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catastrophism

 - 4 dictionary results

ca⋅tas⋅tro⋅phism

  [kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm]
Use catastrophism in a Sentence
–noun Geology.
the doctrine that certain vast geological changes in the earth's history were caused by catastrophes rather than gradual evolutionary processes.
Origin:
1865–70; catastrophe + -ism

Related forms:
ca⋅tas⋅tro⋅phist, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ca·tas·tro·phism   (kə-tās'trə-fĭz'əm)   
n.  

  1. Geology The doctrine that major changes in the earth's crust result from catastrophes rather than evolutionary processes.

  2. The prediction or expectation of cataclysmic upheaval, as in political or social developments.

ca·tas'tro·phist n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

catastrophism [(kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm)]

A theory holding that changes in the Earth take place swiftly and irreversibly. (Contrast gradualism.)

Note: A belief in Noah's flood is one version of catastrophism.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia

catastrophism

doctrine that explains the differences in fossil forms encountered in successive stratigraphic levels as being the product of repeated cataclysmic occurrences and repeated new creations. This doctrine generally is associated with the great French naturalist Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). One 20th-century expansion on Cuvier's views, in effect, a neocatastrophic school, attempts to explain geologic history as a sequence of rhythms or pulsations of mountain building, transgression and regression of the seas, and evolution and extinction of living organisms

Learn more about catastrophism with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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