Krynine, Pettijohn, and Sedimentary Petrology

Abstract

Paul Krynine and Francis Pettijohn began their major geological research in the middle 1930s - the former on early Mesozoic arkosic sedimentary rocks in the Connecticut rift valley, the latter on Archean lithic-rich metasediments in a volcanic-arc regime in Canada. Both focused on the fundamental properties of composition and texture, both assigned a basic role to the tectonic framework of their respective basins and both published their ideas about classification of sedimentary rocks under “Studies for Students” (Journal of Geology, 1948). Pettijohn and Krynine believed that classification is a scientific method by which an object in nature can be related to a general principle. This theme pervaded Pettijohn's text (1949), which became a benchmark for the teaching of sedimentary petrology. During the years that followed, the expanding discipline of sedimentology became a ready source of potential members of NAGT.