Page 35 - i1052-5173-30-6

Figure 2. Iceberg grating along the sea-bottom and depositing mud and boul-
ders—drawing by Geikie in his first book, The Story of a Boulder (London, Mac-
millan, 1858). Note the ship for scale.

both these positions until 1881.) Also in 1871, Geikie married
Anna Alice Gabrielle Pignatel (1852–1918), a French-born musi-
cian (with an English mother and French father). The couple had
four children: Lucy, Roderick, Elsie, and Gabrielle.
Figure 3. Geikie’s landscape painting of Boulder Canyon, Colorado, USA, dur-
MANY-FOLD CONTRIBUTIONS ing his visit to the American West in 1879 (courtesy of Haslemere Educational
Geikie is reputed for his pioneering mapping of various parts of Museum; for more artwork by Geikie, go to http://www.haslemeremuseum
.org.uk/databases/geikiewebproject/geikie.php).
Scotland. In 1865, at age 30, he published The Scenery of Scotland
Viewed in Connection to Its Physical Geology (360 pages) to of these essays are collected in Geological Sketches at Home and
accompany the geological map of Scotland (with Murchison). This Abroad (1882) and Landscape in History and Other Essays (1898).
seminal work was expanded to 540 pages in its third edition in His skills in landscape painting made his publications and reports
1901. Geikie’s mapping of Scotland was not without blunders, more attractive. Cutter (1974) compiled Geikie’s publications, list-
however. In The Highlands Controversy, Oldroyd (1990) has ing 246 reports, articles, biographies, reviews, and books.
shown how the simple Silurian mapping of a large part of the In 1881, Geikie resigned from Edinburgh University. In 1882,
Scottish Highlands by the aging Murchison and his young protégé the Survey transferred him to London, where he succeeded Sir
Geikie in 1860 turned out to be inaccurate, because the region was Andrew Ramsay as director-general of the Geological Survey of
structurally complex and metamorphosed as revealed by the field the UK as well as director of the Museum of Practical Geology.
mapping of Charles Lapworth in the 1880s. Geikie acknowledged He retained these positions until his retirement in 1901.
his error much later, in 1907. Geikie corresponded with and met with many leading geologists
Geikie investigated volcanic terrains on British islands and of his day in the UK and overseas. Aside from two dozen obituar-
attempted to understand the processes of volcanic eruptions. ies published in Nature and book-length memoirs of Edward
He particularly tried to categorize volcanic rock records based on Forbes (1861), Sir Roderick Murchison (1875), Sir Andrew
their processes and in relation to specific igneous structures— Ramsay (1895), and John Mitchell (1918), Geikie also delivered a
vents, craters, fissures, dikes, plateaus basalts, and so forth. His series of lectures on The Founders of Geology at Johns Hopkins
two-volume treaties, The Ancient Volcanoes of Britain, published University in 1897, in which he summarized Hutton’s principle of
in 1897, summarized his 25-year work in this field. uniformitarianism in the famous maxim “the present is the key to
Geikie made significant contributions to the study of glacial the past” (Geikie, 1905, p. 299)
terrains, drifts, erratic boulders, and ice ages in Scotland, docu-
mented in his 1863 monograph, On the Phenomena of the Glacial LATER LIFE
Drift of Scotland. He pioneered the idea that rivers and glaciers Geikie served as president of the Geological Society (London) from
were the main agents of denudation and sculpturing of landforms. 1890 to 1892 and was reselected for a second term (1906–1908) to
To observe these phenomena first-hand in an active erosional preside over the centenary celebrations of the Geological Society in
setting, Geikie journeyed to Utah, Wyoming, and Yellowstone in 1907. Geikie was also closely associated with the Royal Society in
1879 (Sorkhabi, 2019). London. He served as its secretary (1903–1908) and president (1908–
1913)—the only geologist to serve as the president to this date.
TEACHER AND WRITER Although not a college graduate, Archibald Geikie received
Geikie was a popular teacher. At the end of each geology course, honorary doctorates from 15 universities in Britain and continen-
he would take students on a 10-day field trip. Geikie’s classes tal Europe and several reputed scientific awards, including the
included women students as well. His textbooks, especially Murchison Medal (1881) and Wollaston Medal (1895) of the
Textbook of Geology (first published in 1882, with a fourth edition Geological Society, and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society
in 1905), were widely used in the UK and the USA. Geikie was also (1896). He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1891, became a
a prolific and influential popularizer of geology. He wrote a large Knighted Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1907, and
number of essays explaining geologic features to the public; many received the Order of Merit from Edward VII in 1913.
www.geosociety.org/gsatoday 35