The doctrine of held that the major features of the surface of the earth were created by sudden, short-lived, violent events.

The correct answer to the following question will be "Catastrophism".

Explanation:

The idea that perhaps the World has been largely influenced by abrupt, close to the end-lived, tragedies, probably of magnitude nationwide, is Catastrophism.This would be opposed to modern cosmology, in which gradual incremental improvements including erosion produced all the physical attributes of the Earth.This could mean that the mountain was formed not by imperceptibly gradual improvement and erosion in a singular sudden occurrence such as from an earthquake.

Therefore, it's the right answer.