The man who discovered the 'abyss of time' - BBC News

Time is so unfathomably big. To be able to physically touch something that existed when humanity was not even at its infancy is sublime.

These two men are IDENTICAL

I've been trying to come to terms with big time, the changing of things on geological scales. Its helped me to frame my life, to put myself and my wants and desires, my ideas of legacy and impermanence on a new scale of importance... and ultimately we are all unimportant. This great civilization is a blink, and we are like falling leaves, one shell on the beach. So love when you can, laugh when you can, do what you can... or sit quietly and watch the clouds roll by. All we have is this humble moment.

These two men could be brothers

Scotland is such an amazing place geologically, with some parts once attached to the rocks east of Manhattan Island, New York!

Fascinating how Hutton was able to calculate such a huge difference in the age of the Earth from what was commonly accepted.

I'm a huge James Hutton fan and geology buff so this is very enjoyable. I love his 'no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end'. What a beautiful description of the immensity of time. It's mind-blowing if you think about it for a bit.

That's the wrong James Hutton at 0:41 - that's another James Hutton who was a minister/bookseller who died in 1795. The National Portrait Gallery you licensed the image from literally has the details in the description.

I fell in love with geology in the first intro course I took to fulfill the general physical science requirement. I immediately switched my academic course to geology and went on to become an environmental geologist. What a wonderful career I had, I am now retired. This career offers the two things all workers most want: autonomy and variety I was never bored once in my career. The salary and benefits are very good, and there is lots of opportunity for travel, too. There is math through calculus, chemistry and physics to get through, but if I can do it, anyone can. I encourage any person who loves the environment and working outdoors to consider it as a career, geologists consistently report the highest job satisfaction over workers of every other career.

wow he managed to clone himself and talk a lot about rocks all in the same video

Loved the photography. Scotland is such a unique country, not just the shoreline but the highlands as well. So much history written in its various layers of rock and sediments over billions of years, it is truly an environment worth exploring.

Siccar point is the most sacred place in the world for geologists. The Bethlehem and Mecca of Geology

Hutton is my favourite scientific figure from history. Thrawn, often unkempt and (some say) quite uncouth, his leap of imagination is simply one of the most staggering insights ever made by a human. And that thrawnness was essential too; essential to stand up to received wisdom in the more learned scientific community and defy the political power of dogmatic religious belief. What a man!

One can only imagine how Leonardo da Vinci must have felt when he found seashells high up in the Alps . .

It's been ages since I took college geology courses, so thanks for reminding me about Hutton. Science aside, these two men sure look alike and could pass for siblings. 😊

Imagine how much Hutton's mind was blown when he realised what he was looking at.🤯

Wow, magnificent! Thank you. You kept me scratching my head when mentioning "a sudden surge of sediments about 65 million years ago when the 2 formation rocks met". 65M years ago - everything is relative in this time scale - coincides with the Chicxulub asteroid which hit the Earth during the Cretaceous–Paleogene era causing the large fauna to disappear and a mega tsunami to reach far away lands. May such an impact have caused the gap (edited, thanks Hugh) in Sicca Point? I live in the Mayan Riviera, several miles away from the underwater crater in a region surrounded by sinkholes or cenotes. That makes me often question about the Icaiche formation (today's Yucatan Peninsula), prior and after the impact and how it impacted farther lands.

She has a great voice

What a beautiful piece. Congratulations to the authors/ creators for a wonderfully assembled vignette.

It’s really hard to break out of your own self importance and realize how big time is, how vast space is, then get walloped by the realization that time and space are kind of the same thing. Most people get uncomfortable for a moment before scurrying back to their little burrows of the the all important, everlasting familiar daily routine. I try to keep my mind swimming in the thought of endlessness before the real world comes to drag me back to its trifle.