These geologists are exploring granite rocks on a mountain ridge.

Scientists Who Study Rocks

Geology is the study of rocks and geologists are the people who study them! There are many different types of geologists.

  • Mineralogists study minerals.
  • Petrologist study rocks.
  • Structural geologist study how plate tectonics moves and squishes rocks.
  • Paleontologists study Earth history and fossils.
  • Geomorphologists study how the land surface is shaped by water, wind and ice.

What is a geologist like? Well, they are all very different. Click on the links below to get to know some famous geologists.

  • Florence Bascom was a mineralogist and petrologist.
  • Charles Darwin was the first scientist to publish the theory of evolution.
  • Stephen Jay Gould expanded Darwin's theory with his own ideas.
  • Friedrich Mohs was the mineralogist who created a way to identify minerals by their hardness.
  • Leonardo da Vinci did a little bit of everything! He was a famous artist and also discovered how sedimentary rocks and fossils form.


Last modified March 30, 2009 by Lisa Gardiner.

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