During a discussion on geologic cycles one of our faculty asked where one
could find the first published diagram of the rock cycle. After a
preliminary search the oldest we could find was on page 212 in Croneis and
Krumbein, 'Down to Earth, and introduction to geology' published in 1936 by
the University of Chicago Press and this looks like a copy of an older
one. The concept, although often credited to Hutton, seems to have emerged
in the form of the diagram in the early part of the 20th century. The rock
cycle forms a part of all introductory text books but is not accredited to
any author. I might add in passing that the discussion was somewhat
critical of the uncritical use of the diagram.
Bill Cambray
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