1976, Tanzanite, a rare blue-purple
gemstone, was first discovered near Mount Kilamanjaro, Tanzania.
Mining and oil extraction. See also Companies for mining and
oil industry specific corporate events
North Sea Oil
Development
For Brent Spar
ep[isode see Environment
6/7/1988. 173 men died in an explosion on the Piper Alpha oilrig in the North Sea. Many more were injured as a
series of explosions wrecked the rig whilst they slept. The 12-year-old rig was
120 miles off the Aberdeen coast. Flames shot 400 feet into the air and only 62
survived, many by jumping over 100 feet into the sea. The heat could be felt
one mile away, and hampered rescue efforts. 165 oil workers and 2 rescue
workers were killed.
27/3/1980, The Alexander
Keilland oil platform in the North Sea, 250 miles off� Scotland, capsized in a storm, killing 123
out of its crew of 212 men.
1978, The Sullom Voe oil terminal
opened in Scotland. Sullom Voe means �sunny place�.
27/6/1978, The UK was expected to be self-sufficient in oil in two
year�s time.
27/4/1976, Britain began exporting North Sea Oil.
18/6/1975. The first North Sea Oil, from the Argyll field, came
ashore from a Liberian tanker.
1967, Mining of the Athabasca Tar Sands in northern Alberta
began, but exploitation was slow and expesnsive,
7/3/1967, The first North Sea Gas was brought
ashore in Britain.
2/6/1966. Philips petroleum found a large gas field off the Humber estuary.
5/4/1966, Shell announced the discovery of oil off Great Yarmouth.
27/12/1965. The North Sea oilrig Sea Gem collapsed into the sea,
killing 13 people.
1964,
Britian granted the first licences to drill for oil in the North Sea.
1968, Oil
was discovered on the North Slope,
Alaska.
14/9/1951, Fawley Oil Refinery, near
Southampton, opened.
15/10/1918, Britain�s first oil well was
sunk, at Hardstoft in Derbyshire.
1913,
Global crude oil production reached 407.5 million barrels, up from 5.7 million
barrels in 1870. The USA now accounted for two thirds of this
production, with California producing around 40% of the US total.
1901, The
Baku oilfields still accounted for over half the world�s annual crude oil
production.
10/1/1901, Major oil discovery in Texas,
USA. The salt dome of Spindletop had been suspected of containing oil since
1865; this day oil was struck; a gush of oil 6 inches wide rose over 200 feet,
and was visible for over 10 miles. The population of nearby Beaumont rapidly
rose from 10,000 to over 50,000, as oil production at Spindletop reached
100,000 barrels per day. Oil production in the area lasted until 1950.
1894, Oil
was discovered in Texas, at Corsicana.as a well being drilled for water
suddenly produced oil.
1873, Oil production at Baku
increased with investment by Alfred Nobel.
1869, Pennsylvania oil wells were now producing 4.8 million barrels per annum of
crude oil.
27/8/1859. The
world�s first oil well was drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Edwin Drake
of Seneca Oil. Oil had been known in this area for 300 years. It used to seep
from the ground and was used for curing many ailments from blindness to
rheumatism, colds, coughs, sprains, and baldness. It was also skimmed from creeks
and used for lighting, although it gave off a foul smell when burned. Chemists
turned the oil into a better lighting fuel. Drake drilled down 69 feet and
got a steady flow of 25 barrels a day from his well. By the end of the year the
well once called �Drake�s Folly� had produced 2,000 barrels, and other
prospectors joined in the search for more oil.
1854, The first fractional distillation of crude oil was performed, by
Yale chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman Junior, aged 38. He had been
asked by George
Henry Bissell, aged 33, to analyse a sample of Pennsylvania �rock
oil�, which burnt better than coal oil obtained from asphalt.
29/3/1819, Edward
Laurentine Drake was born in Greenville, New York, USA. On 28/8/1859 he drilled the
world�s first oil well.
For UK Miner�s Strikes see Great
Britain
22/4/2004, The last coal mine in France closed, ending nearly 300 years of
coal mining.
13/10/1992. British Coal announced 31 pit
closures and the loss of 31,000 jobs.
20/12/1990. The last coal mine in the Rhondda closed. Once 40,000 men worked at
56 pits here, and over 100 died in the mines. This day Maerdy Colliery closed,
300 were made redundant. Only 17 miners stayed in the industry, moving to other
pits.
30/12/1986, The use of canaries in UK coal
mines was discontinued.
