How do you think the principle of uniformitarianism accounts for occasional catastrophic events such as meteorite impacts, huge volcanic eruptions, or great earthquakes?

Question

anonymous · Answer

get a quick medal:)

anonymous · Answer

The principle of uniformitarianism states that the present is the key to the past. So processes we see occurring nowadays will have probably (almost certainly) taken place in a similar fashion in the past. I suppose you could flip the theory and state that if in the past there were these catastrophic events, then there's no reason why things such as meteorites, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes on a huge scale couldn't happen nowadays. If a meteorite struck earth a million years ago then there's a chance that one could hit us tomorrow.