Overview

Lives in Stone: Biographical Portraits of the World's Great Geologists, Volume 1 (A-K) presents the first half of a two-volume exploration of the individuals who shaped the science of the Earth. Edited by Jeffrey Iverson, this volume gathers biographical portraits of geologists, mineralogists, paleontologists, geophysicists, and Earth-science explorers whose work laid the foundations of modern geology. Spanning the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century, the entries trace how personal insight, field experience, and scientific imagination combined to transform our understanding of the planet. The volume follows the discipline's development through the lives of its practitioners. Early figures establish the principles of stratigraphy, mineral classification, and paleontological reconstruction. Nineteenth-century innovators expand the field through global exploration, systematic mapping, and the first attempts to read Earth history in deep time. Twentieth-century researchers introduce laboratory analysis, geophysics, and quantitative methods, reshaping geology into a modern, interdisciplinary science. Across these biographies, readers encounter the intellectual courage and practical skill that drove the field forward. Organized alphabetically from A through K, the volume includes both celebrated names and lesser-known contributors whose work proved decisive in their subfields. Each entry situates its subject within the scientific questions of their era, showing how geology advances through a combination of bold conceptual shifts and careful, cumulative observation. The portraits highlight the diversity of approaches that define the discipline - from meticulous mineralogists and pioneering paleontologists to structural theorists, geomorphologists, and climate researchers. Taken together, the biographies in Volume 1 reveal geology as a human endeavor shaped by curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to follow evidence across landscapes and through deep time. This volume stands as both a reference and a narrative, offering readers a panoramic view of the people who turned the Earth into a readable archive and whose work continues to influence the questions we ask of the planet today.

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