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ROCK STARS
Archibald Geikie (1835–1924): A Pioneer

Scottish Geologist, Teacher, and Writer

Rasoul Sorkhabi, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA; rsorkhabi@egi.utah.edu

years later, but there he learned how to write reports. Meanwhile,
he read every geology book he could find, including John
Playfair’s Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, Henry de la
Beche’s Geological Manual, Charles Lyell’s Principles of
Geology, and Hugh Miller’s The Old Red Sandstone.

BECOMING A GEOLOGIST
In the summer of 1851, while the Great Exhibition in London
was attracting so many people, Geikie decided instead to visit the
Island of Arran in the Clyde estuary and study its geology, aided
by a brief report by Andrew Ramsay of the British Geological
Survey. Geikie came back with a report titled “Three weeks in
Arran by a young geologist,” published that year in the Edinburgh
News. This report impressed Hugh Miller so much that the
renowned geologist invited its young author to discuss geology
over a cup of tea. Miller became Geikie’s first mentor. In this
period, Geikie became acquainted with local scientists and pri-
vately studied chemistry, mineralogy, and geology under Scottish
naturalists, such as George Wilson, Robert Chambers, John
Fleming, James Forbes, and Andrew Ramsay—to whom he con-
fessed his desire to join the Geological Survey.
In 1853, Geikie visited the islands of Skye and Pabba off the coast
Figure 1. Archibald Geikie as a young geolo- of Scotland and reported his observations of rich geology, including
gist in Edinburgh. (Photo courtesy of the
British Geological Survey, probably taken in finds of Liassic fossils. Hugh Miller arranged for him to exhibit
the mid-1860s.) these fossil finds at the Royal Physical Society’s meeting that
year—his first presentation at a professional gathering. Geikie’s
reports of Skye and Pabba were published in 1858 in Quarterly
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Journal of Geological Society of London and Proceedings of the
Archibald Geikie was born into a middle-class family in Edinburgh Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, respectively. Recently,
in 1835. He was the eldest child of James Stuart Geikie (1811–1883), Betterton (2019) has provided the unpublished reports of Geikie’s
a chemist and musician, and Isabella Laing Thom (1808–1895), early fieldwork, which demonstrate the literary, scientific, and
daughter of a captain in the merchant marines. The family was to painting skills of the young geologist.
welcome seven other children during the following seventeen years. In 1854, Geikie entered the University of Edinburgh but had to
His father owned a perfume shop and was also a church musician leave without graduation due to family financial problems resulting
and later a music critic for The Statesman. He took his son to concerts from Geikie’s younger brother William’s involvement in 1855 of
in Edinburgh, which gave Geikie a taste for music. stabbing a man. Shortly thereafter, when Sir Roderick Murchison,
Geikie entered Mr. Black’s School at age seven and proved to the director-general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,
be an outstanding student, and in 1845, he matriculated at the asked Miller to introduce a young geologist to map the East Lothian
Edinburgh High School (now the Royal High School), which district (a project begun by John Ramsay), Miller at once recom-
James Hutton had attended. Geikie enjoyed studying Latin and mended Geikie. Thus, at age 20, Geikie began working at the
Greek classics as well as natural history and geology. His passion Geological Survey, just a year after he had left the university.
for geology was stimulated by finding Carboniferous fossils dur- Geikie’s excellent fieldwork at the Survey as well as his first
ing Saturday trips south of Edinburgh. Later he recalled that he major publication in 1858, The Story of a Boulder or Gleanings
was impressed by the fact that the sedimentary rocks contained from the Note-book of a Field Geologist, impressed Murchison,
fossils of plants and animals never seen by humans. The rich geol- who became Geikie’s second and most powerful mentor. When a
ogy of Scotland indeed attracted many minds, including Geikie’s separate branch of the Geological Survey for Scotland was
younger brother James Murdoch Geikie (1839–1915), who also founded in 1867, Murchison nominated Geikie (at age 32!) to
became a geologist. become its director. Murchison also established a chair for pro-
At age 15, Geikie apprenticed in a law office as preparation for fessor of geology and mineralogy in 1871 at the University of
a banking career. He found the legal work boring and left it two Edinburgh and appointed Geikie the first professor. (Geikie held

34 GSA Today | June 2020