灾变论 (catastrophism) was championed by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier (
居维叶) in the early 19th century. It held that Earth's geological features came from sudden, large-scale catastrophes (floods, earthquakes). It was largely displaced by Lyell's
渐变论 (jiànbiànlùn, uniformitarianism / gradualism) until 20th-century work on impact events partially rehabilitated catastrophic explanations.
