Editing Roderick Murchison

{{Short description|British geologist (1792–1871)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2011}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = 
| name = Sir Roderick Murchison
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|Bt|KCB|FRS|HonFRSE|FLS|PRGS|PBA|MRIA}}
| image = Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Bt by Stephen Pearce.jpg
| image_size = 
| caption = Sir Roderick Murchison
| birth_date = {{Birth_date|1792|2|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = Tarradale House, [[Muir of Ord]], [[Ross-shire]], Scotland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1871|10|22|1792|2|19|df=yes}}
| death_place = London, England
| residence = 
| nationality = British
| ethnicity = 
| field = [[Geology]]
| work_institutions = 
| known_for = [[Silurian]] system<br/>[[Devonian]] system<br/>[[Permian]] system
| influences = 
| influenced = 
| prizes = [[Copley Medal]] {{small|(1849)}}<br/>[[List of Makdougall Brisbane Prize winners|Makdougall Brisbane Prize]] <small>(1859)</small><br/>[[Wollaston Medal]] {{small|(1864)}}<br/> [[Founder's Medal]] {{small| (1871)}}
| footnotes = 
| signature = 1860-SignatureMurchsonRI.png
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Charlotte Murchison|Charlotte Hugonin]]|1815|1869|end=d.}}
}}
[[File:Original Vanity Fair Print of Sir Roderick Murchison.jpg|thumb|[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|''Vanity Fair'']] print of Sir Roderick Murchison]]
[[File:Roderick Impey Murchison.jpg|thumb|Roderick Impey Murchison posing with cane]]
'''Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet''' (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871<ref name = "ODNB Murchison">{{Cite ODNB|id=19555|title=Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, baronet}}</ref>) was a Scottish [[geologist]] who served as [[Directors of the British Geological Survey|director-general]] of the [[British Geological Survey]] from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and describing the [[Silurian]],{{sfn|Geikie|1911|pp=31–32}} [[Devonian]] and [[Permian]] systems.

==Early life and work==
Murchison was born at [[Tarradale Castle|Tarradale House]], [[Muir of Ord]], [[Ross-shire]], the son of Barbara and Kenneth Murchison. His wealthy father died in 1796, when Roderick was four years old, and he was sent to [[Durham School]] three years later<ref name="ODNB"/> and then to the [[Royal Military College, Great Marlow]], to be trained for the army. In 1808, under [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Wellesley]], he landed in Portugal, and was present at the actions of [[Battle of Roliça|Roliça]] and [[Battle of Vimeiro|Vimeiro]] in the [[Peninsular War]] as an ensign in the [[36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot|36th Regt of Foot]]. Subsequently, under Sir [[John Moore (British Army officer)|John Moore]], he took part in the retreat to [[Province of A Coruña|Corunna]] and the final battle there.

After eight years of service Murchison left the army and married [[Charlotte Murchison|Charlotte Hugonin]] (1788–1869), the only daughter of General Hugonin of Nursted House, Hampshire. Murchison and his wife spent two years in mainland Europe, particularly in Italy. They then settled in [[Barnard Castle]], County Durham, England, in 1818, where Murchison made the acquaintance of Sir [[Humphry Davy]]. Davy urged Murchison to turn his energy to science, after hearing that he wasted his time riding to hounds and shooting. With encouragement from his wife Charlotte,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kölbl-Ebert|first=Martina|date=January 1997|title=Charlotte Murchison (Née Hugonin) 1788–1869|journal=Earth Sciences History|language=en|volume=16|issue=1|pages=39–43|doi=10.17704/eshi.16.1.97014235w8u4k414|bibcode=1997ESHis..16...39K |issn=0736-623X}}</ref> Murchison became fascinated by the young science of geology and joined the [[Geological Society of London]], soon becoming one of its most active members. His colleagues there included [[Adam Sedgwick]], [[William Conybeare (geologist)|William Conybeare]], [[William Buckland]], [[William Henry Fitton|William Fitton]], [[Charles Lyell]] and [[Charles Darwin]].

