Shen Kuo · Science
From seashells stranded high in the Taihang mountains, Shen Kuo inferred ancient shorelines; from petrified bamboo in dry northern Yanzhou, vanished climates; from silt and erosion, the slow building of land. It is geomorphology and deep time, reached by pure reasoning from evidence.
You learned that Shen Kuo reasoned from mountain fossils to former seashores, from petrified bamboo to ancient climate change, and from silt deposition to the gradual formation of land - inferring a long, changing history of the earth from present evidence alone. Explain how each inference works and what they share.
Leads to Charles Lyell.
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