10/1/1962, 11 coal miners were killed in an
explosion at a mine near Carterville, Illinois.
3/6/1942, The UK Government announced plans
to nationalise the coal mines.
6/12/1907, The USA suffered its worst mine
disaster.� 361 died at Monongah, West
Virginia.
1906, The
UK Coal Mines Regulation Act limited
coal miners working day to 8 hoiurs.
1/8/1902, 100 miners died at a pit disaster
at Wollongang, Australia.
2/5/1902, In Pennsylvania, USA, 200,000
coal miners began a strike, demanding union recognition and a pay rise.
5/3/1902, French coal miners went on
strike, demandn9ing an 8-hour day.
24/5/1901, 78 miners died in�
a pit disaster in Caerphilly, Wales.
1/5/1900, Explosion in a Utah coal mine killed 200.
1887, In Britain
the Mines Act regulated blasting procedures and stipulated the provision
of first aid and ambulance facilities for mines.
1882, Coal was proving hazardous to carry by ship;
some 100 British ships with coal cargoes were being lost each year, up from
around 70 in 1776. Some coal, especially from south Wales, gave off methane
which could be ignited by ships lanterns. All coal, of loaded wet, could absorb
moistire and oxygen and form unstable poreoxides, which then broke down in
exothermic reactions to cause spontaneous ignition.
1872, In Britain the Coal Mines Regulation Act made compulsory the use of fan
ventilators, stronger timbering, wire ropes, improved winding machinery and
better safety lamps.
1862, Mining legislation in Britain
stipulated that every mine must have at least two shafts, to increase the
chances of escape in an accident.
1851, In Britain the Royal School of Mines opened. By the
1860s it was also training mine inspectors and raising safety standards in the
mining industry.
1850, In Britain, the Coal Mines Inspection Act provided for increased inspectors to
report on safety and work conditions in mines. The Mines Regulation and Inspection Act 1860 increased further the
number of inspectors and forbade children aged under 12 from working
underground. See Child Welfare
for more legislation curbing childrens� work in mines and factories.
UK annual coal output 1640-1873
|
Year |
Million tons |
Employed (all), 1,000s |
World Output Million tons |
|
1952 |
225.0 |
774 |
|
|
1951 |
222.0 |
698 |
|
|
1950 |
216.3 |
697 |
1,495 |
|
1949 |
|
|
1,396* |
|
1948 |
|
|
1,486 |
|
1947 |
|
|
1,440 |
|
1941 |
206 |
|
|
|
1938 |
226 |
|
|
|
1873 |
128.5 |
|
|
|
1870 |
110.5 |
|
|
|
1850 |
49.5 |
|
|
|
1830 |
22/5 |
|
|
|
1815 |
16 |
|
|
|
1800 |
11 |
|
|
|
1785 |
8.5 |
|
|
|
1640 |
2 |
|
|
*US
shortfall of 140 millio tons compared to 1948
29/5/1829, Sir Humphrey Davy, born 17/12/1778, inventor
of the safety lamp (see 9/1/1816) died in Geneva.
9/1/1816. Sir Humphrey Davy�s safety lamp used in a coal mine for the first time.
31/10/1815, Sir Humphrey
Davy patented the miner�s
safety lamp. The metal gauze surrounding the flame dissipated heat and
prevented the ignition of inflammable gases.
1/10/1813,
Following the explosion at Brandling Main colliery (15/5/1812) the Sunderland
Society was formed, to promote mine safety.
15/5/1812, Mine
explosion at Brandling Main (Felling) colliery, Sunderland. See 1/10/1813.
17/12/1778, Sir Humphrey Davy, inventor of
the miner�s safety lamp, was born in
Penzance (died 1829).� He was the son of
a woodcarver. He also discovered the elements sodium,
calcium, barium, magnesium, potassium and strontium by passing
electricity through molten metal compounds.
1775, A mining academy was set up in
Clausthal, Germany.
1765, A mining academy was established
at Freiberg, Germany.
15/5/1765, James Watt
invented the condenser, effectively trebling the energy output of the existing
Newcomen steam pumps. The earlier Newcomen
steam engine pumped steam into a cylinder, forcing back a piston; the
cylinder was then sprayed with cool water, condensing the steam and creating a
vacuum that pulled the piston back. Alternately heating and cooling the
cylinder was inefficient. Watt�s idea was to attach a separate chamber off the
main cylinder into which the steam could be allowed to enter, and cooled there
by water, again creating the vacuum that pulled the piston back again. The main
cylinder could be kept hot, saving considerable energy. The energy content of Britain�s coal
reserves was effectively trebled.
