Famous Geologists

Blue HernandezBryson Avenue Elementary

Magnet School Mrs. Flores -4th Grade

September 2009

What does a geologist do?A geologist is a scientist

that deals with the history of the earth

as recorded in the composition, structure,

and origin of rocks.

Famous Geologist• James Hutton•Mary Anning• Andrew Lawson• Friedrich Mohs• Alfred Wegener

James Hutton(1726-1797)

• He is the father of modern geology.• He did careful observations of rocks and how

it tells of the earth.• He believed that rocks form from fire.• The rocks tell of the earth’s history• “The present is the key to the past.”

Mary Anning(1799-1847)

• The greatest fossilist the world ever knew.• She was the only women in England that looked

for fossil.• She taught herself how to explore for fossils.• She found many dinosaur skeletons and gave

them to museums.

Andrew Lawson(1861-1952)

• Famous geology professor of UC Berkeley. • Important reporter for the San Francisco

Earthquake of 1906.• He discovered the San Andreas Fault.• It is a tectonic plate line that runs north and south through California.

Friedrich Mohs(1773-1839)He created the Mohs Hardness Scale to test unknown minerals

against the 10 standard minerals .

1 Talc 2 Gypsum 3 Calcite 4 Flourite 5 Apatite

6 Feldspar 7 Quartz 8 Topaz 9 Ruby 10 Diamond

Alfred Wegener(1880-1930)

• He identified the Super Continent, which is, that long ago all the continents fit like a puzzle but slowly drifted into the world we know today.

• Pangaea (green land) • Panthalassa (ocean)

Wegener’s Theory

• Wegener discovered fossils on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

• He identified that the mountains ranges of some continents continued on other continents.

• He noticed the close fit between Africa and South America.

1 Super Continent to 7 Continents

Resources

• Wikipedia• Yahoo• Google

THANK YOU