Thomas H. Clark

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Thomas Henry Clark (born December 3, 1893 in London , † April 28, 1996 in Montreal ) was a geologist and paleontologist with English , American and Canadian nationality. From 1932 to 1952 he was director of the Redpath Museum at McGill University in Montreal.

Life

Clark emigrated from England to the USA and studied geology at Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in 1917 and a doctorate in 1924 after military service in the First World War in the Medical Corps of the US Army. He then moved to the geology faculty at McGill University, where he stayed for 69 years. At the age of 100 he resigned and ended his career there. He was also a curator of paleontology and later director of the Redpath Museum.

Clark is the author of more than 100 scientific publications. He made a special contribution to the geological mapping of the geologically complex Appalachian Mountains in Quebec on the border with the USA (with heavily deformed, metamorphic rocks) from 1926 and with the geologically less complex lowlands of the Saint Lawrence River (from 1937) , the most seismically active area in eastern North America. In 1938 he also initiated a new mapping of the area around Montreal, as he found inconsistencies in the geological maps. He later used the knowledge gained through the development of the city of Montreal, oil and gas exploration and the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and other projects to revise these geological maps.

He was also a specialist in research on the fossils of the Burgess Shale , of which the Redpath Museum houses a large collection that was cared for by Clark. In 1924, Clark met the discoverer of the Burgess slate, Charles Walcott , while doing field research.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada , received its Centennial Award and the Logan Gold Medal.

Works

  • Thomas Henry Clark, Colin William Stearn: Geological evolution of North America . Ronald Press Co., 1960.

literature

  • Alexander E. Gates: Earth Scientists from A to Z, Facts on File, 2003

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jason Park: In Touch with History. The Archival Collection of Professor Thomas Henry Clark. (PDF file)
personal data
SURNAME Clark, Thomas H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, Thomas Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American-Canadian geologist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1996
Place of death Montreal