of course pre-dated photography, so the only clues we have as to his appearance come from painting and sculpture, not all of which can be considered life-like.
James Hutton’s Theory The surface of the Earth is constantly being eroded and the products deposited in the sea. Hutton believed the sediments were then compressed, folded and uplifted, sometimes with volcanic activity, for the cycle of erosion to resume. He also said that earth processes of the past were similar to those acting at present (a prevalent idea – Comte de Buffon 1790), and that the slow cycle was capable of repeating itself. He put it succinctly: “the result, therefore, of our present enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end.” Hutton at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, Edinburgh
James Hutton Memorial Garden This marks the site of James Hutton’s Edinburgh home on St John’s Hill in the Pleasance above Holyrood Road. This memorial garden was constructed in 2001 for the University of Edinburgh and marks the site of the house where Hutton lived from about 1770 until his death in 1797. The garden contains a memorial plaque and five boulders which illustrate two main themes of Hutton’s geological work. Hutton used the presence of granite veins in schist, a metamorphic rock formed by heat and pressure acting on existing sedimentary rock, in Glen Tilt near Blair Atholl to demonstrate that granite is an igneous rock and that it must have been younger than rocks it penetrated. The granite veins can be seen in the larger of the two grey boulders from Glen Tilt, which come from close to the actual spot investigated by Hutton.
At North Newton shore, Arran 1787 Hutton discovered his first unconformity in the summer of 1787. This site displays an angular unconformity between steeply inclined metasedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Dalradian Supergroup (600 million years old) and the much younger sedimentary rocks of the early Carboniferous Period (360 million years old). The exposure is complicated by the presence of a calcrete layer in the upper part of the Dalradian rocks. This suggests these rocks were exposed in a hot, semi-arid climate before the younger rocks began to accumulate on top.
Here, at the second of his unconformity sites, Hutton found nearly vertical sedimentary strata with horizontal Old Red Sandstone strata on top. He concluded that the vertical beds must have been raised above the surface of the ocean, subjected to the levelling effect of weathering and erosion before sinking below sea level when a new set of sediments mainly sandstones and mudstones were deposited on top. Hutton was wrong in one detail. At none of his sites of unconformity are the directly overlying rocks of marine origin, they are in fact river deposits.
Hutton’s Section in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. A key site that supported Hutton’s new understanding of geology is found at the south end of Salisbury Crags. Hutton associated ‘extreme heat’ as the agent of folding and uplift of strata. In his own words “We know that the land is raised by a power which has for its principle subterraneous heat, but how that land is preserved in its elevated station, is a subject which we have not even the means to form a conjecture.” He believed that molten rock (magma) could be ‘intruded’ between or across sedimentary rocks, sometimes reaching the surface as lava flows. He found evidence to support this at the base of the Salisbury Crags sill, where magma intruded between sedimentary layers has cooled to form tough igneous rock (dolerite or whinstone). The junction between the dolerite and sandstone shows that the magma was intruded forcefully, disrupting the existing sedimentary layers. Such a dynamic contact feature is incompatible with the common view in Hutton’s time that igneous rocks ‘crystallised like salt from sea water’.
1788 Hutton believed that cyclic processes (similar to orbits in astronomy, and blood circulation in the body) operated in the Earth. He saw weathering and erosion denuding the land and producing sediments under the sea which then consolidated into rock. The cycle was continued through uplift with the necessary energy supplied by internal heat. He thought of the Earth as a dynamic heat engine capable of helping to drive the cycle. The most convincing proof of his cyclic theory was obtained on the Berwickshire coast at Siccar Point, the third of his unconformity sites which he visited with Sir James Hall and John Playfair. Silurian sediments were laid down and consolidated into poorly sorted sandstones (greywackes). These rocks were uplifted, folded and eventually eroded. Deposition of Upper Old Red Sandstone sediments took place during the latter part of the following geological period, the Devonian.
