Fundamental Tectonic Hypotheses

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, two principal approaches prevailed in geology, which were subsequently termed ‘plutonism’ and ‘neptunism’. A Scots scientist, Hutton (1726-1797), was an early ardent proponent of the first approach. He found close links between the concepts of mountain-building movements and deformation due to folding with magmatic processes. In his opinion, the magmatic melt should exert pressure on enclosing rocks in the course of its movement from the interior of the Earth’s surface, forming thereby cupolas, tectonic faults and elongated ridges. In this process, the main movements of the Earth’s crust are vertical, caused by the internal heat of the planet.