Title: ‘Ideal section of a portion of the Earth’s Crust, intended to shew the order of deposition of the stratified rocks, with their relations to the unstratified rocks’

Creator: Selected and arranged by William Buckland, drawn and engraved by Joseph Fisher after original section by Thomas Webster

Description: Published in Buckland, W, ‘Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology’, London: William Pickering, 1836. (The Bridgewater treatises on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation, 6).

This section is arguably one of the most influential, and reproduced, geological images of its time.  It explains the geological history of the Earth in a horizontal manner (as opposed to the modern geological timescale which is vertical).  As its base, the section uses the geochronology popularised by the German geologist Abraham Werner (1749-1817) which split the Earth’s history into four broad time periods.  These were gradually replaced as the modern geological timescale developed during the 19th century.

Date: 1836

Format: Lithograph with hand colouring

Image reference: 07-166

Recommended print size: Up to 100 x 70cm (40in x 27in)