William R. Dickinson

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William Richard Dickinson (born October 26, 1931 in Tennessee , † July 21, 2015 in Nukuʻalofa , Tonga ) was an American geologist. He was Professor Emeritus of Geosciences at the University of Arizona .

Bill Dickinson 2004

Life

Dickinson studied at Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in 1952, a master's degree in 1956 and a doctorate in geology in 1958. He was then an assistant professor and later professor at Stanford University. From 1979 he was a professor at the University of Arizona, where he retired in 1991.

Dickinson is known for his work on plate tectonics , sedimentary geology and the geology of Oceania (course of the coastlines in the Holocene). He is considered a connoisseur of the geology of the Colorado Plateau . From 1970 he developed a method of sediment classification independently of the Italian P. Gazzi (1966), called the Gazzi-Dickinson method. Around 500 points are randomly selected in a thin section and the mineral class is determined. The sedimentary rock is then classified in a QFL diagram introduced by Dickinson, where Q stands for quartz, F for feldspar and L for rock debris ( lithics ). This is part of a genetic classification of sedimentary rocks, which, in contrast to more conventional classifications according to mineral content (such as the QFR method by Robert Folk from 1974) also takes into account the formation of the rock in the context of plate tectonic processes.

Dickinson’s QFL diagram

In addition to geological topics, Dickinson's research also includes the study of historical and prehistoric pottery shards of Oceania. Over the years he has visited hundreds of islands in the Pacific and collected potsherds for radiometric dating .

He lived in Tucson , Arizona and taught at the University of Arizona while he continued his research.

Dickinson was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was President of the Geological Society of America in 1994 .

He was married to Jacqueline Klein since 1970 and has four children.

Honors

Fonts

  • Interpreting detrital modes of graywacke and arkose, Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, Volume 40, 1970, pp. 695-707.
  • Interpreting provenance relation from detrital modes of sandstones, in GG Zuffa (Ed.), Provenance of Arenites: NATO ASI Series, C 148, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, 1985, pp. 333-363.
  • with CA Suczek: Plate tectonics and sandstone compositions, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, Volume 63, 1979, pp. 2164-2182.
  • as editor: Tectonics and sedimentation, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1974

literature

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

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Life and career data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ^ William R. Dickinson, Major Figure in Plate Tectonics and Pacific Archeology, Dies
  3. ↑ QFR for quartz, feldspar, rock fragments
  4. ↑ http://www.geosociety.org/aboutus/documents/Whos_Who_GSA.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Dickinson, William R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dickinson, William Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 2015
Place of death Nuku'alofa , Tonga