1712, The Newcomen steam engine began to be used to pump water out of mines
(see 1698, 15/5/1765).
1700, To manufacture 1 tonne of iron,
in pre-industrial times, required 10 hectares of forest to produce enough
charcoal. The same amount of iron could be made with 5 tonnes of coal.
1698, An early steam pump, known as
the �miner�s friend�, was designed by Thomas Newcomen to pump water out of mines.
See 1712.
1640, Annual UK coal output was 2
million tons. Wood had become much scarcer since 1540, and coal was being
substituted as a fuel. Wood was also more needed for the building of ships.
However Britain�s road system was very poor and it cost as
much to move a quantity of coal 3 miles as it did to mine it.� However the cost of water transport was far
less and coal could be moved 30 miles by sea for the cost of 1 mile by road.
These economics had a big impact on Tyneside coal, which was sent by sea in
large quantities south to London. As mining progressed, less accessible seams
needed to be worked, and close to the River Tyne there was a limit imposed by
water ingress. Mines needed to move away from the River, but then the high
costs of road transport down to the docks came into play. However see 1882,
hazards of shipping coal.
1590, First recorded use of
�dramways�, two parralell lines of wooden planks from a mine pithead to the
nreast waterway, to ease the passage of ore or coal (see also Railways GB)
1540, Annual UK coal output was
200,000 tons.
1/7/1507, The earliest records of coal-mining at Nailsea, near Bristol.
Coal was being transported to Yatton for household fireplaces. By the late 19th
century coal mining had died out south of Bristol as the industry migrated to
the richer seams of south Wales.
1259, The first
historical record of mining in England. King Henry III granted the freemen of
Newcastle on Tyne a licence to dig for coals.
Famous geologists, geological
societies, geological theories
30/9/1985, Charles Richter, the US seismologist
who devised the
Richter Scale, died.
21/6/1977, Bruce Charles
Heezen, US oceanographer and geologist, died near Reykjanes,
Iceland.
1967, US
and British geologists William Morgan, Dan McKenzie and Robert Parker
combined Wegener�s
1912 theory of
continental drift and the 1961 theory of ocean spreading to create a theory of plate
tectonics, explaining mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
The theory gained universal acceptance in the 1970s.
20/9/1965, Arthur Holmes, English
geologist, died in London.
1961, US
geologists Robert
Dietz and Harry Hess independently theorised that sea floors spread
apart as magma oozed up at central ridges. This went some way to
explaining Wegener�s
1912 theory of continental drift. See 1967.
18/12/1936, Andrija
Mohorovicic, Croatian geologist, died in Zagreb.
1935, The Richter Scale for measuring the
intensity of earhbquakes was devised by US geologist Charles Richter.
16/10/1927,
The first
remnant of Peking Man, a tooth, was found by paleontologist Anders Birger
Bohlin at Chou K'ou Tien (Zhoukoudian), under sponsorship of Davidson Black,
who gave it the scientific name Sinanthropus pekinensis. More remains would be
discovered over the next ten years, and reclassified as Homo erectus
pekinensis, estimated to be more than 300,000 years old.
1916, A Michelson,
US scientist, determined that the Earth has a molten core.
1915, In Germany,
Alfred
Wegener published his theory of drifting continental plates.
Initially, nobody else believed an entire continent could move. Evidence for
Wegener�s theory emerged in the 1950s and 60s when fossil magnetism was
observed in rocks, with a different alignment to today.
30/6/1915, Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn was
born in New York City, USA. In 1954 he discovered, with Stanley A Tyler, very
ancient fossils in Gunflint chert in the Canadian shield. These fossils of
bacteria and algae were estimated at 2 billion years old.
26/4/1914, Eduard Suess,
Austrian geologist, died in Marz, Burgenland.
12/5/1913, William Maurice
Ewing was born in Lockney, Texas. In 1935 he began a seismic study
of the seabed using refractions of waves from explosions.
1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener
proposed that all of the earth�s continents once formed one giant landmass. He
based this on how they seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and how
similar fossil species could be observed on land,masses now far apart.however
no-one could explain how the continents could actiually move.� See 1961.
4/1/1912,
Clarence
Edward Dutton, US geologist, died in Eaglewood, New Jersey.
1909,
Yugoslav seismologist Mohorovicic discovered the Mohorovicic
Discontinuity, the boundary between the Earth�s crust and mantle.
5/5/1908, Albert Lapparent, French geologist died.
