English

Noun

uniformitarianism ‎(uncountable)

1. (chiefly geology) The scientific principle that natural processes operated in the past in the same way and at the same rates that they operate today. [from 19th c.]
   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 20:

     There has been much puffy stuff written about whether Lyell's uniformitarianism permitted variations in intensity of causes, or whether he applied his logic in a consistent way, and whether he assumed indefinite stretches of geological time.

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