# Thomas Oldham > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Oldham > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Oldham.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Oldham > Source revision: 1281796978 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Anglo-Irish geologist}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Thomas Oldham |image = Thomas oldham.jpg |image_size = 200px |caption = Thomas Oldham |birth_date = {{Birth date|1816|05|04|df=y}} |birth_place = [Dublin](/source/Dublin) |death_date = {{Death date and age|1878|07|17|1816|05|04|df=y}} |death_place = [Rugby](/source/Rugby%2C_Warwickshire) |residence = |nationality = |field = [Geology](/source/Geology) |work_institutions = |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = [mineral](/source/mineral) [Oldhamite](/source/Oldhamite) |awards = |influences = |influenced = |footnotes = }} '''Thomas Oldham''' (4 May 1816, [Dublin](/source/Dublin) – 17 July 1878, [Rugby](/source/Rugby%2C_Warwickshire)) was an Anglo-Irish [geologist](/source/geologist).{{cite DNB|wstitle=Oldham, Thomas|volume= 42|pages=111–112}}{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Oldham, Thomas}} == Early life == Thomas was born at Dublin on 4 May 1816 as the eldest son of Thomas Oldham and his wife, Margaret Bagot. Educated at a private schools, he began residency at [Trinity College, Dublin](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Dublin) before the age of 16. By spring 1836, he started his B.A. and later studied civil engineering at the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh) as well as geology under [Robert Jameson](/source/Robert_Jameson).{{Cite web |title=Thomas Oldham | Pioneers of the British Geological Survey | British Geoscientists | Discovering geology | British Geological Survey (BGS) |url=http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/geologyOfBritain/archives/pioneers/pioneers.cfc?method=viewRecord&personId=177¤tTab=tab_O |accessdate=19 July 2019 |website=www.bgs.ac.uk}} They became intimate friends. After two years in Scotland, he returned to Dublin. He married Louisa Matilda Dixon of Liverpool in 1850. == Geology == In 1838 he joined the ordnance survey in Ireland as a chief assistant under [Joseph Ellison Portlock](/source/Joseph_Ellison_Portlock) who was studying the geology of Londonderry and [neighbourhood](/source/neighbourhood). Portlock wrote of him {{cquote|whenever I have required his aid … I have found him possessed of the highest intelligence and the most unbounded zeal}} He discovered radiating fans shaped impressions in the town of [Bray](/source/Bray%2C_County_Wicklow) in 1840. He showed this to the English palaeontologist [Edward Forbes](/source/Edward_Forbes), who named it ''[Oldhamia](/source/Oldhamia)'' after him. Forbes declared them to be [bryozoa](/source/bryozoa)ns, however later workers ascribed it to other plants and animals. For a while these were considered the oldest fossils in the world. He became Curator to the [Geological Society of Dublin](/source/Geological_Society_of_Dublin), and in 1845 succeeded [John Phillips](/source/John_Phillips_(geologist)), nephew of [William Smith](/source/William_Smith_(geologist)), in the Chair of Geology at [Trinity College, Dublin](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Dublin). He was elected a [Fellow of the Royal Society](/source/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society) in June 1848.{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |title=Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660-2007 |publisher=The Royal Society |accessdate=14 July 2010 |location=London |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324095152/http://royalsociety.org/Lists-of-Royal-Society-Fellows-1660-2007/ |archivedate=24 March 2010 }} == Career in India == He resigned as the Curator to the Geological Society of Dublin in November 1850 and took a position as the first Superintendent of the [Geological Survey of India](/source/Geological_Survey_of_India). He was the first Irish geologists to migrate to the subcontinent. He was followed by his brother [Charles](/source/Charles_Aemilius_Oldham), [William King Jr.](/source/William_King_(GSI)) (son of [William King](/source/William_King_(geologist)), the Professor of Geology at [Queen's College, Galway](/source/National_University_of_Ireland%2C_Galway)), [Valentine Ball](/source/Valentine_Ball), and more than 12 other Irish geologists. In India he oversaw a mapping programme that focussed on coal bearing strata. The team of geologists made major discoveries. [Henry Benedict Medlicott](/source/Henry_Benedict_Medlicott) coined the term "Gondwana Series" in 1872. Oldham's elder son [Richard Dixon Oldham](/source/Richard_Dixon_Oldham) distinguished three types of [pressure](/source/Seismic_wave) produced by earthquakes: now known as P (compressional), S (shear), and L (Love)-waves, based on his observations made after the [Great Assam Earthquake of 1897](/source/1897_Assam_earthquake). Richard showed in 1906 the arrival patterns of waves and suggested that the core of the earth was liquid. His younger son [Henry](/source/Henry_Yule_Oldham) became a [reader](/source/Reader_(academic_rank)) in geography at [King's College, Cambridge](/source/King's_College%2C_Cambridge). He also started the ''Paleontologia Indica'', a series of memoirs on the [fossils](/source/fossils) of India. For this work, he recruited [Ferdinand Stoliczka](/source/Ferdinand_Stoliczka) from Europe. == Later days == Oldham resigned from his position in India in 1876 on the grounds of poor health and retired to Rugby in England. In recognition of his lifetime's "long & important services in the science of geology", including ''Palaeontographica Indica'', he was awarded the Royal Society's [Royal Medal](/source/Royal_Medal).{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=3311|title=Royal archive winners Prior to 1900 - Royal Medals|publisher=The Royal Society|accessdate=14 July 2010|location=London}} He died in Rugby on 17 July 1878.Patrick N. Wyse Jackson, 2005 Thomas Oldham. Earth Sciences 2000 Issue 12 {{cite web |url=http://www.habitas.org.uk/es2k/newsletter/Earth%20Science%202000%20Issue%2012.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2012-10-19 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315145541/http://www.habitas.org.uk/es2k/newsletter/Earth%20Science%202000%20Issue%2012.pdf |archivedate=15 March 2012 |df=dmy-all }}[http://darwin.lib.cam.ac.uk/perl/nav?pclass=name;pkey=Oldham%2C%20Thomas Darwin correspondence database] {{botanist|Oldham|Oldham, Thomas}} ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Oldham, Thomas}} Category:1816 births Category:1878 deaths Category:19th-century British geologists Category:Royal Medal winners Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Presidents of The Asiatic Society --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Thomas Oldham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Oldham) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Oldham?action=history)). 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