Abstract
The evolution of the geology as a natural science in Mexico and its bearing upon the different utilitarian activities in the country during almost four centuries, may be analysed in two major arbitrarily established periods; one before and the other after Charles Lyell.
Information from the epoch of tbe Conquest tends to indicate that the native inhabitants did not cultiva te the geology (sensu lato) and that the recently arrived Spaniards, although were successful in discovering important mineral deposits, they succeeded through empirical prospecting. European travelers and naturalists, on the basis of their observations and experiences in the New World, described minerals, fossils, earthquakes and volcanoes, and one of them even proposed the hypothesis regarding the former connection of Europe, Asia, Africa and America -several centuries before one would speak about Pangea, continental drift and plate tectonics… In order to continue, download the full text in PDF.
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