Abstract
THE centenary of the birth of Sir Archibald Geikie falls on December 28 this year; it is a fitting occasion to remind older geologists of what many of them owed to him during their earlier years for his teaching and writings, and to direct the attention of younger geologists to the changes that have come over the science since Geikie began his labours. It was his good fortune to take up geology when major principles still required documentation and exposition; he devoted much attention to the significance of denudation in the shaping of existing forms of land surface and to the results of volcanic activity, and in pursuit of field evidence travelled extensively in Europe and North America. Possessed of a logical mind, great industry and a lucid and dignified prose style—which gave him pleasure to employ—he early assumed and continued during his life to occupy a leading position as an exponent of physical geology. During his tenure of office as director-general of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom he secured opportunities for a considerable literary output, including the compilation of his great textbook, first published in 1882, which after several revisions is still in use, but how different from its successors with their lavish employment of photographic reproductions. Sir Archibald corresponded freely with his geological contemporaries abroad, worthily maintaining the status of British geology, and he received generous recognition from many foreign societies. He took an active part in the administration of scientific institutions, and held the presidency of the Royal Society in 1904 and of the British Association in 1892; but it was as a writer of readable geological literature that he earned the appreciation both of the serious student and the general reader, and made thereby an indelible mark on his epoch.
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Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924). Nature 136, 1019 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/1361019a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1361019a0