19/4/1904, Sir Clement
Foster, English geologist, died (born 23/3/1841).
7/3/1904,
Ferdinand
Fouque, French geologist, died (born 21/6/1828)
14/2/1904,
Charles
Beecher, US palaeontologist, died (born in Dunkirk, New York
9/10/1856).
18/12/1903,
Robert
Etheridge, English geologist, died (born 3/12/1819).
17/4/1898, Jules Marcou, Swiss-US geologist, died.
1/10/1893,
Henry Crosskey,
English geologist, died (born 7/12/1826).
12/9/1903,
Maxwell
Close, Irish geologist, died (born 1822).
1/6/1903, Peter Lesley, US geologist, died (born
17/9/1819).
23/9/1902, John Wesley
Powell, US geologist (born 24/3/1834) died.
16/5/1901, Gustaf Lindstrom,
Swedish palaeontologist, died (born 27/8/1829).
2/3/1901, Sir John Dawson,
Canadian geologist, died (born 30/10/1820).
26/4/1900, Charles Richter,
seismologist who created the earthquake scale, was born.
18/11/1899, Henry Hicks,
British geologist, died (born 26/5/1837).
16/5/1899, Sir Frederick
McCoy, British palaeontologist, died.
1/11/1897, Peter Brodie,
English geologist, died (born 1815).
7/7/1897, Samuel Allport,
English petrologist, died in Cheltenham (born 23/1/1816 in Birmingham).
12/4/1897, Edward Cope,
US palaeontologist, died (born 28/7/1840).
7/3/1897, Gustav Kenncott,
mineralogist, died (born 6/1/1818)
19/8/1896, Alexander Green,
English geologist, died (born 10/10/1832).
9/7/1896, Heinrich
Beyrich, German geologist, died (born in Berlin 31/8/1815).
29/5/1896, Gabriel Daubree,
French
geologist, died (born 25/6/1814).
14/4/1895,
Easter Sunday; James
Dana, US geologist, died (born 12/2/1813).
19/2/1895,
John Hulke,
British geologist, died (born 6/11/1830).
3/1/1893, Nikolai Koksharov, Russian geologist, died
(born 5/12/1818).
12/2/1892,
Thomas Hunt,
US geologist, died (born 5/9/1826)
9/12/1891, Sir Andrew
Crombie Ramsay, British geologist (born 31/1/1814) died.
22/4/1891, Harold Jeffreys,
geologist, was born at Fatfield, England. In 1940 he published research on the travel of
seismic waves through the Earth.
4/4/1890, Edmond Hebert,
French geologist, died (born 12/6/1812).
14/6/1889, Henry William
Bristow, English geologist, died (born 17/5/1817).
4/6/1889,
German-US geologist Beno Gutenberg was born in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 1914 he discovered a discontinuity in the behaviour of earthquake waves at
3,000 km below the earth�s surface. This is the Gutenberg discontinuity, between the
mantle and the outer core.
3/5/1889, Charles Lory,
French geologist, died (born 30/7/1823).
15/2/1889, Ernst Dechen,
German geologist, died (born 25/3/1800).
21/7/1888, Henry Lewis,
US geologist, died (born 16/11/1853).
15/8/1887, Sir Johann
Haast, British-German geologist, died (born 1/5/1824).
1/7/1886, Otto Abich,
German mineralogist (born 11/12/1806) died in Vienna.
14/10/1885, Thomas Davidson,
British palaeontologist, died (born 17/5/1817).
3/2/1885, Gregor Helmersen,
Russian geologist, died (born 29/9/1803).
18/7/1884, Ferdinand
Hochstetter, Austrian geologist, died (born 30/4/1829).
5/10/1883, Joachim
Barrande, Austrian geologist,died in Frohsdorf (born in Saugues,
Haute Loire 11/8/1799).
5/5/1883, Henry Boase,
English geologist, died (born in London 2/9/1799).
23/2/1882, Pierre Desor,
Swiss geologist, died (born 13/2/1811).
21/11/1881, Ami Bourg,
Austrian geologist, died (born in Hamburg 16/3/1794).
5/11/1881, Robert Mallet,
Irish geologist, died (born 3/6/1810).
6/4/1881, Sir Philip
Egerton, British palaeontologist, died (born 13/11/1806)
24/3/1881, Louis
Delescluze, French geologist, died (born 3/2/1817).
10/2/1881, John Bigsby,
English geologist, died in London (born in Nottingham 14/8/1792).
1880, The Seismological Society of Japan
was founded.
