ABSTRACT
Hooke’s system of the Earth, as expressed in his ‘Discourses of Earthquakes’ published posthumously in 1705, embodies some fundamental concepts about the Earth that are startlingly on target and markedly different from other theories of the Earth expressed by his contemporaries. His Posthumous Works include these lectures on ‘earthquakes’ given for more than a 30-year period from about 1664 to 1699.1 His most perceptive ideas about geology were expressed in the series of lectures that ended on 15 September 1668, and in the series between 28 May 1684 and toward the end of 1687. He contributed significantly to many basic concepts concerning his ‘terraqueous’ globe; some of these were: the organic origin and significance of fossils; cyclicity of the processes of sedimentation, consolidation, uplift, erosion and denudation; various processes of petrifaction; subterraneous eruptions and earthquakes; biologic evolution; oblate spheroid shape of the Earth; polar wandering; and universal gravitation.