Hutton’s farm at Nether Monynut This farm rests mainly on Silurian sandstones and shales on the eastern flank of the Lammermuir Hills. The soil is thin and stoney, and the land rises to 300m above sea level. Hutton’s Section at the south end of Salisbury Crags Inchbonny, Jedburgh Hutton’s farmhouse at Slighhouses near Duns, Berwickshire At the start of the 18th century agriculture was still rather primitive in Scotland with heavy wooden ploughs, no hedges or fences, and a ‘runrig’ system of scattered strips of cultivation. Between 1697 and 1703 there were periods of harvest failures and famine. This farm and that at Nether Monynut, eight miles away were inherited by Hutton. From 1754 to 1767 he chose to live at Slighhouses. He set about enclosing and draining the land. He introduced new methods of crop rotation and ploughing, with modern ideas he had seen in practice in Norfolk and Flanders. During this time he never lost his enthusiasm for solving geological problems.
Slighhouses Farm is on Upper Old Red Sandstone sedimentary rocks with a superficial cover of glacial till. Hutton’s Marl Pit Hutton used Slighhouses as a living laboratory to investigate agriculture and other natural history phenomena. The marl pit he created is still in evidence, and he wrote of using marl (limey mud) on his fields to improve crop yield. He was not always successful as some of the marl was too poor in lime.
Dunglass Collegiate Church (15th century Gothic) This is the resting place of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, geologist and chemist, (1761 - 1832). He admired Hutton, while not accepting the enormous periods of time required for Hutton’s Uniformitarian view that geological history is a matter of ordinary forces and unlimited time. In 1798 Sir James Hall investigated the action of heat and pressure on rocks. The Wernerians had pointed out that basalt, when heated and cooled in experiments, turned to glass not crystalline rock, therefore basalt must be a precipitate from a universal ocean. Hall allowed molten basalt to cool very slowly, and it reformed as crystals not as a glass. By experiment, he showed the igneous nature of basalt and granite. In the 18th century, the Church held that the age of the Earth was nearly 6000 years.
On reading Hutton’s Theory Playfair realised how difficult it was to understand, and being an excellent communicator himself decided to publish his ‘Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory’ in 1802. This book set out the sound principles and “bold outline traced by Hutton” for others such as Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Archibald Geikie to build on.
Hutton roof, National Museum of Scotland Andy Goldsworthy’s four sandstone blocks invite us to look down through the layers of time and think of their formation from desert sands 270 million years ago, and yet again to the origin of the sand grains from erosion in periods even farther back in time. Hutton’s grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh His grave in the Balfour family vault in the section known as the Covenanters’ Prison was unmarked until November 1947 when a simple plaque was erected marking the 150th anniversary of Hutton’s death. In 1997 a Bicentenary International Conference was held in Edinburgh, a wreath laid, and a eulogy spoken by Professor Donald McIntyre which finished with these words: “ Today we have come to know that living creatures evolve, that continents drift, that stars and galaxies are born, mature, grow old and die. We salute the memory of James Hutton, who opened our minds to these wondrous possibilities.”
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jF77mVS08
Image:
1. Famous Scots - Scottish National Portrait Gallery Frieze - Portrait of a Nation including James Hutton, geologist;
Mungo Park, explorer; Sir Ralph Abercromby, Lieutenant-General; Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, Lieutenant-General; Sir John Moore, Lieutenant-General; Sir Henry Raeburn Portrait painter; Lord Francis Jeffrey, judge and literary critic; Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet; John Hunter, surgeon and anatomist; Robert Burns, poet; James Hutton, geologist; Thomas Telford, civil engineer, James Watt, inventor of steam engine; Robert Adam, architect; James Bruce, explorer and travel writer; James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson; Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, Admiral;
2. High up on the outside of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery is a statue of Hutton, with hammer and rock in hand (sculptor David Watson Stevenson)