1/11/1880, Alfred Lothar
Wegener was born in Berlin, Germany. In 1912 he proposed a theory of
continental drift, and the supercontinent of Pangea.
20/5/1880, William Miller,
British mineralogist, died.
13/5/1880, David Ansted,
geologist, died in Melton, near Woodbridge (born 5/2/1814 in London).
14/9/1879, Bernhard Cotta,
German geologist, died (born 24/10/1808).
21/9/1878, Thomas Belt,
English geologist, died in Denver, USA (born in Newcastle on Tyne 1832).
17/6/1878, William Clarke,
British geologist, died (born 2/6/1798).
25/7/1877, Robert Fox,
English geologist, died (born 26/4/1789)
22/12/1876, Fielding Meek,
US geologist, died.
28/9/1876, Carl Credner,
German geologist, died (born 13/3/1809).
22/6/1875, Sir William
Logan, British geologist, died (born 20/4/1798).
9/6/1875, Gerard Deshayes,
French geologist, died (born 13/5/1797).
14/12/1873, Louis Agassiz,
who developed the theory of Ice Ages, died �see 28/5/1807, when born.
11/11/1871, William
Lonsdale, English geologist, died (born 9/9/1794).
22/10/1871, Sir Roderick
Murchison, British geologist, died.
29/7/1869, Joseph Jukes,
Engliush geologist, died (born 10/10/1811).
24/12/1868, Etienne Archiac,
French geologist, died (born 24/9/1802 in Reims).
4/11/1868, Moritz Hornes,
Austrian palaeontologist, died (born 14/7/1815).
21/9/1868, Joseph Cumming,
English geologist, died (born 15/2/1812).
19/5/1868, John Fillmore
Hayford was born in Rouses Point, New York. He used the new science
of geodesy to determine
the exact shape of the Earth.
17/1/1867, Jacques
Deslongchamps, French geologist, died (born 17/1/1794).
13/10/1866, William Hopkins,
English geologist, died (born 2/2/1793).
29/4/1865, Abtaham Gesner,
Canadian geologist, died (born 1790)
31/1/1865, Hugh Falconer,
palaeontologist, died (born 29/2/1808)
5/3/1864, Leonard Horner,
Scottish geologist, died (born 17/1/1785)
1/10/1863, Ebenezer Emmons,
US geologist, died (born 16/5/1800).
18/12/1862, Lucas Barrett,
English geologist, died, drowned, off Jamaica (born in London 14/11/1837).
5/7/1862, Henirich Bronn,
German geologist, died (born 3/3/1800).
26/12/1859, Johann Hausmann,
German mineralogist, died (born 22/12/1782).
18/5/1859,
Geophysicist Harry
Reid was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He showed that earthquakes were caused when rocks either side
of fault lines moved; previous theories suggested that the
earthquakes caused the faults, not the other way round.
3/12/1858, Joseph Durocher,
French geologist, died (born 31/5/1817).
12/8/1857, Sir John Coode,
geologist, died (born 7/6/1787)
20/3/1857, Ours Dufrenoy,
French geologist, died (born 5/9/1792).
23/1/1857, Andrija
Mohorovicic was born in Volosko, Yugoslavia. In 1909 he discovered
the boundary in the Earth�s crust 30 km down where earthquake waves change.
This Mohorovicic
Discontinuity is the boundary between the crust and mantle.
9/10/1856, Charles Beecher,
UA palaeontologist, was born in Dunkirk, New York (died 14/2/1904).
24/8/1856, William
Buckland, geologist, died (born 12/3/1784)
17/8/1856, Constant
Prevost, French geologist, born 4/6/1787, died.
2/4/1855, George
Greenough, English geologist, died (born 18/1/1778).
1854, Heinrich Ernst identified the Oligocene
geological period.
16/11/1853, Henry Lewis,
US geologist, was born (died 21/7/1888).
22/8/1853, Karl Karsten,
German mineralogist, died (born 26/11/1782).
10/11/1852, Gideon Mantel,
English geologist, died.
6/9/1851, Karl Koenig,
German geologist, died.
21/4/1851, Charles Barrois,
French geologist, was born in Lille.
10/12/1850, Francois
Beudant, French geologist, died (born in Paris 5/9/1787).
12/4/1849, Albert Heim,
Swiss geologist, was born.
7/10/1847, Alexandre Brogniart,
French geologist, died (born 5/2/1770).
11/1/1845, Etheldred
Benett, one of the earliest woman geologists, died (born 1776).
23/12/1844, Sebastian
Munster, German palaeontologist, died (born 17/2/1776).
