Time-space patterns; the natural laws of geology

Both Hall (1859) and Wilson (1965) discovered patterns that have changed the way that we think about geology and the way that we see the world, by focusing our attention on new interrelationships. The patterns involve time-space relations rather than functional relations between variables, but are used in the same way as the classic natural laws of physics and chemistry. These patterns have been used to make predictions, indicate important parameters to quantify and identify new types of questions to ask.