Two recent erroneous predictions made by geologists

There are two important and relatively recent geological predictions that mainstream geology had to change its mind:

1. The belief in the expanding Earth theory in the early 20th century, which proposed that the Earth's surface was expanding and that new land was constantly being created. This theory was disproved through more accurate measurements of the Earth's size and shape. Evolutionary biologists always believed that the continents used to be connected but the theory of continental drift, which had been around for decades, was largely dismissed by geologists until the 1960s.

2. The prediction of a major volcanic eruption at Mount St. Helens in the 1980s, which was based on an increase in seismic activity and deformation of the volcano's dome. Most of those geologists worked with  the prestigious United States Geological Survey (USGS). While the volcano did eventually erupt, the eruption was smaller and less destructive than predicted.

 It is important to note that scientific predictions are always subject to revision and improvement as new data becomes available, and these examples are not meant to discredit the work of geologists, but to show that even with the best data and models, geological predictions can be wrong sometimes.