Geology
Stratigraphic Names
These are the fellows responsible for naming the stratagraphic units that decribe rocks through geologic time.
Adam Sedgwick proposed the Cambrian System in 1835 for a series of shale and sandstone in northern Wales. Excellant exposures of Cambrian rocks occur in California, Utah, Alberta, British Columbia, and Wisconsin.
Charles Lapworth named the Ordovician System in 1879 for a series of rocks involved in a controversy concerning the boundry of the Cambrian and Silurian Systems. Ordovician rocks are wll developed in New York, Ohio, Utah, and Nevada.
Roderick Impey Murchison proposed the Silurian System in 1835 for exposures in southern Wales. Silurian rocks are well developed in the Niagara Gorge region of New York and Ontario.
Roderick Impey Murchison and Adam Sedgwick proposed the Devonian System for rocks in Devonshire England. Devonian rocks are well developed in New York and Pennsylvania.
Alexander Winchell proposed the Mississippian System in 1870 for the Lower Carboniferous rocks exposed in the Mississippi River Valley.
Henry Shaler Williams proposed the Pensylvanian System in 1891 for the coal bearing rocks of Pennsylvania, equivalent to the Upper Carboniferous of Britain.
Roderick Impey Murchison named the Permian System from the province of Perm on the west flank of te Ural Mountains in Russia. Reef associated exposures in West Texas and New Mexico are standards fro North America.
Friedrich von Alberti introduced the term Triassic in 1834 for the three fold subdivision of salt bearing rocks in northern Germany. Triassic rocks are extensive in the Mountain West.
Alexander von Humbolt named the Jurassic from rocks in in the Jura Mountains in northern Switzerland in 1795. Leopold von Buch proposed it as a system in 1839. Much scenary of the Colorado Plateau is carved into Jurassic rocks.
d'Omalius d'Halloy proposed the term Cretaceous in 1822 for the chalk-bearing sandstones and shales around the Paris Basin in France. Cretaceous rocks are well developed in the Coastal Plains and western interior of Canada and the United States.
Giovanni Arduino defined Tertiary rocks in 1760 in Italy as separate from the Primary and Secondary. Epochs were proposed by Charles Lyell in 1883 from type sections in France. Tertiary rocks are extensive in the High Plains and Coastal Plains of North America.
Jules Desnoyers proposed the Quaternary in 1829 for young sedimentary deposits in France.
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