This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Image of the Week #26, January 16th, 2011:
From:Deciphering the Layers of the Earth by David Bressan at History of Geology
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Proof that good science – even in the 18th century! – can start by relying heavily on observation and recording a visual record, David Bressan presents to us this Image of the Week in his post Deciphering the Layers of the Earth. From Bressan’s post:
In a booklet with the title Ragguaglio di una grotta ove vi sono molte ossa di belve diluviane nei Monti Veronesi (Description of a cave in the mountains of Verona where many bones of beasts from the deluge can be observed) the engineer and cartographer Gregorio Piccoli del Faggiol (1680-1755) published in 1739 a topographic map of the Italian Dolomites correlated with a sort of stratigraphic column. This column shows layers only some meters thick in sequence as observed in the field. This work, nearly forgotten at its time and still today, is maybe the oldest figure of this kind (image in public domain).