A Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I thought this book was an interesting concept and probably a great way for people to envision geologic superposition stratigraphy in the 19th century. The idea that a world that was completely different biologically in Earth's past had to be a hard concept for the non-scientific community to envision in the 1800's. Although Verne's characters describe a concept contrary to James Hutton's uniformitarianism and to be more of a catastrophism geologic history of earth's crust. Verne's "underworld" was thought up the basis of the catastrophism. "[It] can be explained both simply and geologically. At a certain period, the earth consisted only of an elastic crust, liable to alternative upward and downward movements in virture of the law of attraction. It is very probable that many a landslip took place in those days, and that large portions of sedimentary soil were." The time period of this book coincides with the deteriorating hypothesis of the Hollow Earth theory theory in the scientific community. Although this book is quite in support of that theory. What's also interesting is that the practice of carving one's initials in the rock to guide future explorers just like Arne Saknussemm (AS) began with this book. This was my first Jules Verne read but I don't think it will be my last.



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