Reginald Aldworth Daly

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Reginald Aldworth Daly bigraphy, stories - Geologist

Reginald Aldworth Daly : biography

March 18, 1871 – September 19, 1957

Reginald Aldworth Daly (March 18, 1871 – September 19, 1957) was a Canadian geologist. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1912 until 1942, after working as a field geologist for the .

He examined the rocks along a 400 miles stretch at the 49th parallel, which led him to formulate a theory of the origins of igneous rocks, and published his seminal work Igneous Rocks and Their Origin in 1914. According to Bill Bryson’s "A Short History of Nearly Everything," he was an early proponent of both Arthur Holmes’ and Alfred Wegener’ Continental drift theory and the impact theory of lunar creation. Continental drift was supported by evidence in Daly’s book Our Mobile Earth, 1926. In "Strength and Structure of the Earth," 1940, Daly anticipated aspects of plate tectonics, including introduction of "mesospheric shell."

Daly was awarded the Penrose Medal in 1935, the Wollaston Medal in 1942 and the William Bowie Medal in 1946. The mineral dalyite and craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor, and his Cambridge house (the Reginald A. Daly House) is now a National Historic Landmark.