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What did Louis Agassiz argue in his 1837 address to the Helvetian Society?
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Louis Agassiz
An undated engraving of Louis Agassiz.
In his 1837 address to the Helvetian Society, Louis Agassiz proposed that the Earth had experienced a geologically recent period of intense refrigeration.1
He argued that during this time, glacial ice had covered Eurasia, extending from the North Pole down to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Caspian Sea. Agassiz contended that the presence of erratics, till, and striated rock pavements served as evidence of this widespread glacial catastrophe, challenging the prevailing view that these features were the result of a biblical deluge.1