Alfred Harker

Alfred Harker ( born February 19, 1859 in Kingston -upon -Hull, † 28 July 1939) was a British geologist who dealt with petrology and geology of Scotland.

Harker was the son of a grain merchant from Yorkshire and studied at Cambridge University (St. John 's College ) with a Master 's degree in 1882. Thereafter he lectured on physics at Newnham College. From 1884 he was Demonstrator in the Department of Geology at Thomas McKenny Hughes ( 1832-1917 ) in Cambridge. In 1885 he became a Fellow of St. John 's College. In 1887 he studied metamorphic rocks of the Ardennes. In 1891 he accompanied Hughes to the International Geological Congress in Washington, DC. 1892 he was Lecturer, University Lecturer in 1904 and 1908 Reader in Petrology. In addition, he began in 1895 at the invitation of Archibald Geikie for the Geological Survey of Great Britain in Scotland to map specifically the Isle of Skye and other islands of the Inner Hebrides. During this time he also became a member of the Scottish mountaineer Association ( Scottish Mountaineering Club ). Later (1889 ) he worked in Cambridge for work on volcanic rocks in the Lake District with John Edward Marr. In 1931, he retired and became a Fellow for Life of St. John 's College. He was honorary curator of rocks at the Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge, which opened in 1904.

Harker was one of the pioneers of the use of thin sections under the microscope in petrology.

In 1922 he received the Wollaston Medal and 1907 the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London. 1916 to 1918 he was president of the Geological Society of London. In 1902 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Medal he received in 1935. He was an honorary doctorate from McGill University and the University of Edinburgh.

The Dorsa Harker on the Moon is named after him, as is the Mount Harker in Antarctica and the Harker Glacier in South Georgia and the mineral Harkerit, which was first found on Skye. Special diagrams on the chemical composition of igneous rocks are called Harker diagrams.

Writings

  • Petrology for Students: an introduction to the study of rocks under the microscope, Cambridge University Press, 1895, 8th edition 1957
  • The tertiary igneous rocks of Skye, Memoir Geological Survey of Scotland, Glasgow, HM Stationery Office, 1904
  • The natural history of igneous rocks, Macmillan 1909, New York, Hafner 1965
  • The West Highlands and the Hebrides; a geologist 's guide for amateurs, Cambridge University Press 1941
  • Notes on geology map reading, Cambridge, 2nd edition, 1926
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