Catastrophic versus uniform views of change and the age of the earth// 地球的灾变论和均变论之争以及地球的年龄1.Ancient people quite understandably were impressed only by rapid and violent geologic processes. This led to a catastrophic view of the earth (commonly called catastrophism), which dominated European thought until 1850, Changes were thought to occur suddenly, rapidly, and devastatingly by a series of catastrophes. The most famous example of such a supposed catastrophe was, of course, the great Deluge of the old Testament, Others included volcanic eruptions at Pompeii and Thera as well as the Lisbon earthquake.// 古人往往对于快速的和猛烈的地质演化现象印象深刻，这导致了地球灾变性观点（通常称之为灾变论）在欧洲地质学界一直占主导地位，直到十九世纪五十年代，地质学家普遍认为地球演化是在一些列突发性、快速并具有灾难性的地质事件之后产生。
支持灾变论最著名的例子如旧约全书所记载的大洪水时代，其他的地质事件如意大利庞贝古城火山的爆发，锡拉岛火山爆发，里斯本大地震等也是其有效的证据。
2.A parallel idea consistent with catastrophism was a universally accepted belief that the earth was but a few thousand years old, This conception is revealed in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, written around 1600, where reference is made to the age of the earth being about 6000years, In 1654 one of several more definite pronouncement came from Anglican Archbishop Ussher, who announced that, based upon his analysis of genealogies in the Scriptures and of astronomical cycles, the word had been created in the year4004B.C. on the 23d of October! Some years later, another authority fixed an equally precise date for the great Deluge, November 18,2349 B.C. At that time, Practically all leading European intellectuals believed implicitly in a literal interpretation of the Bible, and so it is not surprising to find that a 6000-year age for the erath was gospel for fully 200 years.//与灾变论相一致的观点，且被广泛接受相信的是地球的年龄只有几千年。
这个观点是在英国大文豪莎士比亚著作于大约公元1600年的《皆大欢喜》中所揭示，文中涉及到地球的年两大约在6000年左右。
其后，相继有更明确的论点对这一观点进行佐证，其中之一，1654年，英国国教有曷休大教主声称，根据其对《圣经》中宗谱和天文周期的分析，地球是在公元前4004年10月23日创立，数年之后，另外一个更加权威、固定并同样精确的日期被计算出：大洪水时代是在公元前2349年11月18日。
在那个年代，实际上几乎欧洲所有的主要知识分子都默默的赞成《圣经》上面的解释，因此地球年龄为6000年这一观点被传播了200年就不足为奇了。
3. In the seventeenth century, the Scriptural account of Creation was a point of departure for European science. Humans were considered early comers who lived for a time in paradise. As punishment for their sins, the Deluge was sent to throw the earth’s surface into chaos. Countless creatures suddenly were buried in sediments , violent waves and currents scoured out valleys and piled up rocks to form mountains, and the earth was wracked by earthquakes and volcanic eruption. After the Flood, the mountains began to be worn down and valleys to be filled.//在17世纪，《圣经》的创作是出于对欧洲科学的记载：人类被认为是地球早期的到来者，他们之前居住在伊甸园，为了惩罚人类的罪恶，大洪水爆发，将地表陷入混乱之中，无数的生物被瞬间埋藏在土中，汹涌的洪水将地表冲刷成山谷，将石头堆积成山脉，同时，地球也遭受着地震和火山喷发的破坏。
大洪水时代过后，山脉开始被磨蚀，山谷被填平。
4.When geology emerged as a vigorous intellectual pursuit around 1800, an alternative concept of earth change began to develop. It was now argued that the same common processes observed operating today were largely responsible for all past changes imprinted in the rockrecord. A non-catastrophic or more uniform view of change thus emerged, which provided no role for miraculous or supernatural process that are scientifically unknown. It also regarded the sudden, violent phenomena as no more-and possibly less-important overall than more continuous and milder processes. The most uniform processes operate on a regularly recurring, constant pounding of surf on a shoreline and the daily rise and fall of the tides. But most of the less frequently occurring processes also must be considered geologically normal or uniform. For example, the word annually experiences about 150 major earthquakes, 20 volcanic eruptions, and countless floods, so none of these episodic events can be considered unusual or catastrophic.//1800年左右当地质学开始出现，并受到追求，蓬勃发展之时，地球变化的概念也开始发展，现在所观察到的地质现象在很大程度上是由过去所发生并记录在岩石上的地质现象基础上造成的。
因此，地球变化的非灾变论或者更加均一性的观点应运而生，这一观点认为对于神奇的或者不可思议的地质现象没有角色在操纵，它们都属于未知的科学问题。
均变论同样认为瞬间的或者猛烈的地质进程与持续的或者温和的地质地质进程相比，对于地球变化的贡献不在或者没有那么重要。
大部分的均变性的进程都有一个周期，如潮汐定期的拍打着海岸线，每天的涨潮、退潮。
但是，对于大部分非频繁发生的地质现象，在地质上，也应当认为是正常的或者均衡的，如地球每年150次大地震、20次火山喷发以及无数的洪水泛滥，因此，这些地质事件不应当认为是非正常的或者灾变性的。
5.The most extreme and dramatic flood known to geologists deserves special mention. In eastern Washington state, there is a vast region called Scablands, which has many large river channels that today have little or no water flowing through them. Detective work shows that about 22000years ago a large, glacially dammed lake in western Montana several times emptied huge volumes of water across eastern Washington. These floods were so extreme that they moved boulders as if they were but tiny sand grains and built giant ripples 10 meters high on gravel bars. The flooding water raced limit! Although the scale of these Scablands floods is staggering, even for the geologist, they can be fully explained by well-known geologic process; there is nothing miraculous about them—only their magnitude seems unique.//对地质学家来看，最为巨大的并引人注目的洪水是值得提出来的。