Exploring with his wife, Murchison studied the geology of the south of England, devoting special attention to the rocks of the north-west of [[Sussex]] and the adjoining parts of [[Hampshire]] and [[Surrey]], on which, aided by Fitton, he wrote his first scientific paper, read to the Geological Society of London in 1825. Turning his attention to Continental geology, he and Lyell explored the volcanic region of [[History of Auvergne|Auvergne]], parts of southern France, northern Italy, [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]] and Switzerland. A little later, with Sedgwick as his companion, Murchison attacked the difficult problem of the geological structure of the [[Alps]]. Their joint paper giving the results of their study is a classic in the literature of Alpine geology.

Murchison was an opponent of [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of evolution. He opposed the [[transmutation of species]] and supported [[Progressive creationism|successive creation]].{{sfn|Geikie|1875|pp=321–322}}{{sfn|Branch|2016|p=}}

==Silurian system==
In 1831 he went to the [[England–Wales border]], to attempt to discover whether the [[greywacke]] rocks underlying the [[Old Red Sandstone]] could be grouped into a definite order of succession. The result was the establishment of the [[Silurian]] system under which were grouped, for the first time, a remarkable series of formations, each replete with distinctive organic remains other than and very different from those of the other rocks of England. These researches, together with descriptions of the [[South Wales Coalfield|coalfields]] and overlying formations in [[South Wales]] and the [[Welsh Marches|English border counties]], were embodied in ''The Silurian System'' (1839). The English naturalist, geologist, and palaeontologist [[John William Salter]] assisted Murchison in his work on Siluria (1854 and later editions).<ref>MURCHISON, R. I. 1854. Siluria. The History of the Oldest known Rocks containing Organic Remains, with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold over Earth. John Murray, London, 523 pp.</ref>

The establishment of the Silurian system was followed by that of the [[Devonian]] system, an investigation in which Murchison assisted, both in the south-west of England and in the [[Rhineland]]. Soon afterwards Murchison projected an important geological campaign in Russia with the view of extending to that part of the Continent the classification he had succeeded in elaborating for the older rocks of western Europe. He was accompanied by [[Édouard de Verneuil]] (1805–1873) and Count [[Alexander von Keyserling]] (1815–1891), in conjunction with whom he produced a work on Russia and the [[Ural Mountains]]. The publication of this monograph in 1845 completes the first and most active half of Murchison's scientific career. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1840.<ref name="AAAS"/>

In 1846 he was knighted, and in the same year he presided over the meeting of the [[British Science Association|British Association]] at [[Southampton]]. During the later years of his life, a large part of his time was devoted to the affairs of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], of which he was in 1830 one of the founders,<ref name="Markham23">{{cite book |last=Markham |first=Sir Clements Robert |date=1881 |title=The Fifty Years' Work of the Royal Geographical Society |publisher=J. Murray |page=23}}</ref> and he was president 1843–1845, 1851–1853, 1856–1859 and 1862–1871. He served on the [[Royal Commission on the British Museum]] (1847–1849).{{sfn|Fagan|1880|p=257}}

Murchison also [[Permian#Discovery|announced the Permian system]] to geology in 1841, based on explorations in [[Perm Krai]] undertaken with Édouard de Verneuil.<ref>Benton, M.J. et al., [http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Benton/reprints/2010Murchison.pdf Murchison’s first sighting of the Permian, at Vyazniki in 1841] {{Webarchive|url=http://www.webcitation.org/66OtlfmmP?url=http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Benton/reprints/2010Murchison.pdf |date=2012-03-24 }}, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, accessed 2012-02-21</ref><ref>Murchison, Roderick Impey (1841) [https://books.google.com/books?id=1U8wAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA417 "First sketch of some of the principal results of a second geological survey of Russia,"] ''Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science'', series 3, '''19''' : 417–422. From p. 419: "The carboniferous system is surmounted, to the east of the Volga, by a vast series of marls, schists, limestones, sandstones and conglomerates, to which I propose to give the name of "Permian System," … ."</ref>

