Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr. (September 26, 1912 – January 16, 1991) was an American

earth scientist Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres, ...

, biogeologist,

cosmologist Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

, and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

(in which he was a

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

champion), and led several field explorations of the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

. In academia, he was a member of the faculty of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

, and lastly

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. He was best known for his work on the

geologic time scale The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochr ...

and the

origin of life In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, and as a pioneering

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

. His works on the significance of Cambrian fossils in the 1940s led to the development of the concept " Cambrian explosion," for which he coined the phrase "eruptive evolution."

Early life and education

Cloud was born in West Upton, Massachusetts. He was the third of seven children of Preston Ercelle and Pauline L. (''née'' Wiedemann) Cloud. His father was an engineer-draftsman, and his mother, a

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

. He grew up in

Waynesboro, Pennsylvania Waynesboro is a borough in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on the southern border of the state. Waynesboro is in the Cumberland Valley between Hagerstown, Maryland, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It is part of Chambersburg, PA Micropolitan Sta ...

where he developed a love for the outdoors. He enjoyed Scouting and was an Eagle Scout. Upon graduating from Waynesboro High School in 1929, Cloud spent three years in the

(1930–1933) where he excelled at

. He was the bantamweight champion of the Pacific Fleet Scouting Force. Due to the Great Depression, he could not join university, and attended night school at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

, so that he could self-support by doing odd jobs during daytime. Ray S. Bassler, his geology professor and Curator of Geology at the U.S. National Museum, helped him to get manual jobs in the museum. Because of his keen interest in paleontology, he was given a job as a preparator in the paleontology laboratory under G. Arthur Cooper. It was Cooper who guided him to have his first technical publication on Devonian

brachiopods Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, wh ...

from Illinois in 1938. In 1937 he earned his BSc degree, and was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

. He enrolled for PhD at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

graduate school in geology the same year. Working on the major systematic monograph on a group of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

brachiopods, under the supervision of C. O. Dunbar, he received his doctorate in 1940. His thesis directly earned him the A. Cressey Morrison Prize in Natural History of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

, and was published by the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...

as Special Paper 38 in 1942.

Professional career

In the summer of 1939, Cloud worked as field assistant to A. Lincoln Washburn on Victoria Island in western Arctic Canada. For the rest of the year he taught at the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla. During 1941 to 1942 he returned to Yale University to continue work on brachiopod evolution as a Sterling Research Fellow. At the height of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he was recruited to the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

to work on the wartime Strategic Minerals Program. He embarked on a field party to investigate

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

deposits in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

during the summer of 1941. In 1943, he joined Virgil Barnes of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology in the Ellenburger Project, studying the stratigraphy and sedimentology of this important early Paleozoic carbonate complex. He became chief of party for

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

investigations in Alabama. After the war, in 1946, Cloud was appointed as Assistant Professor of Paleontology and Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at

. In 1948 he returned to the U.S. Geological Survey to become chief of the Branch of Paleontology and Stratigraphy. He was chief of party to map and investigate the geology of Saipan in the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. He became Chief Paleontologist from 1949 to 1959. In 1961 he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the

. He established the School of Earth Sciences at that university, becoming its first Head. In 1965 he moved to the

, as Professor of Biogeology, jointly with the Institute of Geophysics and the Department of Geology. In 1968 he transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, as full Professor. At UCSB he founded the Preston Cloud Research Laboratory, originally dedicated to paleomicrobiology and to studies of the first lunar geological samples from the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

space mission. In addition, between 1974 and 1979 he was again a member of the U.S. Geological Survey based in Santa Barbara. He retired in 1974, but continued as Professor Emeritus. He spent the rest of his life at UCSB.

Achievements and recognitions

Cloud was a member of the National Academy of Sciences for thirty years, he was chairman of the Geology Section and occupied positions in its Council and Executive Committee. In 1967-69 he headed the Academy's "Committee on Resources and Man," whose alarming report "Resources and Man" introduced to a wider public, among other things, the work on energy-resources of his friend M. King Hubbert, and the

Hubbert peak theory The Hubbert peak theory says that for any given geographical area, from an individual oil-producing region to the planet as a whole, the rate of petroleum production tends to follow a bell-shaped curve. It is one of the primary theories on peak ...

Peak oil Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; whil ...

production. He also gave the Hadean

geologic eon The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochron ...

, Earth's earliest, its name, using the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word for the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

to refer to a molten state of constant heat. Cloud was the author of over 200 scientific and lay publications. Notably, his 1978 book, ''Cosmos, Earth, and Man: A Short History of the Universe'', written for a general readership, has been called 'one of the first and finest presentations of "a more ample and more coherent picture of the world"' (Alles), and his 1988 ''Oasis in Space: Earth History from the Beginning'' a "comprehensive work of synthesis and reflection... a documented history of the earth and life on it... and an impressive capstone to his remarkable scholarship" (Crowell). One of Cloud's scientific heirs, his nephew

John P. Grotzinger John P. Grotzinger is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology at California Institute of Technology and chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. His works primarily focus on chemical and physical interactions between life and ...

