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How did uniformitarianism differ from catastrophism in early geology?

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Faux amphibolite — geology A rock formation called “faux amphibolite,” from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in northern Quebec, dated to 4.28 billion years ago.

In early geology, the debate between uniformitarianism and catastrophism centered on how Earth’s features were formed and the nature of geological change.1

Catastrophism was the prevailing view in the early 19th century. It posited that Earth’s history was shaped by a series of sudden, violent, and often supernatural events, such as the biblical Flood. Proponents, such as Georges Cuvier, used this doctrine to explain the differences in fossil records as the result of repeated extinctions and new creations caused by these cataclysms.12
Uniformitarianism, championed by James Hutton and later Charles Lyell, argued that the present is the key to the past. It suggests that the same physical, chemical, and biological processes observed today have operated throughout Earth's history with similar intensity. Rather than relying on supernatural explanations, uniformitarianism asserts that gradual, continuous processes—like weathering and sedimentation—are sufficient to account for all geological changes over vast spans of time.3145

Ultimately, the scientific community moved toward the uniformitarian view as geological phenomena became better understood through the advancement of physics, chemistry, and biology.1