| Year |
Milestone |
| 1500 |
Leonardo de Vinci recognizes marine fossils in Italian mountains |
| 1670 |
Robert Hooke identifies fossils as remains of ancient organisms uses these to make a comparison of Rocks of similar age |
| 1600's |
Steno recognizes the marine of some Rocks and formulates principles of superposition, original horizontality and original lateral continuity |
| 1750's |
Jean Etienne Guettard recognizes continuity of sedimentary Rocks in the Paris basin and compares them to modern marine sediments |
| 1719 |
John Strachey constructs a geological cross-section of coal bearing strata |
| 1760 |
Aduino proposes the Tertiary |
| 1785 |
James Hutton publishes on principles of the uniformitarianism |
| 1791 |
William Smith begins mapping sedimentary Rocks of Britain |
| 1835 |
Sedgwick proposes the Cambrian & Murchison proposes the Silurian |
| 1840 |
Agassiz recognizes that northern Europe and North America covered by ice sheets and sea level dropped |
| 1848 |
Chambers recognizes relative" sea level |
| 1857 |
Suess proposes that the coasts of Africa and South America match |
| 1859 |
Charles Darwin publishes the Origin of Species |
| 1864 |
Croll proposes variations in solar radiation on Earth driven by variations in its orbit |
| 1869 |
Waagen and Karpinsky trace evolution of ammonoids |
| 1885 - 1909 |
Suess, The Face of the Earth (5 vols.) |
| 1907 |
Boltwood proposes using uranium-lead dating of Rocks |
| 1909 |
Joly considers the role of radioactivity in Geology |
| 1910 |
Frank B. Taylor and Howard B. Baker identify the mid-Atlantic ridge |
| 1913 |
Holmes sets the age of the earth at 1.6 billion years |
| 1915 |
Wegener publishes "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" |
| 1916 |
Schuchert produces one of the first relative sea-level charts |
| 1920 |
milankovitch proposes ice ages caused by perturbations in Earths orbit |
| 1928 |
Holmes suggests mantle convection currents could drive continental drift |
| 1937 |
Alexander Du Toit supports continental drift on the basis of geologic fit |
| 1958 |
Wheeler produces first chronostratigraphic chart |
| 1962 |
Hess proposes the theory of sea-floor spreading |
| 1963 |
F.J. Vine and D.H. Matthews identify deep ocean paleomagnetic "stripes" |
| 1963 |
Sloss recognizes eustasy responsible for major continental unconformities |
| 1965 |
Wilson begins developing the theory of plate tectonics |
| 1970 |
Broeker and Van Donk propose variation in the oxygen isotopes connected to Milankovitch cycles |
| 1977 |
Vail proposes the discipline of sequence stratigraphy |
| 1976 - 1979 |
Van Hinte publishes Mesozoic time scales |
| 1988 |
Jervey publishes on a quantitative sedimentary simulation which links tectonics, eustasy and sedimentation |
| 1998 |
De Graciansky et al publish papers and charts on Mesozoic and Cenozoic sequence stratigraphy |