March 23, 2013

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March 23, 1769: William Smith - Pioneer of Applied Geology

By David Bressan

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

"William Smith

Never saw a coccolith

But using macrofossil data

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He ordered all the English strata" An anonymous clerihew dedicated to W. Smith

William Smith, born March 23, 1769, introduced in his "Strata - Identified by organized Fossils" (1816) the "principle of faunal succession" into stratigraphy. Geological maps before Smith mapped and catalogued rocks based only on the inorganic properties, like chemical composition or colour. This classification was very restricted and confusing. Smith discovered and applied a classification scheme that can identify sedimentary rocks of the same age with almost no doubt.

"Fossils have been long studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains, treasured with great care and at a great expense, and shown and admired with as much pleasure as a child's hobby-horse is shown and admired by himself and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this has been done by thousands who have never paid the least regard to that wonderful order and regularity with which nature has disposed of these singular productions, and assigned to each class its peculiar stratum."

William Smith (1796)

Using this principle he compiled one of the first "true" geological maps in history, useful also to track the - at the time of the Industrial Revolution - much valuable coal seams.

Map.1. "A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales...." by William Smith (image in public domain). The colours are based on the colours of the mapped rocks, coal appropriately shown in black. However Smith uses the characteristic assemblages of fossils to further subdivide similar looking rocks - providing a valuable tool to show the stratigraphic order of the underground.

Bibliography:

WINCHESTER, W. (2001): The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. New York: Harper Collins: 352

My name is David Bressan and I'm a freelance geologist working mainly in the Austroalpine crystalline rocks and the South Alpine Palaeozoic and Mesozoic cover-sediments in the Eastern Alps. I graduated with a project on Rock Glaciers dynamics and hydrology, this phase left a special interest for quaternary deposits and modern glacial environments. During my research on glaciers, studying old maps, photography and reports on the former extent of these features, I became interested in history, especially the development of geomorphologic and geological concepts by naturalists and geologists. Living in one of the key area for the history of geology, I combine field trips with the historic research done in these regions, accompanied by historic maps and depictions. I discuss broadly also general geological concepts, especially in glaciology, seismology, volcanology, palaeontology and the relationship of society and geology.

More by David Bressan

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