, is the Project Scientist for the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigati ...

Curiosity rover ''Curiosity'' is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. ''Curiosity'' was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and lan ...

Mission Team. In 1990 special volume titled “Proterozoic Evolution and Environments” was published in the '' American Journal of Science'' in honour of Cloud's works. University of California, Santa Barbara has a graduate student award named Preston Cloud Memorial Awards, which is given annually and carries minimum $200 for first-time attendance at a national or major meeting of a professional organization such as the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

, Association of American Petroleum Geologists, or for a student presenting a talk at such a meeting for the first time.

Cambrian Explosion

Preston Cloud was the first scientist to systematically recognise the importance of the rich fossils of the Cambrian rocks in evolutionary terms. In order to explain the somewhat sudden appearance of diverse animals during the Cambrian Period, he invented the term "eruptive radiation" in his 1948 paper. According to him, the earlier use of the term like "explosive" was misleading because the actual evolution could occur over a period of millions of years, and it "probably did not make a loud noise," he described, as implicated by the term. He postulated that adaptive radiation in any favourable ecological condition could always result in diversification of an original population into several distinct lineages, thus giving rise to eruptive evolution. Although his innovative thinking was largely ignored at the time, extensive research on the Cambrian fauna since the late 1970s, such as the

fossils of the Burgess Shale The fossils of the Burgess Shale, like the Burgess Shale itself, formed around 505 million years ago in the Mid Cambrian period. They were discovered in Canada in 1886, and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 65,000 specimens in a seri ...

, has established that the bio-geological event is a true documentation of the evolutionary origins of the animals, especially the body plans of modern animals.

Personal life

Cloud was a noted public speaker and symposium participant on the subjects of resources, the human future, origin of life and the primitive earth, and he regularly delivered many popular lectures. Cloud was of small stature, and with a rather Asian-like complexion. During his service in World War II, as D. L. Peck, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, noted in a letter dated January 29, 1941: " reston Cloudcreated quite a stir among the locals who suspected that this person of slight stature, emerging from holes in the ground, must certainly be a Japanese spy in their midst.” At 5'6", he would often put his desk and chairs on 4-inch-high raisers so that, as he claimed, he could look down on others to show his authority. Cloud was an ardent

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

. In graduate school, Preston was engaged to Mildred Porter. When Preston resigned from Harvard, they were divorced. In his time at Washington, he married Frances Webster, with whom he had three children, Karen, Lisa, and Kevin. The family moved to Minnesota in 1961, and though Preston and Frances were amicably divorced in 1965, two years later Preston relocated the entire family to

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

when he accepted a professorship at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In Santa Barbara, Preston met and, in 1973, married Janice Gibson, an opera singer and mother of three children, Morgan, Dante, and Amanda. Preston and Janis remained together for the remainder of his life. Preston Cloud died at home, on January 16, 1991, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

, brought on as a complication of

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

Awards

* 1941, awarded the A. Cressey Morrison Award in Natural History, New York Academy of Science * 1956, awarded the Rockefeller Public Service Award * 1956, elected an honorary fellow of the Paleontological Society of India * 1959, awarded the Department of Interior Distinguished Service Award * 1961, elected to the National Academy of Sciences * 1969, elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

* 1971, awarded the

Paleontological Society Medal The Paleontological Society Medal is an award given by the Paleontological Society to a person whose eminence is based on advancement of knowledge in paleontology.Paleontology Society Medal information page https://www.paleosoc.org/paleontological ...

* 1973, awarded the Lucius Wilbur Cross Medal of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

* 1973, elected to the

* 1976, awarded the

Penrose Medal The Penrose Medal was created in 1925 by R.A.F. Penrose, Jr., as the top prize awarded by the Geological Society of America. Originally created as the Geological Society of America Medal it was soon renamed the Penrose Medal by popular assent of t ...

by the

* 1977, awarded the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal by the National Academy of Sciences * 1980, elected a Foreign Member,

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...

* 1982, elected Fellow of Guggenheim Foundation

Books

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

Rock Star Profile: Preston Cloud
* John C. Crowell: 'Preston Cloud – September 26, 1912 – January 16, 1991, National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoi

National Academy of Sciences: Awards
* Preston Cloud on What-When-Ho

* University of California: In Memoria

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloud, Preston American paleontologists 20th-century American geologists Penrose Medal winners George Washington University alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Minnesota faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty 1912 births 1991 deaths People from Franklin County, Pennsylvania Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal winners Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences United States Navy sailors Recipients of the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award Deaths from pneumonia in California Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from motor neuron disease