Le dilemme des montagnes au XVIIIe siècle : vers une réhabilitation des diluvianistes? / François Ellenberger.
Abstract:
"The theories of the Earth of the great British and Swiss catastrophists of the late 17th and early 18th centuries were very harshly judged by the partisans of uniformitarianism. An impartial examination, however, shows that the latter eluded numerous problems and, in particular, too often eliminated tectonics with the Flood; moreover, they provided a poor explanation for the process of sedimentation by the mere natural shifting of the sea over land. Where the catastrophists went wrong was in accelerating Time beyond all measure. With that proviso, some of their visions were often ahead of their time; such is the case with Woodward in stratigraphy or Louis Bourguet for orogenesis." From the English abstract.
Revue d'histoire des sciences T. 31 (1978), p. 43-52