Final answer:
Georges Cuvier is most closely associated with catastrophism, a theory that explains geological and biological changes as the result of sudden and violent natural disasters.
Step-by-step explanation:
Georges Cuvier is most closely associated with catastrophism. Catastrophism is the theory that Earth's geological features and the history of life were shaped predominantly by sudden, short-lived, violent events, such as floods or earthquakes. Contrasted with uniformitarianism, which suggests gradual changes over long periods, catastrophism explains the existence of fossils and the concept of extinction by proposing that natural disasters have periodically wiped out large numbers of species, and that the affected areas were either repopulated by surviving species or inhabited by new forms of life.