Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A geological doctrine, chiefly developed and supported by A. G. Werner (1750–1817), professor in the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony, according to which the ancient crystalline schists and gneisses and even later basalts when inter-stratified with obvious sedimentary rocks, were precipitated from solution in the ocean: also Wernerianism: the opposite of Plutonism or Huttonianism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun historical A discredited scientific theory of geology, held by many scientists around the late 18th century and early 19th century, that rocks were formed from the crystallisation of minerals in the early Earth's oceans.

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