Geologists, Paleontologists and Geographers
Here’s our alphabetical list of the most popular geologists/paleontologists/geographers, or scientists who made significant contribution to these fields, on the Famous Scientists website.
![luis alvarez](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
The iridium layer, dinosaur death by meteorite impact, and subatomic particle discoveries.
![anaximander](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
An ancient scientific revolution: the first person in history to recognize that our planet is free in space and does not need to sit on something; produced one of the first ever maps of the world.
![Mary Anning](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Ancient animals, fossils, and paleontology: discovered the first complete specimen of a plesiosaur; deduced the diets of dinosaurs.
![J Harlen Bretz](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
After decades of ridicule from uniformitarian geologists established that immense, cataclysmic floods created extraordinary landscapes in America’s Pacific Northwest.
![James Croll](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Provided the first mechanism accounting for ice ages; said climate change is caused by periodic changes in Earth’s orbit affecting the amount of energy received from the sun; devised the concept of ice-albedo feedback.
![Georges Cuvier](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Father of paleontology; species extinction; master of comparative anatomy – established that a fossil he named pterodactyl was a flying reptile; promoted the theory of catastrophism; argued species were fixed and did not evolve.
![eratosthenes](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Accurately calculated Earth’s size 2,500 years ago; founded the science of geography; and devised the famous prime number sieve.
![Stephen Jay Gould](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Paleontologist who devised the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which proposes that evolution consists of long periods of stability broken by shorter periods of rapid change. An award-winning author and popularizer of science.
![jack horner](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Popularizer of science: discovered that dinosaurs cared for their young and some nested in colonies. Working on reactivating dormant dinosaur DNA to hatch a modern-day dinosaur.
![james hutton](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Founded modern geology. Found our planet is very much older than previously believed; devised the principle of uniformitarianism, which says our world was shaped by natural processes such as erosion and deposition; stated the theory of evolution by natural selection before Darwin was born.
![inge lehmann](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Analyzed earthquake waves to discover that within our planet’s liquid core, at the earth’s center, there is a solid core whose diameter is greater than 1,000 km.
![Matthew Maury](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
A founder of modern oceanography; mapped the North Atlantic Ocean floor, discovering a submarine mountain range – part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; invented the ‘electric torpedo,’ the most devastating naval weapon of the American Civil War.
![John Michell](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
First to suggest earthquakes are caused by movements of rocks miles below Earth’s surface and travel long distances as waves; invented the torsion balance to weigh our planet.
![Milutin Milankovic](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
The first science-based climate predictions for the other rocky planets; Milankovitch cycles offer a robust mathematical explanation of recurring ice ages and climate change based on Earth’s orbital changes.
![gene shoemaker](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
The first astrogeologist and a founder of planetary impact science; proved large craters on Earth were caused by collisions with asteroids and comets rather than volcanic activity; proposed microscopic life could travel between planets on rocks blasted into space by asteroid impacts.
![Nicolas Steno](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
A founder of modern geology; established some of its fundamental principles, including the law that the oldest layers of rock are found below younger layers.
![harold urey](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Discovered deuterium; showed how isotope ratios in rocks reveal past Earth climates; founded modern planetary science; the Miller-Urey experiment demonstrated that electrically sparking simple gases produces amino acids – the building blocks of life.
![alfred wegener](https://www.famousscientists.org/fs/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Discovered continental drift, proposing that our planet once consisted of ocean surrounding a single great continent he called Pangea that split apart over many millions of years to form the continents we see today.