3. Hutton’s grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh
4. In this spectacular exposure, the gap in time represented by the unconformity is about 65 million years!
Background from [https://edinburghgeolsoc.org/downloads/James-Hutton-LBGC-leaflet.pdfm {[https://edinburghgeolsoc.org/downloads/James-Hutton-LBGC-leaflet.pdf]}
(1726 – 1797) Scotland between the years of 1730 and 1790 enjoyed a spell of intense intellectual activity known as the Scottish Enlightenment – a unique period in history, one of optimism, improvement and discoveries in industry, commerce, agriculture, science and the arts. James Hutton’s life (1726-1797) spanned this period and he made a considerable contribution to our understanding of Earth processes and of the immensity of ‘deep time’. Although trained as a physician, he spent much of his life as an agriculturalist, working on the farms which he had inherited. He was an outstanding natural philosopher and was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Hutton of course pre-dated photography, so the only clues we have as to his appearance come from painting and sculpture, not all of which can be considered life-like.
James Hutton’s Theory The surface of the Earth is constantly being eroded and the products deposited in the sea. Hutton believed the sediments were then compressed, folded and uplifted, sometimes with volcanic activity, for the cycle of erosion to resume. He also said that earth processes of the past were similar to those acting at present (a prevalent idea – Comte de Buffon 1790), and that the slow cycle was capable of repeating itself. He put it succinctly: “the result, therefore, of our present enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end.” Hutton at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street, Edinburgh
James Hutton Memorial Garden This marks the site of James Hutton’s Edinburgh home on St John’s Hill in the Pleasance above Holyrood Road. This memorial garden was constructed in 2001 for the University of Edinburgh and marks the site of the house where Hutton lived from about 1770 until his death in 1797. The garden contains a memorial plaque and five boulders which illustrate two main themes of Hutton’s geological work. Hutton used the presence of granite veins in schist, a metamorphic rock formed by heat and pressure acting on existing sedimentary rock, in Glen Tilt near Blair Atholl to demonstrate that granite is an igneous rock and that it must have been younger than rocks it penetrated. The granite veins can be seen in the larger of the two grey boulders from Glen Tilt, which come from close to the actual spot investigated by Hutton.
At North Newton shore, Arran 1787 Hutton discovered his first unconformity in the summer of 1787. This site displays an angular unconformity between steeply inclined metasedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Dalradian Supergroup (600 million years old) and the much younger sedimentary rocks of the early Carboniferous Period (360 million years old). The exposure is complicated by the presence of a calcrete layer in the upper part of the Dalradian rocks. This suggests these rocks were exposed in a hot, semi-arid climate before the younger rocks began to accumulate on top.
Here, at the second of his unconformity sites, Hutton found nearly vertical sedimentary strata with horizontal Old Red Sandstone strata on top. He concluded that the vertical beds must have been raised above the surface of the ocean, subjected to the levelling effect of weathering and erosion before sinking below sea level when a new set of sediments mainly sandstones and mudstones were deposited on top. Hutton was wrong in one detail. At none of his sites of unconformity are the directly overlying rocks of marine origin, they are in fact river deposits.
Hutton’s Section in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. A key site that supported Hutton’s new understanding of geology is found at the south end of Salisbury Crags. Hutton associated ‘extreme heat’ as the agent of folding and uplift of strata. In his own words “We know that the land is raised by a power which has for its principle subterraneous heat, but how that land is preserved in its elevated station, is a subject which we have not even the means to form a conjecture.” He believed that molten rock (magma) could be ‘intruded’ between or across sedimentary rocks, sometimes reaching the surface as lava flows. He found evidence to support this at the base of the Salisbury Crags sill, where magma intruded between sedimentary layers has cooled to form tough igneous rock (dolerite or whinstone). The junction between the dolerite and sandstone shows that the magma was intruded forcefully, disrupting the existing sedimentary layers. Such a dynamic contact feature is incompatible with the common view in Hutton’s time that igneous rocks ‘crystallised like salt from sea water’.
