Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, he was born on February 12th, 1809 from a family a wealth. He initially studied at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.  A lack of interest in medicine led him to the study of the planet which then more specifically later to the study of geology. After stopping his studies of medicine, he then enrolled in the Plinian Society at Cambridge, as a student of natural history group. The Plinian Society was a club at the University of  Edinburgh for students who had an interest in the study of natural history. As Darwin became a member of this club he encountered people such as Robert Edmond Grant who viewed as a member within the society in high regards. After graduating from Cambridge with a Bachelors in 1831 it was more clear and obvious that Darwin was interested in biology and geology. This you can say was the start of his interest in the field of geology. As his interest in the study of the natural earth increased he had met many others who shared the same fascination. One of these people was a man named John Stevens Henslow. This man then later invited Darwin to join in on an expedition on the ship “Beagle” as the main geologic researcher of the voyage. The voyage was to sail along the South American coastline documenting and researching as they went along. Another man that was a high influence on the pathway that Charles Darwin choose to follow was a man named Charles Lyell, he was a famed geologist and paleontologist at that time. One of the major in influential readings that Charles Lyell had written that influenced young Charles Darwin at that time to go into studying geology was a reading called “Principles of Geology”. In this book it talked about forces such as sedimentation in rivers, erosion by wind, or deposition of ash and lava by volcanic eruptions. This is the sole concept and main principle of uniformitarianism, the reasonable assumption that the forces that acted in the past are of the same sort as those we see acting today. Which entitled the ideas that land features from the past are being seen today and will continue to change. They set off to sea on December 27th, 1831, on what turned into a 5 year voyage. The Voyage which took them all around the southern coast. The Route lasted them 5 years with many inclusive stops. This is where many the ideas of Natural Selection came into play. The concept of Natural Selection that ties into the concepts of geology is Fitness of animals to their locations. Animals had to have learned to adapt to the location in which they will be living in order to survive. But what made them have to adapt was the land features and movements of the land. Animals need to have high fitness in their environment in order to live. Natural selection gives evidence to how the land moves and alters throughout time. Upon his arrival back home he spent most of his Life after the voyage for Darwin was a lot of publishing a researching on the ideas and concepts of geological movements and natural selection. Upon his return Darwin had written five volumes within the years of 1834-1835 talking about and describing the details of the voyage. These five volumes were called “Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle”. He also gave talks for the Royal Zoological and Geological Societies. Darwin also had written another book based of the notes from his diaries and notebooks. This book was called “Voyage of the Beagle”. In his personal life Darwin had decided to get married to first cousin Emma Wedgewood on January 29, 1839. In their marriage they had 7 children. When all was done Darwin’s main peak of interest was the idea of natural selection, this was the passion of his study and he spent the majority of his life analyzing and writing about it also winning many Awards. Ultimately Charles Darwin died April 19th, 1882, but even now, long after his death, his name lives on. His contributions helped and opened up so many new views into the world of evolution and geology together on how they connect and what else is to be learned from Earth. I would consider Charles Darwin to be one of the “Fathers of geology because of his discoveries at the Galapagos islands but there are also other individuals which I believe are major contributors as well, so I cannot just say that there is only one. The way in which we study geology today can be derived from the way that it was studied back than and it was only because of certain individuals such as Darwin that we analyze and assess the planet today.