Frederick Richard Mallet (10 February 1841 - 24 June 1921) was an Irish geologist who worked for thirty years in the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

Life and work

Mallet was born in Dublin, the son of

Robert Mallet Robert Mallet (3 June 1810 – 5 November 1881) was an Irish geophysicist, civil engineer, and inventor who distinguished himself in research on earthquakes and is sometimes called the father of seismology. His son, Frederick Richard Mallet was ...

, a geologist. After studying at the Enniskillen Royal School in 1858 he joined the Geological Survey of India in February 1859. He worked in the Himalayas, Central India, Assam and Burma while also being in charge of the Museum and Laboratory. He published numerous papers on the geology of the

Vindhya range The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

and examined the Barren Island volcano. He became a Superintendent of the Survey in 1883 and retired in 1889. He contributed to Medlicott's Manual of the Geology of India, the fourth part which dealt with mineralogy. Mallet was involved in the survey of coalfields in the Naga Hills, the Son Valley, southern Mirzapur, and Rewa. He accompanied

Ferdinand Stoliczka Ferdinand Stoliczka (Czech written Stolička, 7 June 1838 – 19 June 1874) was a Moravian palaeontologist who worked in India on paleontology, geology and various aspects of zoology, including ornithology, malacology, and herpetology. He died of ...

and

William Theobald William Theobald (1829 – 31 March 1908) was a malacologist and naturalist on the staff of the Geological Survey of India serving in Burma, then a part of British India. Biography Very little is known of Theobald's early life. Theobald was ref ...

on expeditions to the

Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...

and

Spiti Spiti (pronounced as Piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tibe ...

valleys. He was the first geologist to scientifically study the

Ramgarh crater Ramgarh crater, also known as ''Ramgarh structure'', ''Ramgarh Dome'' and ''Ramgarh astrobleme'', is a meteor impact crater of diameter in Kota, Rajasthan, Kota plateau of Vindhya range located adjacent to Ramgarh village in Mangrol, Rajastha ...

in 1869. Apart from geology, he also took an interest in natural history, corresponding with

Allan Octavian Hume Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British civil servant, political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was the founder of the Indian National Congress. A notable ornithologist, Hum ...

on birds. He was elected to Geological Society of London in 1868. He died at Ealing from ailments of the kidneys and prostate.

References

External links

Family history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallet, Frederick Richard 1841 births 1921 deaths Irish geologists Fellows of the Geological Society of London