BRYAN, KIRK

born July 22, 1888, Albuquerque, N.M., U.S. died Aug. 22, 1950, Cody, Wyo. American geologist and geomorphologist who pioneered in explaining the forces that molded the present landforms of arid climates. A geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey from 1912 to 1926, Bryan worked on the problem of water resources in arid and semiarid regions. In 1926 he began teaching at Harvard University. In 1932 he helped introduce the study of pollen in old rock formations to reconstruct the climate of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago), a technique then little known in the United States. He also proposed that the effects of frost and freezing in the top part of soil and rock formations should reveal much about climate and coined the term cryopedology to cover the effects of cold climate on soils.