Murchison was responsible for establishing much of the international prestige of British geology, and he viewed the spread of his stratigraphic systems on maps around the world "as a scientific form of imperial expansion". He frequently described geological excursions (such those he made abroad) as "invasions" or "conquests" and enjoyed being dubbed the "King of Siluria". According to the scholar Robert A. Stafford, "Murchinson's tendencies towards [[militarism]], [[imperialism]], and [[wiktionary:megalomania|megalomania]] ran through his career and finally found full expression his simultaneous leadership of the Royal Geographical Society and the British Geological Survey."<ref name="Stafford 1984">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03086538408582669|doi = 10.1080/03086538408582669|title = Geological surveys, mineral discoveries, and British expansion, 1835–71|year = 1984|last1 = Stafford|first1 = Robert A.|journal = The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History|volume = 12|issue = 3|pages = 5–32|url-access = subscription}}</ref>

==Scotland==
[[File:Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Murchison photographed by [[Camille Silvy]] in 1860]]
The chief geological investigation of the last decade of his life was devoted to the [[Scottish Highlands|Highlands]] of Scotland, where he wrongly believed he had succeeded in showing that the vast masses of crystalline [[schist]]s, previously supposed to be part of what used to be termed the Primitive formations, were really not older than the Silurian period, since underneath them lay beds of [[limestone]] and [[quartzite]] containing Lower Silurian ([[Cambrian]]) [[fossil]]s. This started off what became known as the [[Highlands Controversy]]. [[James Nicol (geologist)|James Nicol]] recognised the fallacy in Murchison's theory and propounded his own ideas; in the 1880s these were superseded by the correct theory of [[Charles Lapworth]], which was corroborated by [[Ben Peach|Benjamin Peach]] and [[John Horne]]. Their subsequent research showed that the infraposition of the fossiliferous rocks is not their original place, but had been brought about by a gigantic system of dislocations, whereby successive masses of the oldest [[gneiss]]es, have been exhumed from below and thrust over the younger formations.

In 1855 Murchison was appointed director-general of the [[British Geological Survey]] and director of the [[Royal School of Mines]] and the [[Museum of Practical Geology]] in Jermyn Street, London, in succession to Sir [[Henry De la Beche]], who had been the first to hold these offices. Official routine now occupied much of his time, but he found opportunity for the Highland researches just alluded to, and also for preparing successive editions of his work ''Siluria'' (1854, ed. 5, 1872), which was meant to present the main features of the original Silurian System together with a digest of subsequent discoveries, particularly of those that showed the extension of the Silurian classification into other countries.{{Clear}}

==Later life==
[[File:Tarradale House-Geograph-4704758-by-Julian-Paren.jpg|thumb|300px|Tarradale House]]
[[File:RoderickMurchisonBrompton.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Funerary monument, [[Brompton Cemetery]], London]]

In 1845, whilst visiting [[Carclew]] in [[Cornwall]], he met several [[Cornish people|Cornish]] miners who were going to Australia. Believing that there might be gold there, he asked them to send back likely samples. They did this, and thus Murchison knew of the existence of gold in Australia before [[Edward Hargraves]]' discovery.<ref name="Bonython1933"/>
In 1857, Murchison was elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]].<ref name="AAS"/> Three years later, he was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Roderick+I.+Murchison&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-01-15|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1863 he was made a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath|KCB]], and three years later he was created a [[baronet]]. The learned societies of his own country bestowed their highest rewards upon him: the [[Royal Society]] gave him the [[Copley Medal]], the Geological Society its [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston medal]], and the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] its Brisbane Medal. There was hardly a foreign scientific society of note without his name among its honorary members. The [[French Academy of Sciences]] awarded him the prix Cuvier, and elected him one of its eight foreign members in succession to [[Michael Faraday]]. In 1855 he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] and in 1871 awarded the [[Founders' Medal]] of the Royal Geographical Society.<ref name="rgs.org"/>

One of the closing public acts of Murchison's life was the founding of a chair of geology and mineralogy at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. Under his will there was established the [[Murchison Medal]] and a geological fund ([[The Murchison Fund]]) to be awarded annually by the council of the Geological Society in London.

