Joly, John

Joly, John 

Born Nov. 1, 1857, in the county of Offaly, Ireland; died Dec. 8, 1933, in Dublin. British geologist and geophysicist.

Joly graduated from Trinity College in Dublin and was a professor of geology at the University of Dublin (from 1897). He was the first to note the importance of radioactive elements in the thermal regime of the earth. Based on the quantitative determination of the content of radioactive elements in various rocks, Joly was the first to calculate the amount of energy evolved by elements in the process of radioactive decay. The resultant data were used by him to formulate a geotectonic hypothesis that attempted to explain the periodicity of tectonic processes.

WORKS

Radioactivity and Geology. London, 1909.
The Surface History of the Earth, 2nd ed. Oxford, 1930.
In Russian translation:
Istoriia poverkhnosti Zemli. Moscow-Leningrad, 1929.