catastrophism

[kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uh m] /kəˈtæs trəˌfɪz əm/
noun, Geology
1.
the doctrine that certain vast geological changes in the earth's history were caused by catastrophes rather than gradual evolutionary processes.
Origin
1865-70; catastrophe + -ism
Related forms
catastrophist, noun
Examples from the web for catastrophism
  • Americans are also burned out on environmental catastrophism.
  • And for an encore seems to have no grasp whatsoever of modern geologies acceptance of neo-catastrophism.
  • He branded such catastrophism muzzy-headed voodoo science.
  • catastrophism as a rationale to explain the origin of canyons has gone out of style.
British Dictionary definitions for catastrophism

catastrophism

/kəˈtæstrəˌfɪzəm/
noun
1.
an old doctrine, now discarded, that the earth was created and has subsequently been shaped by sudden divine acts which have no logical connection with each other rather than by gradual evolutionary processes
2.
Also called neo-catastrophism. a modern doctrine that the gradual evolutionary processes shaping the earth have been supplemented in the past by the effects of huge natural catastrophes Compare uniformitarianism, gradualism (sense 2)
Derived Forms
catastrophist, noun
Word Origin and History for catastrophism
n.

as a geological or biological theory, 1869, coined by Huxley from catastrophe + -ism.

By CATASTROPHISM I mean any form of geological speculation which, in order to account for the phenomena of geology, supposes the operation of forces different in their nature, or immeasurably different in power, from those which we at present see in action in the universe. [T.H. Huxley, "Address" to the Geological Society of London, Feb. 19, 1869]
Related: Catastrophist.

catastrophism in Culture
catastrophism [(kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm)]

A theory holding that changes in the Earth take place swiftly and irreversibly. (Contrast gradualism.)

Note: A belief in Noah's flood is one version of catastrophism.
Encyclopedia Article for catastrophism

doctrine that explains the differences in fossil forms encountered in successive stratigraphic levels as being the product of repeated cataclysmic occurrences and repeated new creations. This doctrine generally is associated with the great French naturalist Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). One 20th-century expansion on Cuvier's views, in effect, a neocatastrophic school, attempts to explain geologic history as a sequence of rhythms or pulsations of mountain building, transgression and regression of the seas, and evolution and extinction of living organisms

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