catastrophistes
Catastrophistes, or catastrophists, are proponents of catastrophism in geology and related sciences. They argued that the Earth's features result largely from sudden, brief, violent events—such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or other cataclysms—rather than from slow, continuous processes operating over long timescales.
Historically, catastrophism gained prominence in the 18th and early 19th centuries in competition with uniformitarianism. Notable
Catastrophists maintained that large-scale changes could occur in relatively short periods, explaining abrupt transitions in strata
With the rise of uniformitarian geology in the mid-19th century, led by James Hutton and, especially, Charles