Sir Archibald Geikie

Sir Archibald Geikie , 1835-1924, British geologist, educated at the Univ. of Edinburgh. He joined the Geological Survey of Scotland, becoming its director in 1867. He was professor of geology at the Univ. of Edinburgh (1871-82) and director-general of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom (1882-1901). He was knighted in 1891. His numerous publications include Outlines of Field Geology (1876, 5th ed. 1896), Text-Book of Geology (1882, 4th ed., 2 vol., 1903), The Founders of Geology (1897, 2d ed. 1905), and Types of Scenery and Their Influence on Literature (1898, repr. 1970).

Bibliography: See his autobiography (1924).

His brother, James Geikie, 1839-1915, also a geologist, was a specialist in glacial geology. He wrote The Great Ice Age (1874, 3d ed. rev. 1894), Earth Sculpture (1898), and Structural and Field Geology (1905, 6th ed. 1953).

Geikie, SirArchibald (1835–1924)Director of the British Geological Survey from 1881 to 1901, Geikie made studies of glacial and fluvial erosion, and attempted to calculate the age of the Earth from rates of denudation. This led to conflict with Lord Kelvin ( William Thomson, 1824–1907), then the most eminent of British physicists and a pioneer in the study of thermodynamics, who had calculated a much shorter age for the Earth, based on its rate of cooling from an originally hot state. Geikie was also one of the first historians of geology, stressing in his Founders of Geology (1897, 1905) the importance of the work of his fellow Scot James Hutton.

Geikie, Sir Archibald (1835–1924) Although his education was in the classics and literature, Archibald Geikie exhibited a keen enthusiasm for geology in his youth, and his early geological observations in Scotland were noticed by the then Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sir Roderick Murchison. As a result, Geikie joined the Survey in 1855 at the age of 20. He became Director for Scotland in 1867 and was Director-General from 1882 until he retired in 1901. During his time at the Survey he established a programme of mapping and research priorities that has remained largely unchanged (though greatly enlarged) until today. From 1871 to 1881 he was also Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh.

Geikie made notable contributions to geology in several fields: the study of glacial deposits, erosion by rivers, igneous petrology, and stratigraphy. The work he did on volcanic rocks is generally regarded as his most important contribution; his 1888 memoir on the history of volcanic action during the Tertiary era in Britain and his two-volume book Ancient volcanoes of Great Britain are classics. His works on the glacial drift of Scotland and on the Old Red Sandstone of western Europe was also important. A celebrated conflict took place in the 1860s between Geikie and other geologists on the one hand and Lord Kelvin ( William Thomson) on the other over estimates for the age of the Earth. (Kelvin, from physical arguments, set a maximum age of for the Earth that was less than a quarter of what was envisaged by the geologists. It was subsequently shown that Kelvin had not taken account of the radioactive heat generated within the Earth.)

Geikie was one of the first people to write on the history of geology. Among other books, he also wrote a volume on the scenery of Scotland (1865), which he illustrated himself, a textbook of geology (1882), and an autobiography (1924). His many administrative activites included extended service to learned societies and to education. He was knighted in 1891 and received the Order of Merit in 1913.

D. L. Dineley