earth science

Raymond Cecil Moore

Raymond Cecil Moore is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Raymond Cecil Moore rather than just read about it. In short: Raymond Cecil Moore (February 20, 1892, Roslyn, Washington – April 16, 1974, Lawrence, Kansas) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He is known for his work on Paleozoic crinoids, bryozoans, and corals.

Key takeaways

Raymond Cecil Moore belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Raymond Cecil Moore to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Raymond Cecil Moore from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raymond Cecil Moore (February 20, 1892, Roslyn, Washington – April 16, 1974, Lawrence, Kansas) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He is known for his work on Paleozoic crinoids, bryozoans, and corals. Moore was a member of US Geological Survey from 1913 until 1949. In 1919 he became professor at the University of Kansas (Lawrence). In 1953 Professor Moore organized the launch and became the first editor of the still ongoing multi-volume work Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Contributors to the Treatise have included the world's specialists in the field. He served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1958. In 1970 he was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.

Early life Moore was raised in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois. After attending high school in Milwaukee and Chicago, he enrolled in Denison University, taking his A.B. degree. He took his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1916, under the supervision of Stuart Weller. His dissertation was the stratigraphy of the Mississippian System of Missouri.

Early career Moore commenced work as an Assistant Professor in geology at the University of Kansas in 1916. He became state geologist and director of the Geological Survey of Kansas. He married Georgine Watters in Chicago in 1917. In 1920, he was promoted to full Professor. He would alternate in his role of state geologist/director of the Geological Survey for 38 years, performing double duty as Professor for 23 of those years. After commencing work in Kansas he made the decision to analyse Permian-Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of the Midcontinent. He studied sedimentary units from Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, as far as Oklahoma. He specialised on genetic stratigraphy, which would become cyclic sedimentation and sequence stratigraphy in modern study. Moore and his wife Georgine divorced in 1935. Their daughter Marjorie Ann Moore had been born in 1928. Moore married Lilian Boggs in St Louis, Missouri in 1936. In addition to his stratigraphic work, Moore was able to define and clarify his findings by identifying their unique fossil signatures. He studied oil and gas resources up to the Precambrian period, as well as igneous intrusives in several counties within Kansas. His maps of the state are still distributed by the Kansas Geological Survey today. Moore also developed a uniform stratigraphic code for the Midcontinent. He expanded into the area of facies. He used ecological communities (ecosystems) to help understand cyclothems. As his work developed a stratigraphic and sedimentological framework, he turned his attention to invertebrate paleontology, working on corals, crinoids, gastropods and bryozoans. After serving in the Army during World War II, Moore moved on to teach advanced courses such as “Field Stratigraphy” and “Geologic Development of the World” in the late 1940s.

Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology Following his war service, Moore began work on a project which was pitched to the University of Kansas, Kansas Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation, which would become the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. With planning beginning in 1953, Moore drafted a project where specialists would write on their area of expertise in paleontology to a multi volume series. This international team of experts would provide the manuscripts, which would be published by the University of Kansas Press. Moore became the editor, and also supervised the dedications, introductions, definition of morphologic terms, as well as other explanations. He supplied the parts to the Treatise which concerned his own specialty areas. In the introduction to Part A of “Fossilization” (1979) a dedication to Moore as the founder of the Treatise was published. It also features a pen-and-ink sketch of him by his former student Roger Williams. As volumes of the Treatise were completed up until 1966 these were published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas Press. After 1966, new volumes of the ongoing work were published by the Geological Society of America and the University of Kansas. The Treatise continues to this day, and new volumes are published online. The Paleontological Institute of the University of Kansas became the sole publisher of the series in 2009.

Later career In 1958, Moore was appointed as a Solen E. Summerfield Distinguished Professor. This distinguished him as one of the leading professors of the university. He would go on to supervise many student theses and dissertations, a large number of them studying Kansas subjects. Many of these students went on to teach at major universities or distinguish themselves within their respective industries. Fluent in a number of languages, Moore was able to make use of international literature and expected his students to be similarly conversant with non-English literature.

Memberships President of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (1928– 1929) President of the American Association of State Geologists (1936–1937) President of the Paleontological Society (1947–1949) President of the Society of Systematic Zoology (1957–1958) President of the Geological Society of America (1957–1958) President of the American Geological Institute (1959–1960) Editor - Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (1920–1926) Editor - Journal of Paleontology (1930–1939) Editor - Journal of Sedimentary Petrology (1931–1936) Editor - Kansas Paleontogical Contributions

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Raymond Cecil Moore

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Raymond Cecil Moore claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Raymond Cecil Moore before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Raymond Cecil Moore ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Raymond Cecil Moore

In research: Raymond Cecil Moore appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Raymond Cecil Moore in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Raymond Cecil Moore is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1892 births, 1974 deaths, 20th-century American people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Raymond Cecil Moore outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Raymond Cecil Moore in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Raymond Cecil Moore means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Raymond Cecil Moore in simple terms?

Why does Raymond Cecil Moore matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Raymond Cecil Moore?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Raymond Cecil Moore.