LAWSON, ANDREW COWPER

born July 25, 1861, Anstruther, Fife, Scot. died June 16, 1952, San Leandro, Calif., U.S. Canadian-U.S. geologist who made important discoveries of Precambrian rock structures (more than 570,000,000 years old) and headed the commission appointed to investigate the disastrous California earthquake of 1906. In 1882 Lawson joined the Canadian Geological Survey and began his epic studies of the Precambrian rocks of southwestern Ontario. His revolutionary interpretation of these strata was published in 1881, and, although considered heretical at first, his conclusions soon gained general acceptance. In 1890 he left the Survey to become professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of California at Berkeley, where he remained until he retired in 1928. He organized the university's instruction in mineralogy and petrography, developed a geology field course, and became a powerful influence throughout academic and professional circles. He founded and for 35 years edited the Bulletin of the Department of Geology. The report of his commission's investigation of the 1906 California earthquake marked an epoch of study in that field. A milestone in the understanding of earthquakes, the report was the most complete ever made of a major earthquake and initiated the theory of elastic rebound of shock waves as the cause of certain earthquakes.