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James Hutton, known as the founder of modern geology for his explanations of how rocks are formed and destroyed, will be the subject of a talk at Lafayette by his biographer, Jack Repcheck, 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, in room 104 of Kirby Hall of Civil Rights. The talk is open to the public free of charge. It is sponsored by the geology and environmental geosciences department.
Repcheck’s book, The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth’s Antiquity, was published in 2003 and the paperback version in 2009. Repchek argues that Hutton should be considered in the same pantheon as Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin. Hutton was a Scottish chemist, farmer, and naturalist in the 18th century whose careful observations led him to refute the then-common belief that the earth was only 6,000 years old, and postulate what is now known as the “rock life cycle” in geology.
In addition to his writing career, Repcheck is vice president and editor at W.W. Norton & Co. publishers of New York.