28 | Great Geologists
The “ideal section” of the geological succession of the Paris Basin as summarized by Cuvier and Brongniart in 1811. This novel
geological log was the basis for reconstructing the succession as a series of changing paleoenvironments marked by abrupt
boundaries. This in turn contributed to Cuvier’s ideas that the Earth history was punctuated by revolutions or catastrophes.
Modern sequence stratigraphers will not be surprised that the boundaries between environmental change are abrupt given the
“up systems tract” position of the succession.