c. 1610-1669

Norwegian theologian remembered for authoring Geologia norvegica (1657)—the first scientific treatise printed in Norway and one of the first books published in Norwegian. In the work Escholt describes the April 24, 1657, Norwegian earthquake. He held that earthquakes were portents of divine intervention in the world, though their production by God was occasioned by physical causes—principally escaping air from Earth's interior. He also was the first to use "geology" in its modern sense of Earth science.