7/8/1844, Auguste Levy,
French geologist, was born.
6/5/1843, Grove Gilbert,
US geologist, was born.
30/9/1842, Charles
Lapworth, English geologist, was born.
1841, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison
identified the Permian
geological period.
1/10/1841, Carl Credner,
German geologist, was born.
23/3/1841, Sir Clement
Foster, English geologist, was born (died 19/4/1904).
28/7/1840, Edward Cope,
US palaeontologist, was born (died 12/4/1897).
16/5/1840, Andre Brochant
de Villiers, French geologist, died (born 6.8/1772).
23/3/1840, William MacLure,
US geologist, died.
26/12/1838, William Dawkins,
English geologist, was born.
14/11/1837, Lucas Barrett,
English geologist, was born in London (died, drowned, off Jamaica 18/12/1862).
26/5/1837, Henry Hicks,
British geologist, was born (died 18/11/1899).
1835, The theory that huge moving ice
sheets had created the long lines of stony rubble found in parts of Europe, as
they pushed it ahead of them, began to gain credence; the Theory of Ice Ages. Before this such
stony ridges were attributed to the Biblical Flood. It was not for another 50
years that an explanation of how Ice Ages happen was developed.
17/12/1835, Alexander
Agassiz, geologist, was born in Neuchatel (died 1910).
21/8/1835, John MacCulloch,
Scottish geologist, died.
1/6/1834, Francois
Laumont, mineralogist, died (born 38/5/1747).
27/7/1833, Thomas Bonney,
English geologist, was born in Rugeley.
10/10/1832, Alexander Green,
English geologist, was born (died 19/8/1896).
7/10/1832, William
Blanford, English geologist, was born in London (died in London
23/6/1905).
23/6/1832, Sir James Hall,
Scottish geologist, died (born 17/1/1761).
20/8/1831,
Austrian geologist Edouard Seiss was born in London.
6/11/1830, John Hulke,
British geologist, was born (died 19/2/1895).
27/8/1829, Gustaf
Lindstrom, Swedish palaeontologist, was born (died 16/5/1901).
30/4/1829, Ferdinand
Hochstetter, Austrian geologist, was born (died 18/7/1884).
21/6/1828, Ferdinand
Fouque, French geologist, was born (died 7/3/1904)
28/4/1828, Matthew Heddle,
Scottish mineralogist, was born (died 19/11/1897).
7/12/1826, Henry Crosskey,
English geologist, was born (died 1/10/1893).
25/9/1826, Giovanni
Brocchi, Italian geologist, died (born 18/2/1772).
6/1/1826, John Farey,
English geologist, died (born 1766).
12/10/1825,
Mineralogist Franz
Joseph Muller died in Vienna, Austria.
30/3/1825, Theodor Kjerulf,
Norwegian geologist, was born (died 25/10/1888).
11/3/1825, Felix Karrer,
Austrian geologist, was born (died 19/4/1903).
1/5/1824, Sir Johann
Haast, British-German geologist, was born (died 15/8/1887).
20/4/1824, Peter Duncan,
English palaeontologist, was born (died 28/5/1891).
22/12/1822, John Newberry,
US geologist, was born (died 7/12/1892).
30/7/1823, Charles Lory,
French geologist, was born (died 3/5/1889).
3/6/1822, Rene Hauy,
French mineralogist, died (born 28/2/1743).
9/3/1822, Edward Clarke,
English mineralogist, died (born 5/6/1769).
30/10/1820, Sir John Dawson,
Canadian geologist, was born (died 2/3/1901).
3/12/1819, Robert
Etheridge, English geologist, was born (died 18/12/1903).
1/10/1819, Thomas Jones,
English geologist, was born,
17/9/1819, Peter Lesley,
US geologist, was born (died 1/6/1903).
8/12/1818,
Mineralogist Johann
Gottleib Gahn died in Falun, Kopparburg, Sweden.
5/12/1818, Nikolai
Koksharov, Russian geologist, was born (died 3/1/1893).
6/1/1818, Gustav Kenncott,
mineralogist, was born (died 7/3/1897).
7/11/1817, Jean Deluc,
Swiss geologist, died (born 8/2/1727).
17/10/1817, Alfred des
Cloizeaux, French mineralogist, was born (died 5/1897).
31/5/1817, Joseph Durocher,
French geologist, was born (died 3/12/1858).
17/5/1817, Henry William
Bristow, English geologist, was born (died 14/6/.1889).
