Dream Pool Essays Documents Geological Insights
1088
Among the hundreds of entries in Shen Kuo's masterwork was an observation that would not be surpassed for centuries: marine fossils found in mountain strata proved that land now far above sea level had once been ocean floor. Shen deduced that landscapes changed over vast periods through sedimentation and uplift - a proto-geological insight that anticipated Western uniformitarianism by seven hundred years. The Dream Pool Essays treated the earth as a document to be read, not merely walked upon.
In context
Also in 1088 (4 other events on record)
- University of Bologna traditionally founded · Europe · Culture
- Shen Kuo completes Dream Pool Essays · East Asia · Science
- Shen Kuo Describes the Magnetic Compass Needle · East Asia · Science
- Urban II elected pope · Europe · Religion
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Science
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.