Logical Critical Thinking

[Moth Twiceborn]

"He's ahead of his field and out of his tree!"

 

[Yithian]

Answer: stratigraphy. Look up the work of James Hutton, 1726 - 1797.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hutton

And BTW, dating rocks by their fossils did not begin until after Hutton's death.

So your belief in the circularity of geological dating is another nonsense generalisation, like so much else you spout.

This may well be of interest to anybody who's thinking about geology and 'deep time'.

The man who discovered the 'abyss of time'​

15 MARCH 2023

In the 1700s, the geologist James Hutton identified a formation of rocks that would transform how we think about time.
In the first of three films about "deep time", journalist and author Richard Fisher traces Hutton's steps to one of geology's most important locations in Scotland. He set out to find a richer view of the past, but in doing so discovers a coastline that harbours signatures of the deep future.

Richard Fisher is a senior journalist for BBC Future, and author of The Long View.
Camera, edit and graphics: Adam Proctor
Written and presented by Richard Fisher

VIDEO TO WATCH HERE:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0f7smlm/the-man-who-discovered-the-abyss-of-time-

 

[eburacum]

Nice to see a mention of greywacke rocks there. Hutton couldn't have known it at the time, but these strata are now classed as turbidites - formed due to large underwater turbidity currents, the product of earthquakes, avalanches and tsunamis. The long, largely peaceful history of the Earth is interspersed with periods of catastrophic activity, which are now only visible as narrow layers in the rock.