Sir Roderick Impey Murchison

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Sir Roderick Impey Murchison

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison , 1792-1871, British geologist. He served in the Napoleonic Wars but after the peace turned his attention to science. In the 1830s he undertook the investigation of previously undifferentiated rock strata in Wales and England; as a result of his researches he established the Silurian as a new geologic system and described it in The Silurian System (2 vol. in 1, 1839). With Adam Sedgwick he collaborated on the establishment of the Devonian system, and after carrying on an extended survey in Russia (1840-44) he also defined and named the Permian period . His last investigations were directed toward the geology of the Scottish Highlands. In 1846 he was knighted, and in 1855 he was appointed director-general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Murchison endowed a chair of geology and mineralogy at the Univ. of Edinburgh. He revised and modified the material of his earlier work in Siluria (1854) and collaborated on the Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains (1845).

Bibliography: See biography by Sir Archibald Geikie (2 vol., 1875).

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Murchison, Sir Roderick (Impey)

The Oxford Companion to the Earth | 2000 | | © The Oxford Companion to the Earth 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Murchison, Sir Roderick (Impey) (1792–1871) In his day Roderick Impey Murchison was one of the foremost men of science in Europe. He was from a Scottish landowning family, and after serving in the Peninsular War he returned to Britain to the life of a country gentleman. In 1824, however, he settled in London to take up a vigorous interest in science. In 1825 he became a prominent member of the Geological Society and a year later was elected to the Royal Society. His private income enabled him to travel on geological excursions virtually every year, visiting much of Europe in pursuit of stratigraphical successions reaching further and further back in geological time.

He spent the next 40 years studying the Palaeozoic rocks of Britain and Europe and laying the foundation of the present stratigraphical column. From the Welsh Borderland he established the Silurian system (1835) and with Professor Adam Sedgwick of Cambridge he turned to south-west England to examine the thick succession of rocks from which H. T. De la Beche had recently obtained coal measure plant fossils. The result was the Devonian system (1840). Visits to Russia at the invitation of the Czar at this time led to the founding of the Permian system, based on his observations in Perm Province near the Urals. In the 1830s Murchison and Sedgwick found themselves in dispute about the base of the Silurian and over the years this developed into a bitter quarrel.

Relationships with De la Beche, who had become the head of the new Geological Survey were similarly strained, and Murchison now grew increasingly rigid and intolerant of scientific innovation. He was a founder of the Royal Geographical Society and a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Knighted in 1846, he succeeded De la Beche as head of the Geological Survey in 1855. In 1866 he was created Baronet.

Murchison was a splendid example of the gentleman scientist. He did on occasion make serious mistakes, but in military fashion pressed on regardless.

D. L. Dineley

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PAUL HANCOCK and BRIAN J. SKINNER. "Murchison, Sir Roderick (Impey)." The Oxford Companion to the Earth. Oxford University Press. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PAUL HANCOCK and BRIAN J. SKINNER. "Murchison, Sir Roderick (Impey)." The Oxford Companion to the Earth. Oxford University Press. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (December 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O112-MurchisonSirRoderickImpey.html

PAUL HANCOCK and BRIAN J. SKINNER. "Murchison, Sir Roderick (Impey)." The Oxford Companion to the Earth. Oxford University Press. 2000. Retrieved December 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O112-MurchisonSirRoderickImpey.html

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Murchison, Roderick Impey

A Dictionary of Earth Sciences | 1999 | | © A Dictionary of Earth Sciences 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Murchison, Roderick Impey (1792–1871) A gentleman of private means who devoted much of his life to science, Murchison turned professional when he became director of the Geological Survey in 1855. His Silurian System (1839) was the first stratigraphic system defined by fossil content, rather than lithology. He helped clarify the Devonian System and, after a visit to Russia, the Permian.

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AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Murchison, Roderick Impey." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Murchison, Roderick Impey." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (December 5, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-MurchisonRoderickImpey.html

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Murchison, Roderick Impey." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Retrieved December 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-MurchisonRoderickImpey.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Four Centuries of Geological Travel: The Search for Knowledge on Foot, Bicycle, Sledge and Camel.
Magazine article from: Geoscience Canada; 9/1/2008

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Sir Roderick Impey Murchison: (1792-1871) Pioneering Scottish geologist Roderick Murchison was instrumental in the identification and naming of several geological time periods.(Late Great Geographers #56)
Magazine article from: Geographical; 6/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; What was his background? Roderick Impey Murchison was born on 22 February 1792...English residence. At 32, Murchison gave up his idleness and turned...the distinguished chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, Murchison began to attend lectures at...
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Newspaper article from: Evening News - Scotland; 12/9/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...century Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Murchison that they travelled...birth. In 1841, Sir Roderick named one of the periods...discover more about Murchison. They were seeking...FACTS: Sir Roderick Impey Murchison was born on...
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Magazine article from: The Mineralogical Record; 7/1/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...The famous British geologist, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), and the French...Koksharov was assigned to serve as Murchison's aide-de-camp. During...districts of European Russia." Murchison himself always attributed Koksharov...
Anniversaries
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 2/19/1994; 700+ words ; ...cellist and composer, 1743; Sir William Fairbairn, engineer, 1789; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, geologist, 1792; Adelina Patti...novelist, 1917. Deaths: Sir Henry Savile, scholar and philanthropist...
Putting a face to the age of democracy
Newspaper article from: Scotland on Sunday; 4/7/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...Scots of the past. Who any longer knows anything about 14th century poet John Barber or 19th century geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, both of whom feature on the gallery walls? Even in their own centuries these men were hardly feted in the...
Four Centuries of Geological Travel: The Search for Knowledge on Foot, Bicycle, Sledge and Camel.
Magazine article from: Geoscience Canada; 9/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...Many readers will be aware that Charles Lyell and Roderick Impey Murchison and his wife Charlotte travelled to France and northern...fieldtrips. Karl Ludwig Giesecke (later also known as Sir Charles Lewis Giesecke) has a chapter devoted to his...

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