What was James Hutton's contribution to geology?

 

What was James Hutton's contribution to geology?

James Hutton (1726-1797) was a Scottish natural philosopher, but his contribution to geology was even more important: He is considered by some to be the "father of modern geology." Hutton was also an avid follower of plutonism and the author of Theory ofthe Earth, a book that emphasized several fundamentals of geology, including that the Earth was older than 6,000 years, that subterranean heat creating metamorphic material is just as important a process as rock forming from sediments laid down underwater, and that the exact same agents that are operating today created the landforms of the past, a principle also known as uniformitarianism.