3/2/1817, Louis
Delescluze, French geologist, was born (died 24/3/1881).
28/7/1816, Robert Harkness,
English geologist, was born (died 4/10/1878).
23/1/1816, Samuel Allport,
English petrologist, was born in Birmingham. He died 7/7/1897 in Cheltenham.
1815, William Smith�s book, The geological map of England, was the
first to identify rock strata by the fossils they contain. This enabled
geologists far apart to know they were working on the same period rocks.
20/9/1815, Nicolas
Desmarest, French geologist, died (born 16/9/1725).
31/8/1815, Heinrich
Beyrich, German geologist, was born in Berlin (died
9/7/1896).
14/7/1815, Moritz Hornes,
Austrian palaeontologist, was born (died 4/11/1868).
25/6/1814, Gabriel Daubree, French
geologist, was born (died 29/5/1896).
5/2/1814, David Ansted, geologist, was born in London (died 13/5/1880 in Melton, near
Woodbridge).
7/10/1813,
Mineralogist Peter Jacob Hjelm died in Stockholm, Sweden.
12/6/1812, Edmond Hebert,
French geologist, was born (died 4/4/1890).
10/10/1811, Joseph Jukes,
Engliush geologist, was born (died 29/7/1869).
12/9/1811, James Hall,
US geologist, was born (died 7/8/1898).
3/6/1810, Robert Mallet,
Irish geologist, was born (died 5/11/1881).
31/8/1809, Oswald Heer,
Swiss geologist, was born (died 27/9/1883).
24/10/1808, Bernhard Cotta,
German geologist, was born (died 14/9/1879).
29/2/1808, Hugh Falconer,
palaeontologist, was born (died 31/1/1865)
25/1/1807, William
Enniskillen, British palaeontologist, was born (died 21/11/1886).
28/5/1807,
Louis
Agassiz, who developed the theory of Ice Ages, was born in
Motier en Vully, Switzerland. His father, a Christian
minister, wanted his son to become a medical doctor, although as a boy he
showed a strong interest in zoology. Later, during his travels through the
Alps, in 1836, he developed the theory that much of the Earth had once been
underneath great ice sheets. He died on 14/12/1873.
11/12/1806,
Otto Abich,
German mineralogist (died 1/7/1886) was born in Berlin.
13/11/1806,
Sir Philip
Egerton, British palaeontologist, was born (died 6/4/1881).
29/9/1803,
Gregor
Helmersen, Russian geologist, was born (died 3/2/1885).
10/10/1802, Hugh Miller, Scottish geologist, was born
(died 23/12/1856).
24/9/1802,
Etienne
Archiac, French geologist, was born in Reims (died 24/12/1868).
26/11/1801,
Deodat
Dolomieu, French geologist, died (born 24/6/1750).
15/5/1801,
Joseph
Fournet, French geologist, was born (died 8/1/1869),
6/4/1801, William
Hallowes Miller was born in Llandovery, Wales. In 1839 he developed
a system for
classifying crystals in rocks that is still used today.
8/10/1800, Jules Desnoyers,
French geologist, was born (died 1887).
16/5/1800, Ebenezer Emmons,
US geologist, was born (died 12/120/1863).
25/3/1800, Ernst Dechen,
German geologist, was born (died 15/2/1889).
3/3/1800, Henirich Bronn,
German geologist, was born (died 5/7/1862).
1799, Alexander von Humboldt coined
the term Jurassic.
11/8/1799,
Joachim
Barrande, Austrian geologist, was born in Saugues, Haute Loire (died
in Frohsdorf 5/10/1883)
2/9/1799,
Henry Boase,
English geologist, was born in London (died5/5/1883).
22/1/1799,
Horace
Benedict de Saussure, geologist, died in Geneva, Switzerland.
25/9/1798,
Jean Elie de
Beaumont, geologist, was born (died 21/9/1874).
2/6/1798,
William
Clarke, British geologist,�
was born (died17.6.1878).
20/4/1798, Sir William Logan, British geologist, was born
(died 22/6/1875).
14/11/1797, Sir Charles Lyell, British geologist, was born
(died 22/2/1875).
13/5/1797,
Gerard
Deshayes, French geologist, was born (died 9/6/1875).
26/3/1797,
James Hutton,
Scottish geologist, died (born 3/6/1726).
9/9/1794, William Lonsdale, English geologist, was born
(died 11/11/1871).
16/3/1794, Ami Bourg,
Austrian geologist, was born in Hamburg (died 21/11/1881).