Murchison died in 1871 and is buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]], London, near the north end of the arcade on the west side of the central path.

==Legacy==
The crater [[Murchison (crater)|Murchison]] on the [[Moon]] and at least fifteen geographical locations on Earth are named after him.

These include: the Murchison Range, part of the [[Stauning Alps]], and the [[Murchison Sound]] in [[Greenland]];<ref name="cat"/> [[Mount Murchison (Alberta)|Mount Murchison]] in [[Banff National Park]], Canada; Mount Murchison in the [[Mountaineer Range]], Antarctica; Mount Murchison, just west of [[Squamish, British Columbia]], Canada; tiny Murchison Island in [[Haida Gwaii]] <!--little more than a ref or rock--> in the same province; the [[Murchison Falls]] in Uganda; the [[Murchison River (Western Australia)|Murchison River]] in Western Australia.<ref name="BCGNIS"/> Murchison has two other rivers named after him in Western Australia: the Roderick River and the [[Impey River]], both tributaries of the Murchison. The town of [[Murchison, New Zealand|Murchison]] in the [[Tasman District]] of New Zealand's South Island was also named after him. Other New Zealand places named after him include [[Mount Murchison (Canterbury)|Mount Murchison]] in [[Arthur's Pass National Park]], [[Murchison Glacier]] in [[Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park]], and the [[Murchison Mountains]] in [[Fiordland National Park]].{{sfn|Reed|2010|pp=263–264}}

Murchison Road is one of the streets in east London, and there is a Murchison Avenue in Old Bexley, southeast London. Scarborough in North Yorkshire has a Murchison Street.
[[File:Dudley View Charlotte Murchison Silurian System p.480.jpg|thumb|Lithographic Sketch, Dudley from Wren's Nest by Charlotte Murchison in The Silurian System, 1839, p.480]]
Murchison's View is named after him. The viewpoint within the Wren's Nest area of [[Dudley]] gives a panoramic view over much of Birmingham and the Black Country. Murchinson's visits to the limestone hills of Dudley helped him to develop his understanding of the Silurian System. When he returned to the area in 1849 he was greeted by 15,000 locals who declared him the King of Siluria.

===Memorials===
[[File:Memorial tablet of Roderick Murchison at the School 9 in Perm.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Memorial stone and tablet in [[Perm, Russia]]]]
A memorial tablet was installed on 3 November 2005 in front of School #9 in [[Perm, Russia|Perm]] in Russia.<ref name="rfn.ru"/> It consists of a stone base, irregular in form, about two metres long, and bearing a dark stone plate with the following inscription (in Russian):
{{blockquote|
To Roderick Impey Murchison, Scottish geologist, explorer of [[Perm Krai]],
who gave to the last period of the Paleozoic era the name of Permian.
}}
The decision to perpetuate the explorer's name was accepted by the school administration and pupils in connection with a discussion to establish in Perm a pillar or an arch devoted to Roderick Murchison.

In 2009, the Ural-Scottish Society erected a memorial to Murchison on the banks of the [[Chusovaya River]].<ref name="Telegraph2009"/> There is a commemorative [[blue plaque]] on his residence at 21 Galgate in [[Barnard Castle]] (County Durham).

A fictionalised version of Murchison appears in the 2020 film [[Ammonite (film)|Ammonite]]. He is played by [[James McArdle]].

