How does this tie into Darwin's ideas of evolution?
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http://bbcearth.posterous.com/the-birth-of-a-new-island-on-film
The Birth of an Island
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I think this ties into his ideas and agreements with Lyell on uniformitarianism, and things in nature producing a gradual change rather than an abrupt one. According to the video this underwater volcano has errupted more than just once over the past several years, and is attempting to form something new, but it's efforts are countered by the ocean. A new island does not just appear overnight; it takes years, decades, even centuries to appear, which fits in with the view of uniformitarianism in which things take time to develop and transform.
I think this ties into Darwin's ideas because of the amount of time it is taking in order for it to evolve into an island. In order to be able to become and island it is going to have to adapt to the surroundings, in being stronger, in being able to harden into land, or through some other solution. I also think it reflects Darwin's ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest. If the volcano can't adapt to the environment and overcome the adversity it faces in the waves it wont be able to evolve into an island.
I agree with both of these comments above me. This video definitely ties in with Darwin's ideas. He also discovered fossils buried within the landscapes and realized that land had evolved over time, burying species with time as well. I have been to an island in Italy that had a volcano named "Stromboli" and I hiked up all the way to the top, and got to see the volcano erupt in action, every 10-15 minutes. It's the most active volcano and we had to stay quite far away from the center because it was still forming new structure. Apparently this volcano is not safe at all, and is suppose to have a huge eruption within the next twenty years, soon to destroy a lot of the small sicilian islands nearby.
it relates to darwin's ideas because his big focus was on how organisms and other things evolve over time. In this video, it shows the birth of an island by way of a volcanic eruption under water. Obviously there is no island directly after the erruption because it would take many (probably thousands) of eruptions to create even one small island or patch of ground.
Natural selection was the first thing that came to mind when watching this video. Darwin's theory indicates that only the strong survive. This process however takes thousands of years and is impossible for anyone to actually observe in one lifetime.