17/1/1794, Jacques Deslongchamps,
French geologist, was born (died 17/1/1867).
21/4/1793,
Geologist
John Michell died at Thornhill, England.
5/9/1792,
Ours
Dufrenoy, French geologist, was born (died 20/3/1857).
14/8/1792,
John Bigsby,
English geologist, was born in Nottingham (died in London 10/2/1881).
19/2/1792,
Geologist Roderick
Impey Murchison was born in Tarradale, Scotland. He was the first to
identify the Silurian
Period, in 1835.
26/4/1789,
Robert Fox,
English geologist, was born (died 25/7/1877).
5/9/1787,
Francois Beudant,
French geologist, was born in Paris (died 10/12/1850).
7/6/1787,
Sir John
Coode, geologist, was born (died 12/8/1857).
21/1/1787,
Gustavus
Brander, English expert in fossils, died (born 1720 in London)
1785, James Hutton (born Edinburgh,
Scotland, 3/6/1726),in his work Theory of
the Earth, proposed the principle of Uniformitarianism � that all current
geological features can be explained by very slow-scale processes.
22/3/1785,
Geologist Adam
Sedgwick was born in Yorkshire, England. In 1835 he identified the Cambrian
Period.
17/1/1785,
Leonard
Horner, Scottish geologist, was born (died 5/3/1864)
12/3/1784,
William
Buckland, geologist, was born (died 24/8/1856).
26/11/1782, Karl Karsten, German mineralogist, was born
(died 22/8/1853).
22/2/1782, Johann Hausmann,
German mineralogist, was born (died 26/12/1859).
1779, Horace de Saussure coined the
term �geology�
in his work Voyages dan les Alpes.
17/2/1776, Sebastian Munster, German palaeontologist, was
born (died 23/12/1844).
26/4/1774, Christian Buch,
German geologist, was born (died 4/3/1853).
29/1/1773, Friedrich Mohr,
German mineralogist, was born (died 20/9/1839).
31/8/1772, William Borlase,
geologist, died (born in Penden, Cornwall 2/2/1695).
6/8/1772, Andre Brochant
de Villiers, French geologist, was born (died 16/5/1840).
5/2/1770, Alexandre
Brogniart, French geologist, was born (died 7/10/1847).
5/6/1769, Edward Clarke,
English mineralogist, was born (died 9/3/1822).
19/8/1765,
Mineralogist Axel
Fredrik Cronstedt died in Stockholm, Sweden.
17/1/1761, Sir James Hall,
Scottish geologist, was born (died 23/6/1832).
21/3/1753, Franz Bruckmann,
German geologist, died (born 27/9/1767). He was the first to use the terms oolite
and oolitic
for rocks that resembled the roe of a fish in graininess.
25/9/1750, German
geologist Abraham
Gottlob Werner was born in Wehrau. He pioneered a method of classifying
minerals by their physical charatceristics such as colour,
hardness,transparency,lustre, and shape.
24/6/1750, Deodat Dolomieu,
French geologist, was born (died 26/11/1801).
28/5/1747, Francois
Laumont, mineralogist, was born (died 1/6/1834).
1745, Mikhail Vasilievich published a catalogue of 3,030
minerals.
28/2/1743, Rene Hauy,
French mineralogist, was born (died 3/6/1822).
26/12/1742, Ignaz Born,
Ausstrian mineralogist, was born in Transylvania (died 1791).
21/2/1738,
Mineralogist Franz
Cancrin was born (died 1812).
8/2/1727, Jean Deluc,
Swiss geologist, was born (died 7/11/1817).
3/6/1726, James Hutton,
Scottish geologist, was born (died 26/3/1797).
16/9/1725,
Nicolas
Desmarest, French geologist, was born (died 20/9/1815).
1703, De la Hautefeuille designed the first (Western)
seismograph.
27/9/1697, Franz Bruckmann,
German geologist, was born (died 21/3/1753).
2/2/1695, William Borlase,
geologist, was born in Penden, Cornwall (died 31/8/1771).
1658, Coal production at Newcastle on
Tyne reached 529,000 tons a year, up from 33,000 tons in 1564. Much of England
had been deforested by the use of wood as fuel, and now coal was the main
substitute.
1086, Shen Kuo,
Chinese
polymath, wrote essays on fossils, erosion, uplift and sedimentation; the
foundations of modern geology.
565 BCE,
The Greek
philosopher Xenophanes
theorised that because fossil sea shells can be found on mountaintops, then
parts of the Earth�s surface must have risen and sunk over time; an early
theory of geology.