Abraham Gottlob Werner - Werner's Theory

Werner's Theory

Werner applied superposition in a classification similar to that of Johann Gottlob Lehmann. He believed that the Earth could be divided into five formations:

1. Primitive (Urgebirge) Series - intrusive igneous rocks and high rank metasediments considered to be the first precipitates from the ocean before the emergence of land.
2. Transition (Ubergangsgebirge) Series - more indurated limestones, dikes, sills, and thick sequences of greywackes that were the first orderly deposits from the ocean. These were "universal" formations extending without interruption around the world.
3. Secondary or Stratified (Flötz) Series - the remaining, obviously stratified fossiliferous rocks and certain associated "trap" rocks. These were thought to represent the emergence of mountains from beneath the ocean and were formed from the resulting products of erosion deposited on their flanks.
4. Alluvial or Tertiary (Aufgeschwemmte) Series - poorly consolidated sands, gravels, and clays formed by the withdrawal of the oceans from the continents.
5. Volcanic Series - younger lava flows demonstrably associated with volcanic vents. Werner believed that these rocks reflected the local effects of burning coal beds.

The basic concept of Wernerian geology was the belief in an all encompassing ocean that gradually receded to its present location while precipitating or depositing almost all the rocks and minerals in the Earth's crust. The emphasis on this initially universal ocean spawned the term Neptunism that became applied to the concept and it became virtually synonymous with Wernerian teaching, although Jean-Étienne Guettard in France actually originated the view. A universal ocean led directly to the idea of universal formations, which Werner believed could be recognized on the basis of lithology and superposition. He coined the term geognosy (knowledge of the earth) to define a science based on the recognition of the order, position, and relation of the layers forming the earth. Werner believed that geognosy represented fact and not theory. His followers resisted speculation, and as a result Wernerian geognosy and Neptunism became dogma and ceased to contribute to further understanding of the history of Earth.

His former student Robert Jameson, who later became Regius Professor at the University of Edinburgh, founded the Wernerian Natural History Society in 1808 honour of Werner, which, while debating many aspects of natural history, was a bastion of the Wernerian view of the earth.