1788 Hutton believed that cyclic processes (similar to orbits in astronomy, and blood circulation in the body) operated in the Earth. He saw weathering and erosion denuding the land and producing sediments under the sea which then consolidated into rock. The cycle was continued through uplift with the necessary energy supplied by internal heat. He thought of the Earth as a dynamic heat engine capable of helping to drive the cycle. The most convincing proof of his cyclic theory was obtained on the Berwickshire coast at Siccar Point, the third of his unconformity sites which he visited with Sir James Hall and John Playfair. Silurian sediments were laid down and consolidated into poorly sorted sandstones (greywackes). These rocks were uplifted, folded and eventually eroded. Deposition of Upper Old Red Sandstone sediments took place during the latter part of the following geological period, the Devonian.
Hutton’s farm at Nether Monynut This farm rests mainly on Silurian sandstones and shales on the eastern flank of the Lammermuir Hills. The soil is thin and stoney, and the land rises to 300m above sea level. Hutton’s Section at the south end of Salisbury Crags Inchbonny, Jedburgh Hutton’s farmhouse at Slighhouses near Duns, Berwickshire At the start of the 18th century agriculture was still rather primitive in Scotland with heavy wooden ploughs, no hedges or fences, and a ‘runrig’ system of scattered strips of cultivation. Between 1697 and 1703 there were periods of harvest failures and famine. This farm and that at Nether Monynut, eight miles away were inherited by Hutton. From 1754 to 1767 he chose to live at Slighhouses. He set about enclosing and draining the land. He introduced new methods of crop rotation and ploughing, with modern ideas he had seen in practice in Norfolk and Flanders. During this time he never lost his enthusiasm for solving geological problems.
Slighhouses Farm is on Upper Old Red Sandstone sedimentary rocks with a superficial cover of glacial till. Hutton’s Marl Pit Hutton used Slighhouses as a living laboratory to investigate agriculture and other natural history phenomena. The marl pit he created is still in evidence, and he wrote of using marl (limey mud) on his fields to improve crop yield. He was not always successful as some of the marl was too poor in lime.
Dunglass Collegiate Church (15th century Gothic) This is the resting place of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, geologist and chemist, (1761 - 1832). He admired Hutton, while not accepting the enormous periods of time required for Hutton’s Uniformitarian view that geological history is a matter of ordinary forces and unlimited time. In 1798 Sir James Hall investigated the action of heat and pressure on rocks. The Wernerians had pointed out that basalt, when heated and cooled in experiments, turned to glass not crystalline rock, therefore basalt must be a precipitate from a universal ocean. Hall allowed molten basalt to cool very slowly, and it reformed as crystals not as a glass. By experiment, he showed the igneous nature of basalt and granite. In the 18th century, the Church held that the age of the Earth was nearly 6000 years.
On reading Hutton’s Theory Playfair realised how difficult it was to understand, and being an excellent communicator himself decided to publish his ‘Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory’ in 1802. This book set out the sound principles and “bold outline traced by Hutton” for others such as Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Archibald Geikie to build on.
Hutton roof, National Museum of Scotland Andy Goldsworthy’s four sandstone blocks invite us to look down through the layers of time and think of their formation from desert sands 270 million years ago, and yet again to the origin of the sand grains from erosion in periods even farther back in time. Hutton’s grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh His grave in the Balfour family vault in the section known as the Covenanters’ Prison was unmarked until November 1947 when a simple plaque was erected marking the 150th anniversary of Hutton’s death. In 1997 a Bicentenary International Conference was held in Edinburgh, a wreath laid, and a eulogy spoken by Professor Donald McIntyre which finished with these words: “ Today we have come to know that living creatures evolve, that continents drift, that stars and galaxies are born, mature, grow old and die. We salute the memory of James Hutton, who opened our minds to these wondrous possibilities.”
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A Very Happy Fourth of July; to Thee; My Rally Point Family Members!
Please stay; absolutely, safe; and, healthy of this day: the Fourth of July; My Beloved Rally Point Family Members. SGT (Join to see)
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