His Principles of Physical Geology, ending with a chapter on continental drift, was published in 1944.

He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today.

The frontispiece from Principles of Geology

Elements of Geology began as the fourth volume of the third edition of Principles: Lyell intended the book to act as a suitable field guide for students of geology.

From 1830 to 1833 his multi-volume Principles of Geology was published.

In various revised editions ( 12 in all, through 1872 ), Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century, and did much to put geology on a modern footing.

In Principles of Geology ( first edition, vol.

* Principles of Geology 1st edition, 1st vol.

* Principles of Geology 1st edition, 2nd vol.

* Principles of Geology 1st edition, 3rd vol.

* Principles of Geology 2nd edition, 1st vol.

* Principles of Geology 2nd edition, 2nd vol.

* Principles of Geology 3rd edition, 4 vols.

* Principles of Geology 4th edition, 4 vols.

* Principles of Geology 5th edition, 4 vols.

* Principles of Geology 6th edition, 3 vols.

* Principles of Geology 7th edition, 1 vol.

* Principles of Geology 8th edition, 1 vol.

* Principles of Geology 9th edition, 1 vol.

* Principles of Geology 10th edition, 1866 – 68

* Principles of Geology 11th edition, 2 vols.

* Principles of Geology 12th edition, 2 vols.

* Principles of Geology 1st edition at ESP: Electronic Scholarly Publishing.

Charles Darwin was influenced by Lyell's Principles of Geology, which explained both uniformitarian methodology and theory.

Lyell's wife died in 1873, and two years later Lyell himself died as he was revising the twelfth edition of Principles.

Lyell asked Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, to search for erratic boulders on the survey voyage of the Beagle, and just before it set out FitzRoy gave Darwin Volume 1 of the first edition of Lyell's Principles.

Lyell's acceptance of natural selection, Darwin's proposed mechanism for evolution, was equivocal, and came in the tenth edition of Principles.

* Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, or the Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants, Considered as Illustrative of Geology

As quoted from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology:

He read Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and from the first stop ashore, at St. Jago, found Lyell's uniformitarianism a key to the geological history of landscapes.

Darwin borrowed Charles Lyell's argument in Principles of Geology that the record is extremely imperfect as fossilisation is a very rare occurrence, spread over vast periods of time ; since few areas had been geologically explored, there could only be fragmentary knowledge of geological formations, and fossil collections were very poor.

Uniformitarianism was formulated by Scottish naturalists in the late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist James Hutton, which was refined by John Playfair and popularised by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830.

From 1830 to 1833 Charles Lyell's multi-volume Principles of Geology was published.

Intrigued by the ideas of gradual formation of landscapes set out in Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, he wrote to Lyell on 20 February 1836 praising the book as a work which would bring " a complete revolution in subject, by altering entirely the point of view in which it must thenceforward be contemplated.

Herbivore is the anglicized form of a modern Latin coinage, herbivora, cited in Charles Lyell's 1830 Principles of Geology.

As quoted from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology:

Fallopio argued against Fracastoro's theory of fossils, as described as follows in Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology:

Before they left England FitzRoy gave Darwin a copy of the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, a book the captain had read that explained terrestrial features as the outcome of a gradual process taking place over extremely long periods.

Even back in the early 18th century, Plutonists had argued for an ancient Earth, but the full impact of the depth of time involved in the Pre-Adamitic period was not commonly accepted until uniformitarianism as presented in Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology of 1830.

Frontispiece of Lyell's Principles of Geology

As quoted from Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology:

The book was inspired by Charles Lyell's Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man of 1863 ( and probably also influenced by Lyell's earlier ground-breaking work " Principles Of Geology ", published 1830 – 33 ).

Before they left England FitzRoy gave Darwin a copy of the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, the subject which would be his primary work.

Influenced by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, he became an able geologist as well as collecting plant and animal specimens, and fossils of gigantic extinct mammals.

Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology states that in 1596,