notable contributors to the development of geology
TRANSCRIPT
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Notable contributors to the development of Geology
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Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) German
Regarded as the Father of Mineralogy
Completed De Re Metallica in 1550, a systematic
treatise on mining and extractive metallurgy
De Re Metallica remained unsurpassed for two
centuries following its publication in 1556
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Archbishop James Ussher 1581-1656 Irish
First person to attempt a calculation of the age of the Earth
Based on studying the Bible and other Middle Eastern religious texts
Calculated how long it would have taken for all the stories in the texts to have been played out in real time
In 1650 calculated the age of the creation to have been nightfall preceding Sunday 23rd October 4004 BC
The date appeared in the front of Bibles until as late as 1915!
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Considered to be the first Geologist
The Law of Superposition
Principle of Original Horizontality
Principle of Lateral Continuity
Nicolaus Steno 1638-1686 Danish
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James Hutton 1726-1797 Scottish
Proposed the concept of Uniformitarianism
Discovered that Granite solidified from a molten state
Discovered angular unconformities and recognised their significance
Proposed the concept of Deep Time and Gradualism
Hutton’s unconformity at Siccar Point
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Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) French
Proposed the concept of extinction following the study of Mastodon and Giant Sloth bones
Proposed the concept of Catastrophism, whereby features of the Earth could be explained by
short-lived and infrequent catastrophic events
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William Smith 1769-1839 English
Published the first ever Geological map in 1799 (Bath area)
Published the first Geological Map of Britain in 1815
Proposed the Principle of Faunal Succession
Considered to be the ‘Father of English Geology’
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Friedrich Mohs 1773-1839 German
Devised Mohs’ Scale of Hardness for Minerals in 1812
Based on the amount of noise generated and the amount of
powder produced when minerals are rubbed against a steel file
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William Buckland (1784-1856) English
Buckland kept various animals inside his house, some dangerous. He was determined to eat every animal ever discovered, and was able to
find qualities he liked in all except the common mole, which he deemed disgusting. A table made entirely of his coprolite specimens was also in
his possessions. Did his fieldwork wearing an academic gown.
Wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur which he named Megalosaurus
Pioneer in the use of fossilized faeces, for which he coined the term coprolites,
to reconstruct ancient ecosystems
Studied bones in Kirkdale Cave Yorkshire and concluded they were not
due to the effects of the Great Flood
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Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) English
Regarded as one of the founders of modern geology
Proposed the Devonian period and later the Cambrian period of the geological time scale
Guided Darwin in his early studies of Geology but was
later an outspoken opponent of his Theory of Evolution
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Roderick Murchison (1792-1871) English
Proposed the Silurian System in 1839, the first stratigraphic division based on the fossil
content rather than rock types
Later helped clarify the Devonian System, and after a visit to Russia, The Permian
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Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Scottish
Published Principles of Geology in 1830 in 3 volumes.
A groundbreaking and influential textbook on Geology.
