Geological Survey of India - History

History

The roots of the Geological Survey of India may be traced to 1836 when a Committee, named Coal Committee, followed by more such committees, was formed by the British East India Company to study and explore availability of coals in the eastern parts of India. David H(iram) Williams, one of the first surveyors for the British Geological Survey, was appointed 'Surveyor of coal districts and superintendent of coal works, Bengal' on 3rd Dec 1845 and arrived in India the following February. The phrase "Geological Survey of India" was first used in a report by one of such committees in a report in the year 1848-49. On 4 February 1848, Williams was appointed the "Geological Surveyor of the Geological Survey of India" but he fell off his elephant and, soon after, died with his assistant, a Mr F. B. Jones, of 'jungle fever' on 15th Nov 1848, after which John McClelland took over as the "Officiating Surveyor" until his retirement on 5 March 1851.

The work of the Geological Survey remained primarily exploration for coal, mainly for powering steam transport, and later oil reserves, and ore deposits. In 1852, Sir Thomas Oldham, father of Richard Dixon Oldham, broadened the ambit of the scope of functioning of the Geological Survey of India, by advancing the argument with the government that it was not possible to find coal without first mapping the geological structure of India. Thus, the Geological Survey commenced to map the rock structures and strata, and their age and relationships in India. Because the method of Radiometric dating wasn't developed at that time, the age of rock strata had to be estimated from the presence of index fossils, and consequently, much of the geologists' efforts were spent in finding these index fossils.

The Geological Survey of India made important contributions to seismology by its meticulous investigations and studies and detailed reports on numerous Indian earthquakes of the 19th and early 20th century. Richard Dixon Oldham, who worked for the Geological Survey like his father, first correctly identified p- and s-waves, and hypothesized and calculated the diameter of the Earth's core.