Osmond Fisher

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Osmond Fisher
Osmond Fisher.jpg
Born17' 'November' '1817 Edit this on Wikidata
Died12' 'July' '1914 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 96)
OccupationGeologist Edit this on Wikidata
Awards
Signature
Osmond Fisher signature.png

Reverend Osmond Fisher (17 November 1817, Osmington, Dorset, England – 12 July 1914, Huntingdon, England) was an English clergyman, geologist and geophysicist. He was among the early geologists to propose the idea of the earth consisted of a solid crust floating above a fluid core.

Fisher was born in Osmington, the son of clergyman John Fisher (1788–1832) who was Vicar of Osmington and Canon of Salisbury. Young Fisher was named after St. Osmond, the patron saint of the church where his father served. He took an interest in geology from an early age, collecting fossils at Dorset and Wilts with his uncle Rev. George Cookson. He studied at Eton under Dr Keate, then under his uncle Rev. W. Fisher in Poulshot, Wiltshire and then with his grandfather, Rev. Philip Fisher, Master of the Charterhouse. He then went to King's College where he listened to the lectures of Charles Lyell and John Frederic Daniell. He joined Jesus College, Cambridge in 1836 studying mathematics and also attending lectures by Adam Sedgwick. He graduated 18th Wrangler in 1841. Ordained deacon in 1844 he succeeded his uncle Cookson at Writhlington. He was ordained priest in 1845 and in 1853 became a tutor of Jesus College, Cambrige. He later worked on the geomorphology of Norfolk, as well as the stratigraphy and invertebrate fossils of Dorset. He had published The Physics of the Earth’s Crust (1881), in which he postulated a non-homogenous composition of the Earth. He speculated that the crust may sit atop a liquid layer.[1] This was the most prominent work on the topic since Alexander von Humboldt, however it went largely ignored until the work of Alfred Wegener.[2][3] Much of his work into continental drift went ridiculed, while other geologists of the time clung to their Solid State Theory. However his observations were all based on careful scientific deductions rather than simple speculation.[4][5] He recognized and supported Thomas Jamieson's observation that ice could press down upon the crust and that the land could rise after glacial melt.[6] He also published theories on the moon, proposing that the Pacific Ocean was the mark left where the moon split from the earth. However the Pacific Ocean is both chemically dissimilar and much younger than the moon.[7] He was also the author of the first geophysics textbook.[3] He was the recipient of the Murchison Medal in 1893 and the Wollaston Medal in 1913. Fisher was proposed as a Fellow of the Geological Society by Sedgwick in 1852. Fisher was elected Honorary Fellow of King's College in 1878 and of Jesus College in 1893.[8]

Fisher married Maria Louisa, daughter of Hastings N. Middleton of Dorchester in 1857.[9]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Fisher, O. (1878). "II.—On the Possibility of Changes in the Latitudes of Places on the Earth's Surface; being an Appeal to Physicists". Geological Magazine. 5 (7): 291–297. doi:10.1017/S0016756800150423. ISSN 0016-7568.
  2. ^ Geological Society; Rev. Osmond Fisher Archived 2007-03-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 2006-07-02.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Wolfram Research; Fisher, Osmond (1817-1914). Retrieved on 2006-07-02.
  4. ^ Şengör, Ali Mehmet Celâl (2003-01-01). The Large Wavelength Deformations of the Lithosphere. Geological Society of America. p. 234. ISBN 0-8137-1196-7.
  5. ^ Fisher, O. (1886). "I. On the variations of gravity at certain stations of the Indian arc of the meridian in relation to their bearing upon the constitution of the earth's crust". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 22 (134): 1–29. doi:10.1080/14786448608627893. ISSN 1941-5982.
  6. ^ Fisher, O. (1882). "On the Depression of Ice-Loaded Lands". Geological Magazine. 9 (11): 526–526. doi:10.1017/S0016756800172930. ISSN 0016-7568.
  7. ^ Harland, David M (2001-01-01). The Earth in Context. Springer. p. 59. ISBN 1-85233-375-8.
  8. ^ "Osmond Fisher M.A., F.G.S." Geological Magazine. 1 (8): 383–384. 1914. doi:10.1017/S0016756800140002. ISSN 0016-7568.
  9. ^ Davison, C. (1900). "I.—Eminent Living Geologists: Rev. Osmond Fisher, M.A., F.G.S." Geological Magazine. 7 (2): 49–54. doi:10.1017/S0016756800181695. ISSN 0016-7568.

External links[]

Stub icon

This geophysics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

  • v
  • t
Retrieved from ""