Believed in the principle of Uniformitarianism and challenged the accounts of
creation in Genesis in the Bible
Principles of Geology had a profound influence on Darwin and was pivotal in his ideas on evolution and natural selection
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Mary Anning 1799-1847 English
Collected and sold fossils in Lyme Regis, Dorset
Discovered the first complete Ichthyosaur, Plesiosaur and Pterosaur skeletons
The song ‘she sell seashells on the seashore’ is thought to have been written about Mary Anning
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Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) Swiss American
Referred to as the Father of Glaciology
Studied glaciers in the Swiss Alps and landscape in Scotland
Proposed that an Ice Age affected most of the Northern hemisphere
from 10,000 to 2 million years ago
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882) EnglishStudied Geology at Cambridge and was a member of the scientific
crew on ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’
Proposed the Theory of Evolution through the process of natural selection
and the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’
Published The Origin of Species in 1859
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Eduard Suess (1831-1914) Austrian
Proposed the Theory of Eustasy and the concept of marine
transgressions and regressions
Proposed the existence of a former ocean between Africa and Europe which he named the Tethys Ocean
Proposed the existence of Gondwanaland from studying the glossopteris fern in India,
South America and Africa
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Giuseppe Mercalli 1850-1914 ItalianVolcanologist who developed
the Mercalli Scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes in 1902
Based on eye-witness observations of damage at different distances
from the epicentre
Originally a ten point scale in roman numerals, later expanded to 12 points by
Charles Richter and known as the Modified Mercalli
Scale
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Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927) American
Discovered the Burgess Shale in Canada in 1909, a
Cambrian lagerstatten
Between 1910 and 1924 Walcott and his two sons collected over 65,000 specimens from what is
now known as the Walcott Quarry
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Andrija Mohorovičić (1857-1936 Croatian)
From the study of seismic waves he discovered the boundary between the crust and the mantle
This boundary is known as the Mohorovicic Discontinuity or Moho
Devised a technique for locating the epicentres of earthquakes
Early advocate of earthquake resistant construction
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Johannes Walther (1860-1937) German
The concept that a vertical succession of
facies reflects lateral changes in environment
If depositional environments "migrate" laterally, then sediments of one environment come to lie on top of another
Explained by the idea of marine transgressions/regressions
Proposed Walther’s Law of Facies
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Milutin Milankovitch (1879-1958) Serbian
Serbian civil engineer and geophysicistProposed a mechanism to explain the causes of glaciation and de-glaciation
Changes in Earth’s orbit responsible for climate change
Precession, Obliquity and Eccentricity
fluctuations known as Milankovitch Cycles
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Alfred Wegener 1880-1930 GermanProposed the Theory of Continental Drift in1915 but was unable to explain the mechanisms that caused the
movements of the continents
Produced the first supercontinent reconstruction and named it Pangea
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Norman L. Bowen (1887-1956) Canadian
Recognised as the Greatest Petrologist of the 20th Century Discovered the relationship
between temperature, pressure and the melting points of silicate minerals in what he named ‘Bowen’s Reaction
Series’. Developed Phase Diagrams to explain how minerals crystallised from melts.
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Inge Lehmann (1888-1993) Danish
Proposed in 1936 that the Earth’s core is not a single molten sphere but has a solid inner component.
Deduction based on the study of refracted P waves.
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Arthur Holmes 1890-1965 English
Considered to be the ‘Father of the Geological Timescale’
Pioneered absolute dating using radioactive isotopes
Dated the Earth as 1.6 billion years old in 1913
Revised the date of the Earth to 4,500 million years +/- 100 million years in 1950
Published the groundbreaking ‘Principles of Geology’ in 1944
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Charles Richter 1900-1985 American
Developed the Richter Scale in 1935 with colleague Beno Gutenberg for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes
Became involved in earthquake engineering and developed building codes for earthquake prone areas such as Los Angeles
Published ‘Seismicity of the Earth’ in 1941 and the second edition in 1954 is considered a standard reference in the field of Seismology
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Harry Hammond Hess (1906-1969) American
A founding father of Plate Tectonic Theory
Developed the theory of Sea Floor
Spreading Demonstrated the
relationship between Volcanic Island Arcs
and Gravity Anomalies
Involved with the Mohole Project or Deep Sea
Drilling Project
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John Tuzo Wilson (1908-1993) Canadian
Developed the Wilson Cycle a model to explain how continents rift apart and how oceans open and close
Proposed the Hot Spot theory to
explain the formation of the Hawaiian
Islands
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Mary Leakey (1913-1996) English
Discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island
and an Australopithecine called Zinianthropus at Olduvai
With husband Louis uncovered the tools and fossils of ancient hominines at Olduvai and she
discovered the Laetoli footprints
3.6 Ma
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Walter Alvarez (1940-Present) American
Developed the Asteroid Impact theory that resulted in the major
mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Boundary 65 Ma
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Joseph L. Kirschvink (1953-Present) American Paul F. Hoffman (1941-Present) Canadian
Developed the Snowball Earth Theory in 1992Suggested that during the Precambrian
between 750 and 650 million years ago the entire surface of planet Earth was encased in ice
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That’s All Folks!