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In geology, catastrophism is the belief that Earth's features—including mountains, valleys, and lakes—were created suddenly as a result of great catastrophes, such as floods or earthquakes. This is the opposite of uniformitarianism, the view held by many present-day scientists that Earth's features developed gradually over long periods of time.

Catastrophism developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when tradition and even the law forced scientists to use the Bible as a scientific document. Theologians (religious scholars) of the time believed Earth was only about 6,000 years old (current scientific research estimates Earth to be 4.5 billion years old). Based on this thinking and the supernatural events described in the book of Genesis in the Bible, geologists concluded that fossils of ocean-dwelling organisms were found on mountain tops because of Noah's flood. The receding flood waters also carved valleys, pooled...