Marland Pratt Billings (March 11, 1902 – October 9, 1996) was an American

structural geologist Structural geology is the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units with respect to their deformational histories. The primary goal of structural geology is to use measurements of present-day rock geometries to uncover informatio ...

who was considered one of the greatest authorities on North American geology. Billings was Professor of Geology at Harvard University for almost his entire career, having joined the faculty in 1930 and retired to ''emeritus'' status in 1972. He also taught for a brief time at Bryn Mawr College.

Biography

Billings was educated at Roxbury Latin School. He received his A.B. (1923), his A.M. (1925), and his Ph.D. (1927) from Harvard University. In the 1950s, Billings studied the geology exposed by some of the bedrock tunnels being constructed in the Boston area by the Metropolitan District Commission for water supply and drainage disposal. He also investigated the geology of many parts of the world, including Iceland,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Marland was married to

Katharine Fowler-Billings Katharine (Kay) Fowler-Billings (1902 – December 17, 1997) was an American naturalist and geologist. She is commonly known for being one of the earliest female geologists. Katharine was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, she attend Bryn Mawr Coll ...

an accomplished naturalist and geologist. Marland Billings died Wednesday, October 9, 1996, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 94.

Awards and honors

* Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1938) * Penrose Medal (1987) * Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Associations

* Geological Society of America, President 1959Eckel, Edwin, 1982, GSA Memoir 155, The Geological Society of America — Life History of a Learned Society: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Memoir 155, 168 p., . * American Geophysical Union * Mineralogical Society of America * Seismological Society of America

Bibliography

A partial list of books: *''Origin of the Appalachian Highlands'' (1932) *''Geology of the Littleton and Moosilauke quadrangles'' (1935) *''Geology of the Franconia quadrangle'' (1935) *''Structural Geology'' (1942) *''The Geology of the Mt. Washington Quadrangle'' (1946) *''A Geological Map of New Hampshire'' (1955) *''Geology of New Hampshire'' (1956) *''Chemical analyses of rocks and rock-minerals from New Hampshire'' (1965) *''Geology of the Gorham Quadrangle: New Hampshire-Maine'' (1965) *''Geology of the Malden tunnel, Massachusetts'' (1966) *''Geology of the North Metropolitan Relief Tunnel, great Boston, Massachusetts'' (1975) *''Bedrock geology (The Geology of New Hampshire)'' (1980)

References

External links

Marland P. Billings 1902-1996
A Remembrance by Brian K. Fowler, ''Windswept, The Quarterly Bulletin of the Mount Washington Observatory'', Vol. 38. No. 1, Spring 1997, pp. 53–54.
Mount Washington ObservatoryMineralogical Museum at Harvard University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Billings, Marland 1902 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American geologists Bryn Mawr College faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Penrose Medal winners People from Peterborough, New Hampshire Structural geologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Roxbury Latin School alumni Presidents of the Geological Society of America