History of Geoscience: Celebrating 50 Years of INHIGEO
The study of the Earth’s origin, its composition, the processes that changed and shaped it over time and the fossils preserved in rocks, have occupied enquiring minds from ancient times. The contributions in this volume trace the history of ideas and the research of scholars in a wide range of geological disciplines that have paved the way to our present-day understanding and knowledge of the physical nature of our planet and the diversity of life that inhabited it.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Commission on the History of Geology, the book features contributions that give insights into its establishment and progress. In other sections authors reflect on the value of studying the history of the geosciences and provide accounts of early investigations in fields as diverse as tectonics, volcanology, geomorphology, vertebrate palaeontology and petroleum geology. Other papers discuss the establishment of geological surveys, the contribution of women to geology and biographical sketches of noted scholars in various fields of geoscience.
Murchison in Sweden: consolidating Lower Silurian stratigraphy in the summer of 1844
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Published:January 01, 2017
Abstract
Roderick Murchison traversed southern Sweden from Göteborg to Stockholm from 28 July to 8 August 1844. He was accompanied by Sven Lovén and they made extensive use of the geognostic map of Sweden published in 1834 by Wilhelm Hisinger. During that campaign, they visited numerous outcrops of Hisinger’s ‘Transition’ rocks and Murchison recognized them as belonging to the Lower Silurian, which he had described previously in Britain, Norway and Russia. In addition, he inspected fossil collections at the natural history museum in Stockholm and recognized that Gotland was composed of Upper Silurian rocks. Thus the 1844 campaign established for the first time the occurrence of Silurian rocks in Sweden and it consolidated the usefulness of Palaeozoic system terminology in this part of Scandinavia. Murchison’s efficient research methodology ensured his rapid progress in the field and the widespread dissemination of his findings.