Clarence King - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CLARENCE KING (1842-1901), American geologist, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A., on the 6th of January 1842. He graduated at Yale in 1862. His most important work was the geological exploration of the fortieth parallel, of which the main reports (1876 and 1877) comprised the geological and topographical atlas of the Rocky Mountains, the Green River and Utah basins, and the Nevada plateau and basin. When the United States Geological Survey was consolidated in 187 9 King was chosen director, and he vigorously conducted investigations in Colorado, and in the Eureka district and on the Comstock lode in Nevada. He held office for a year only; in later years his only noteworthy contribution to geology was an essay on the age of the earth, which appeared in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1893. He died at Phoenix, Arizona, on the 2 4 th of December 1901.