Charles Lyell was a Scottish geologist who popularized the revolutionary work of James Hutton.

He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which presented uniformitarianism–the idea that the Earth was shaped by the same scientific processes still in operation today–to the broad general public.

Principles of Geology also challenged theories popularized by Georges Cuvier, which were the most accepted and circulated ideas about geology in Europe at the time.