1839 - 1915
GeologistJames Geikie was born in Edinburgh on August 23rd, 1839. He was the younger brother of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835 - 1924), who was to become an eminent geologist and the Murchison professor of geology and mineralogy at Edinburgh University.
His early education was at the High School in Edinburgh, followed by Edinburgh University, where he followed his brother Archibald in a career in geology. He served on the Geological Survey until 1882, when he succeeded his brother as Murchison professor at Edinburgh University. He was elected F.R.S. in 1875.
His interest lay in the unravelling of the origins of surface features, in particular the role played by glacial action, and here the landscape of Scotland was of course an ideal playground in which a brilliant academic mind such as Geikie's could operate. His studies led to the publication of perhaps his most important work in this area, 'The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man' (1874; 3rd ed., 1894).
At this time there was a great debate about how the landscape had been formed by ice. Many geologists argued that pack-ice and icebergs were responsible. Geikie, from his studies in the field, concluded that most of the effects of ice on the landscape were in fact the result of huge, slowly moving sheets of land ice.
Continuing this line of investigation in his 'Prehistoric Europe' (1881), he maintained the hypothesis of five inter-glacial periods in Great Britain, and argued that the Palaeolithic deposits of the Pleistocene period were not post- but inter- or pre-glacial. He also published 'Fragments of Earth Lore: Sketches and Addresses, Geological and Geographical' (1893) and 'Earth Sculpture' (1898). These are mainly concerned with the same subject.
From 1882, James Geikie became the leading figure in Scottish geology, primarily because of his position as sole professor of Geology in the country. He developed a keen interest in the advancement of geological research and teaching and with his help the Scottish Geographical Society (S.G.S.) was founded in 1884. Geikie helped to draw many men and women into the new society, both from geology and from the university staff generally.
His 'Outlines of Geology' (1886), a standard text-book of its subject, reached its third edition in 1896, and in 1905 he published an important manual on Structural and Field Geology.
In 1887 he displayed another side of his activity in a volume of 'Songs and Lyrics by H. Heine and other German Poets, done into English Verse'. From 1888 he was honorary editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine.
John Muir named an Alaskan glacier after Geikie. He died in 1915.
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