Issue of
September 24, 1997

Earth Sciences: The first 106 years

1891: Geologist John Casper Branner, Stanford's first professor, arrives with two boxcars of books, the nucleus of the Branner Earth Sciences Library. 1892: J.P. Smith joins the faculty; he used the worldwide distribution of an extinct mollusk, the ammonite, to study how the Earth's upper crust was shaped during the Triassic Era. 1894: Geologist George Ashley earns the university's first Ph.D. 1895: Herbert Hoover graduates as a mining engineer; later, he marries Lou Henry, '98, the first woman to earn a Stanford degree in geology. In 1929, they become the first Stanford alumni to occupy the White House.

Geologist JOHN CASPER BRANNER was Stanford's first professor and its second president Stanford U. Archives

LOU HENRY HOOVER wthe first woman to earn a geology degree from Stanford -- some say she was the first the nation. Hoover Presidental Library

1902: Summer field geology course is added to the curriculum. Women students are not allowed to participate until 1964. 1906: Geology Corner is completed in the Quad, promptly knocked down by the great San Francisco Earthquake. 1915: Bailey Willis, "the grandfather of structural geology," joins the faculty. In the 1990s, Stanford's faculty ranks among the best in the nation in tectonics and structural geology.

1922: Eliot Blackwelder is named chair of geology; he will lead the department for 23 years. 1920s: The American Petroleum Institute publishes a list of 218 petroleum engineers active from 1860 to 1920: Eighteen percent are Stanford alumni.

Stanford alumnus MAX STEINEKE (AB '21) led the discovery of much of the oil in Saudi Arabia Aramco Photo courtesy of Artsource

1929: Siemon Muller joins as an instructor. An expert in stratigraphic formations, he is most famous for his knowledge of the permanently frozen ground in the Arctic ­ the stuff he dubbed "permafrost."

1935: Alumnus Max Steineke (A.B., Geology, '21) begins explorations in Saudi Arabia that will lead to the discovery of the world's largest oil reserves.

1937: Cyrus Tolman publishes Ground Water, the first authoritative book in English on a field of study that was little known at the time. Today, Stanford geologists and civil engineers are renowned for their work in analyzing and decontaminating ground water.

DENNIS BIRD, shown here in Greenland, seeks out the place where groundwater meets volcanic magma tostudy how water-rock reactions influence the breakup of continents Earth Sciences Geohistory Archives

1947: George Thompson, then a graduate student, teaches the university's first geophysics class. In the 1990s, Thompson is an emeritus professor and Stanford's geophysicists rank among the best in the nation.

1947: A.I. Levorsen becomes the first dean of the newly established School of Mineral Sciences; the name is changed to Earth Sciences in 1962. Subsequent deans are Charles Park (1950-65); Richard Jahns (1965-79); Allan Cox (1979-87); George Thompson (1987-89); Gary Ernst (1989-94); Franklin Orr (1994-present).

1954: Myra Keen is named assistant professor. An expert in malacology ­ the study of sea shells ­ she had previously served as curator of paleontology for Stanford's geological museum. Subsequent women faculty members, appointed in 1979: geologist Elizabeth Miller and vulcanologist Gail Mahood. In the fall of 1997, soils scientist Pamela Matson will join the faculty.

1960s: Allan Cox and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey study reversals in the Earth's magnetic field. In the process, they find that great areas of the Earth's crust have long been in motion, important evidence that helped pave the way for the concept of plate tectonics that would revolutionize geology. Cox joins the Stanford faculty in 1967. 1968-1972: Geophysicist Robert Kovach designs seismic experiments for all six manned Apollo missions to the moon. "We found the moon was more complicated than we expected," he says now.

ALLAN COX, professor and later dean, collects rocks off Nunivak Island, Alaska.His studies with colleagues from USGS substantiated the theory of plate tectonics. Earth Sciences Geohistory Archives

1969: Henry "Hank" Ramey provides expert testimony in the court case that leads to the development of the U.S. geothermal industry. Today, Stanford's geothermal energy program works with scientists and governments around the world.

1970s: In a series of seminal articles, Jon Claerbout establishes a new method to make images of complex structures in the Earth's interior, using computerized analysis of reflection echoes.

1970s: Andre Journel is one of the founders of the growing field of geostatistics.

1989: The Loma Prieta earthquake shuts down Geology Corner again; it re-opens in 1996 as Braun Hall. Earth scientists also occupy the Ruth Wattis Mitchell Building, completed in 1970, and the Green Earth Sciences Building, completed in 1993.

1992: Undergraduate major in Earth Systems established.

1993: Four departments are merged into three: Geophysics, Geological and Environmental Sciences, and Petroleum Engineering.

1995: Dean Lynn Orr launches Ocean Margins Initiative to complement the school's strengths with new research on geological processes along coastlines. Orr says ocean margins studies are keys to understanding environmental change, tectonics and other forces that affect human populations.

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