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Murchison|first=Sir Roderick Impey |title=Outline of the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Cheltenham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ExJaAAAAYAAJ|year=1834|publisher=H. Davies|display-authors=0}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/siluriansystemw00murcgoog/page/n8 |title=The Silurian System|date=1839|location=London|publisher=John Murray|last=Murchison|first=Sir Roderick Impey|display-authors=0}}
* {{cite book|last1=Murchison|first1=Sir Roderick Impey |author2=Philippe Edouard Poulletier de Verneuil|author3=graf Alexander Keyserling|title=On the Geological Structure of the Central and Southern Regions of Russia in Europe, and of the Ural Mountains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDoAAAAAQAAJ|year=1842|publisher=Print. by R. and J.E. Taylor|display-authors=0}}
* {{cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63776945 |title=Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains|volume= 1: Parts 1 & 2 – Geology|date=1845}} with Edouard de Verneuil and Count Alexander Keyserling
* {{cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6377948z |trans-title=Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains|volume= 2: Part 3 – Palaeontology|language=fr|date=1845|title=Géologie de la Russie d'Europe et des montagnes de l'Oural|publisher=P. Bertrand |location=Paris}}
{{refend}}
{{Clear}}
{{botanist|Murch.}}

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="ODNB">{{ODNB |last1=Bonney|first1=T. G.|author1-link= |first2=The Revd Robert A.|last2= Stafford |title=Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, baronet (1792–1871)|id=19555|quote=In 1799 Roderick was placed at the grammar school, Durham, where he led in mischief more often than in his class.}}</ref>

<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter M|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterM.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=15 September 2016}}</ref>

<ref name="Bonython1933">{{citation|author-link=John Langdon Bonython|first=John Langdon |last=Bonython |title=Address of the President|work= Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall|volume= XXIV, Parts 1 and 2|date= 1933–34|page=5}}</ref>

<ref name="rgs.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf |title=List of Past Gold Medal Winners |publisher=Royal Geographical Society |access-date=24 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927221002/http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref>

<ref name="cat">{{cite web | title = Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland | publisher = Geological Survey of Denmark | url = http://www.geus.dk/DK/publications/geol-survey-dk-gl-bull/21/Documents/nr21_p001-016.pdf | access-date = 30 December 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161230231212/http://www.geus.dk/DK/publications/geol-survey-dk-gl-bull/21/Documents/nr21_p001-016.pdf | archive-date = 30 December 2016 | url-status = dead}}</ref>

<ref name="AAS">{{cite web|url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistm |website=American Antiquarian Society |title=Members Directory}}</ref>

<ref name="BCGNIS">{{Cite web |url=http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/bcgn-bin/bcg10?name=8298 |title=BCGNIS listing "Mount Murchison" |access-date=9 June 2008 |archive-date=15 August 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070815194325/http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/bcgn-bin/bcg10?name=8298 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="rfn.ru">{{cite news|url=http://perm.rfn.ru/rnews.html?id=14621|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311095035/http://perm.rfn.ru/rnews.html?id=14621|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 March 2007|language=ru|access-date=27 March 2017|trans-title=School pupils established a memorial to the geologist who discovered the Permian period of Paleozoic Era|date=21 October 2015|title=Школьники установили памятный знак геологу, открывшему Пермский период Палеозоя|first=Nikita |last=Chernov}}</ref>

