Humankind has had an intimate association with the Earth from the first tentative footsteps of those early hominids to our current insatiable need for minerals and fossil fuels. Undoubtedly our early ancestors were aware of geological deposits, whether they were a source of flint for hand tools or clay for cave paintings or body adornment and clearly the origins of the science stretch way back into the early history of man. Adobe to build dwellings or the source of ochre for cave paintings may have been the first venture into sources of materials for the use of mankind. Later stones and clay would have become important as building materials or for brick making. Certainly the ancient Egyptians were using bricks in their less ambitious constructions and to deny that there was no understanding of the local geology when it came to the quarrying of stone for the Egyptian pyramids would have been naive indeed. Herodotus, 484 to 426 BC, made many significant geological observations, speculating about the effect of earthquakes on landscapes, but ascribed their causes to Poseidon. Pliny the Elder (AD 23 to 79) lost his life tramping around the slopes of Vesuvius during the eruption that destroyed Pompeii. His reasoning was that earthquakes were a result of Earth's resentment against those that mutilated and plundered her for gain.
Christianity put scientific enquiry literally into the dark ages due to an all encompassing theory for the cause of everything, and besides it was thought that the Earth was a very young place, doomsday was nigh, and therefore the study of the machinations of the planet would be a pointless exercise. Inconsiderately doomsday did not arrive which got some individuals wondering about the natural world. In addition the increasing preoccupation during the Middle Ages with alchemy kick started a scientific process which continues to this day. Leonardo da Vinci, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, brave and brilliant philosophers and scientists all, drove some of the first nails into the coffin of ignorance, holding high the light of knowledge for those who would see.
However the first real attempt on a treatise on geology was made by Scottish farmer James Hutton in an inaccessible 1795 tome titled 'A Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations.' He might have passed into geological obscurity if it wasn't for a certain John Playfair who rewrote the book on Hutton's death, making it possible for mere mortals to grasp the concepts that Hutton had so obscurely written about. At that time natural philosophers were divided into two camps - the Neptunists, who believed that everything on Earth, including sea shells on lofty peaks, were due to rising and falling sea levels, and the Plutonists, who noted that volcanoes and earthquakes continually changed the face of the planet and that seas were not the agents which the Neptunists believed. Plutonists also raised difficult questions such to the whereabouts of all the water during periods of tranquillity, a period we are experiencing now. Hutton's insights threw some light on the matter, thanks to his keen eye and a close identification with the land thanks to his farming background. He observed the formation of soils, and their erosion and transport to other locales. He realised that over time this erosion of the high ground and the infilling of the lows would leave a planet smooth and devoid of topography. However everywhere he looked there were hills and mountains, particularly so in his native Scotland. He realised that there had to be some process that renewed and uplifted the landscape the keep the cycle going. Those pesky fossils on the mountain tops had not been deposited by floods, but had been lifted there, along with the mountains themselves. Heat within the Earth was the driving force of all this activity, or so ran the thoughts of Mr Hutton. Interestingly some of these thoughts have only been vindicated in the last 40 years or so. More importantly however was the idea that these processes required immense periods of time - far more than anyone had as yet ever conceived.