Talk:List of geologists

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Rhododendrites in topic Inclusion criteria

Proposed Addition edit

What, no Tony Hayward?

) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.190.158.6 (talk) 19:08, 17 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

Proposed Deletions edit

I've removed a number of names that are unsourced and are unfamous. This page needs work! -- and I'll come back to it when I have time and references at hand. Pete Tillman 06:48, 21 November 2006 (UTC) Consulting Geologist, Arizona and New Mexico (USA)Reply

WS Pitcher obituary: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0716-02082004000200012&script=sci_arttext Pete Tillman 07:17, 21 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

I've removed Chris Walley from the list, as he is not a prominent geologist. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Walley Pete Tillman 07:27, 21 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

John C. Branner strikes me as pretty minor for this list.
Also Arthur L. Day. I'm considering deleting both.
Comments? Pete Tillman 22:57, 28 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

I'm also proposing deleting Harry M. Woodward from this list.
Pete Tillman 05:28, 29 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

I'm adding V.V. Beloussov to the possible drop-from-this-list list <G>.
Comments, anyone? Pete Tillman 14:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

No objections, so I'm deleting the lot. Pete Tillman 19:11, 6 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Paul Güssfeldt, recently added, seems to be known mainly as a mountaineer/alpinist, secondarily as a geologist. No geologic publications per Google Scholar. Proposed for deletion as insufficiently notable as a Geologist. Pete Tillman 19:48, 18 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

Fictional characters edit

Randy Marsh, was deleted but should be put back into the list, he is extremely popular as well as famous, and on countless occasions they refer to him directly as a "Geologist" at no place on this page does the criteria claim the geologist in question can not be fictitious. Zakhebeone 21:06, 18 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

"The following is a list of famous or notable geologists." notice the word "famous" is in bold font, this line comes directly from the List of geologists page and at no point is it alluded to that the geologist in question must be real, although he may not be notable Randy Marsh is famous therefore he belongs on this list. Zakhebeone 21:35, 18 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

It also says they contribute to the science of geology. Fictional characters do not. Geologyguy 21:42, 18 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

Title and Purpose of Page edit

No objection (I came into this page late), but I wonder if the page is supposed to be a "List of Geologists" per the title, or "list of famous geologists" per the introduction. The former would seem silly to me if Wikipedia articles on geologists are properly categorized, and the latter would seem like a more useful list. Seems like your editing tends to make it more like the latter (fine with me), so I wonder if the title should be "List of famous/important/etc geologists". Cheers and thanks - Geologyguy 19:24, 6 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Good point. Added to "think-about" list... <G> Cheers, Pete Tillman 05:03, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
The title seems Wiki-standard per Lists of scientists, but I've revised the opening statement to clarify the purpose of the list. Pete Tillman 18:57, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
Great, that certainly works for me. Thanks! Geologyguy 19:05, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

More Proposed Deletions edit

Alexander Henry Green (1832-1896), England --doesn't seem to be especially notable; OTOH, he was a FRS & won a major award. Maybe he's better known in UK? Comments? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tillman (talkcontribs) 21:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC).Reply

Oops, sorry! Pete Tillman 22:13, 12 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

On reconsideration, Green appears (marginally) notable enough to retain. Other opinions? Cheers, Pete Tillman 19:05, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply


Duh, see Paul Güssfeldt in first para. Proposed deletion. Pete Tillman 19:50, 18 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

Deleted Gussfeldt as insufficiently notable -- see above. Pete Tillman 01:29, 29 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Doing periodic maintenance work & copyediting, Pete Tillman 19:50, 18 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

More periodic maintenance, checking recent additions, Pete Tillman 01:29, 29 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Propose deletion of Jim Berkland as insufficiently notable. Doing periodic maintenance work & copyediting, Pete Tillman (talk) 20:09, 19 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

Geology, the national pastime in Canada? edit

A quarter (51/213) of the people on the list are Canadians, who represent 0.5% of the world population. Is this expected or are not all Canadians listed really famous? Afasmit 08:33, 7 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