<ref name="Telegraph2009">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/4798366/The-Urals-remember-Sir-Roderick-Murchison.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821151829/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/4798366/The-Urals-remember-Sir-Roderick-Murchison.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 August 2009|title=A memorial to Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the Scottish geologist who established the Permian archaeological period of the Mesozoic Era, has been unveiled on the bank of the Chusovaya River in the Ural Mountains|date=24 February 2009|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=27 March 2010}}</ref>
}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite web|last=Branch|first= Glenn|date=2016|url=https://ncse.com/blog/2016/01/misquoting-murchison-0016757|title=Misquoting Murchison|website= [[National Center for Science Education]]}}
*{{cite book|last=Fagan|first=Louis |title=The Life of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K. C. B.: Late Principal Librarian of the British Museum, Senator of Italy, &c., &c|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecorresponden01fagauoft/page/256|volume=1|year=1880|publisher=Houghton|location=Boston}}
*{{cite book|last=Geikie|first= Archibald|date=1875|url=https://archive.org/details/lifesirroderick04geikgoog/page/n350 |title=Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison: Based on His Journals and Letters|volume =2|location= London|publisher= John Murray}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey|volume=19|pages=31–32|first=Archibald|last=Geikie|author-link =Archibald Geikie}}
*{{cite book |last = Reed |first = A. W. |authorlink = Clif Reed |title = Place Names of New Zealand |year = 2010 |publisher = Raupo |location = Rosedale, North Shore |isbn = 9780143204107 |editor = Peter Dowling}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book | author = Geikie, Archibald | author-link=Archibald Geikie | title = Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison | year = 1875 | publisher = John Murray | location = London |volume= I | url = https://archive.org/details/lifeofsirroderic01geikrich |access-date= 26 February 2019 |via= Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book | author = Geikie, Archibald | author-link=Archibald Geikie | title = Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison | year = 1875 | publisher = John Murray | location = London |volume= II | url = https://archive.org/details/lifeofsirroderic02geikrich |access-date= 26 February 2019 |via= Internet Archive}}
* {{cite journal|last=Hestmark|first= Geir |date=2008|title=A primitive country of rocks and people" – Roderick I Murchison's Silurian Campaign in Norway 1844|journal= Norwegian Journal of Geology|volume= 88|pages= 117–141}} 
* {{cite book|last=Morton|first= John L.|title=King of Siluria — How Roderick Murchison Changed the Face of Geology|publisher=Brocken Spectre |date= 2004|isbn=0-9546829-0-4}}
* {{cite book|author-link=Martin J. S. Rudwick|last=Rudwick|first= Martin J. S.|title=The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists|url=https://archive.org/details/greatdevoniancon0000rudw|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date= 1985|isbn=9780226731018}} — the rise of Murchison to power
* {{cite book|author-link=James A. Secord|last=Secord|first= James A.|title=Controversy in Victorian Geology: The Cambrian-Silurian Dispute|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=1986|bibcode=1986cvgc.book.....S }} — documents the battle between Murchison and [[Adam Sedgwick]]
* {{citation|title=Murchison's Wanderings in Russia: His Geological Exploration of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, 1840–1841 |editor1-first= M. |editor1-last=Collie|editor2-first= J. |editor2-last=Diener|location= Buckinghamshire|publisher= Halstan & Co.|date= 2004|pages= 474 |series=British Geological Survey Occasional Publication No. 2.}}
* {{cite book|last=Murchison|first= Arthur|title=War Before Science: Sir Robert Impey Murchison's Youth, Army Service and Military Associates During the Napoleonic Wars|publisher=Academica Press|date= 2014|isbn=978-1-936320-74-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Stafford|first= Robert A.|title=Scientist of Empire: Sir Roderick Murchison, Scientific Exploration and Victorian Imperialism|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date= 1989}} - documents Murchison's role in promoting the symbiotic relationship between the natural sciences and British imperialism
* {{cite book |chapter= Sir Roderick Murchison (Obituary Notice, Monday, October 23, 1871) |title= Eminent Persons: Biographies reprinted from The Times|year=1892 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |place=London |pages=63–75 |volume= I (1870–1875)|hdl=2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t6n011x45  }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
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*[http://biography.yourdictionary.com/sir-roderick-impey-murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison Facts]
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=Roderick Impey Murchison}}
*{{OL author|id=166411A }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Murchison, Roderick Impey}}
[[Category:1792 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British geologists]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish scientists]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
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[[Category:British creationists]]
[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London]]
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[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:People associated with the British Museum]]
[[Category:People educated at Durham School]]
[[Category:People from Barnard Castle]]
[[Category:People from the Black Isle]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Geological Society of London]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:Scottish geologists]]
[[Category:Scottish palaeontologists]]
[[Category:Scottish soldiers]]
[[Category:Wollaston Medal winners]]
[[Category:Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]]
[[Category:Directors of the British Geological Survey]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]