Thomas Webster (geologist)

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Thomas Webster (1773 – December 26, 1844), Scottish geologist, was born in Orkney, and was educated at Aberdeen.

He subsequently went to London and studied architecture, the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street being built from his design. In 1826 he was appointed house-secretary and curator to the Geological Society of London, and for many years he rendered important services in editing and illustrating the Transactions of the Society. In 1841-1842 he was professor of geology in University College, London.

He was distinguished for his researches on the Tertiary formations of the Isle of Wight, where he recognised the occurrence of both fresh-water and marine strata; he continued his observations on the mainland of Hampshire, and subsequently in Dorset, where he described the Purbeck and Portland rocks.

To him Sir Henry C Englefield (1752–1822) was indebted for the geological descriptions and the effective geological views and sections of the Isle of Wight and Dorset that enriched his Description of the Principal Picturesque Beauties, Antiquities and Geological Phenomena of the Isle of Wight (1816). The mineral websterite now known as aluminite was named after him. He died in London on the 26 December 1844.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.