The list seems to have evolved to include any geoscientist notable enough to have a Wikipedia article, which would likely result in greater weight for Canadian, American, and other English-speaking countries. Whether that is what this list should be is something that could be discussed. Cheers Geologyguy 15:36, 7 November 2007 (UTC)Reply
A Canadian editor has been adding all of the Logan Medal winners to the list. Quite a few are unknown to me, but since this is Canada's highest geological award, they seem appropriate choices.
Hopefully we can keep this from becoming a list of all geologists in Wikipedia. Pruning the list would be a fine idea, imo. Pete Tillman (talk) 21:22, 22 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

Outstandingly notable geologists edit

As User:Geologyguy points out above, the list is getting a bit unwieldy. In addition to pruning, we might consider adding a subcategory of Outstandingly notable/influential geologists, to be listed in boldface. This would include such geologists as Georgius Agricola, Charles Darwin, Victor Goldschmidt, Charles Lyell -- the true giants of the field, who would be perhaps 5% of the full list.

We did this for another list I help maintain, the List of science fiction editors, and it seems to work well there. What do you think? Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 21:22, 22 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

We'll probably have (at least) discussions as to which ones are really "outstanding" but if your experience with the science fiction list is that consensus was reached amicably, I'd say go for it. Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 21:53, 22 November 2007 (UTC)Reply
I'm traveling, moving and involved in another project now, so it may be awhile.... Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 16:47, 27 November 2007 (UTC)Reply
Huh -- I'd completely forgotten about this. I'll put it back on the to-do list. Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 04:21, 23 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

Most-viewed Geologists on Wikipedia edit

Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Geology/List_of_pages_by_number_of_page_views_%28March_2008%29, the most-viewed geologists are: [of roughly the top 500 geology articles]

  1. Alfred Wegener
  2. Charles Lyell
  3. James Hutton
  4. Dead Clade Walking
  5. (List of geologists)
  6. Walter Alvarez
  7. Charles Doolittle Walcott, who only slightly beats out
  8. Ahu Tongariki

Charles Darwin isn't here, because he's not tagged as a geologist. Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 01:44, 5 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Interesting. Given the number of times I've reverted vandalism on Alfred Wegener, I'd bet that he's the most vandalized geologist on Wikipedia too. Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 01:50, 5 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Image copyright problem with Image:Tharp & Heezen.jpg edit

The image Image:Tharp & Heezen.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

  • That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
  • That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --08:06, 1 November 2008 (UTC)Reply

Added a FUR during periodic maintenance, apologies for delay. Pete Tillman (talk) 19:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC)Reply

Adding awards to some listees edit

I've been reviewing some of the lesser-known (to me) geologists and adding significant honors (FRS, NAS, Logan medal etc) where we only have a generic "micro-bio". In general, better to list a specific accomplishment, but we can't always devise a meaningful one-line bio.... See what you think. We've actually done pretty well on keeping the list to famous or extra-notable geologists. --Pete Tillman (talk) 02:17, 11 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

Nationality or Country? edit

I suggest that nationality (demonym) should given for each person on this list, not their country, and not their demonym-and-country. GeoWriter (talk) 22:46, 17 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

I agree, and we should use the demonym from the relevant article. Mikenorton (talk) 22:55, 17 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

New Zealand geologists edit

I have added Ferdinand von Hochstetter for his early work in New Zealand as Julius von Haast was on the list and the two of them worked together to map New Zealand. I have found Hochstetter the more famous of the two in geology circles. The most famous New Zealand geologist may, however, not rate a mention on this page, in which case please delete along with Haast. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dushan Jugum (talkcontribs) 22:36, 2 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

The only requirements are that he be a geologist and have a Wikipedia article (or there are sources that could be used to create an article). So he can stay. RockMagnetist(talk) 23:06, 2 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

Inclusion criteria edit

Lists need an inclusion criteria that can be clearly articulated. "Notable" is easy enough. What is "especially notable"? This needs to be defined beyond offering examples of people, awards, etc. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 22:19, 25 February 2020 (UTC)Reply