Robert T. Hill - Scientific Career

Scientific Career

The 1880s were a good time for graduating geologists in the United States. There was a great deal of interest in the American West and there was a need for trained geologists. The United States Geological Survey was founded in 1878 and John Wesley Powell had become director in 1881. Powell hired Hill in 1885 to work at the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. After a year of being assigned menial tasks such as the preparation of the Survey’s fossil collections, Hill was assigned to a three-month field season in his beloved Texas, a period that would provide an opportunity to revisit the Cretaceous deposits of west-central Texas. He traversed portions of the state underlain by Cretaceous deposits accompanied by William Fletcher Cummins of Dallas, another geologist that would prove to be an influential figure in early Texas geology.

In 1887, Hill published a 95-page report titled The Present Condition of Knowledge of the Geology of Texas. Although this report was primarily prepared as an undergraduate thesis at Cornell University, it was published as a Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey. Also in 1887, Hill managed to publish a number of important papers in The American Journal of Science on his findings with regard to the Cretaceous of Texas. Publication of The topography and geology of the Cross Timbers and surrounding regions in Northern Texas, established Hill as the first to recognize the twofold subdivision of the Cretaceous System. The names that he introduced – the Comanche Series applied to the Lower Cretaceous (named after his adopted home town of Comanche, Texas) and the Gulf Series applied to the Upper Cretaceous – remain the standard for stratigraphic nomenclature in the western Gulf Coast region. Throughout the rest of Hill’s professional career he would continue to publish numerous articles focused on various aspects of the Cretaceous Period.

In 1888, Hill was invited to fill a newly formed chair of geology at the University of Texas at Austin. Here he would have the opportunity to teach the first courses in geology ever offered in the state of Texas and build a geology department in a new but already prestigious university. However, it was not to last as Hill returned to Washington and the United States Geological Survey and began an appointment with the Artesian and Underflow Investigation in 1890.

Hill’s many contributions include the discovery of the western belt of fracture now known as the Texas Lineament, the delineation and naming of the Balcones Fault zone that forms the Balcones Escarpment, and the mapping and naming of many of the physiographic provinces of Texas. His stratigraphic studies and investigations of underground and artesian waters led to improvements of vast areas of farm and ranch land and served as the foundation for future petroleum exploration.

In October 1899, Hill led a six man expedition to explore and document the canyons of the Rio Grande. Traveling in three boats, the expedition took nearly an entire month to travel from Presidio to Langtry, Texas. Hill packed photography equipment into the boats, and took a series of photographs, both during and after his river voyage. Two years later, Hill published an article describing his voyage, and describing the Big Bend region in the colorful language of the period.

• Hill's survey party enjoying a meal along the banks of the Rio Grande, Brewster County, Texas (1899)

• Hill's survey party leaving the canyons of the Rio Grande at Langtry. (28 Oct. 1899)

Near the turn of the century Hill conducted studies in the West Indies and the Isthmus of Panama, areas he considered fundamental to understanding the geological evolution of North America. In 1902, following the eruption of Mont Pelée, Hill joined the relief expedition to Martinique that sailed on U.S.S. Dixie. He mapped the destruction area and wrote the first account of the devastating effects of dense, fast-moving clouds of hot gas and rock known as pyroclastic flows or nuée ardente, previously unknown to vulcanologists.

In 1921, Hill provided expert testimony in the boundary dispute case between Oklahoma and Texas. The decision rendered by the Supreme Court on January 15, 1923, found in favor of Texas and returned to Texas 450,000 acres (1,800 km2) of Red River Valley land that was known to contain significant oil deposits.