Robert Dean Hatcher Jr. (born October 22, 1940 in Madison, Tennessee)[1] is am American structural geologist, known as one of the world's leading experts on the geology of the southern and central Appalachians.[2]


  • "Large Faults, Mountain Chains, Formation and Breakup of Supercontinents, and Neotectonics | Robert D. Hatcher, Jr". University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Biography edit

Robert D. Hatcher Jr. attended high school at Springfield, Ohio's Northwestern High School, where he graduated in 1957.[2] At Vanderbilt University, he graduated in 1961 with a B.A. (major in geology and chemistry, minor in mathematics) and in 1962 with a M.S. (major in geology, minor in chemistry). In 1965 he received a Ph.D. in structural geology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)[3] with thesis supervised by George David Swingle (1922–1973).[4] In 1965 Hatcher married Diana Simpson.[5] After about one year as an employee of the Humble Oil and Refining Company (now merged into ExxonMobil), he was appointed an assistant professor at Clemson University. There he was promoted to full professor and taught geology and mineralogy from 1966 to 1979. He and his family in 1978 moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where he was appointed a professor of geology at Florida State University and in 1980 moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where he was a professor until 1988 at the University of South Carolina. In 1986 he returned to the Tennesses, where he accepted a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as Distinguished Scientist and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. In 2000 he terminated his position at ORNL but continued as professor at UTK[3] until he retired as professor emeritus in 2018.[6] From 1981 to 19888 Hatcher was the co-editor-in-chief, with William Andrew Thomas (1936–2022), of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.[3][7]

Hatcher has been concerned about geological aspects of nuclear waste disposal and nuclear reactor safety. For disposal of radioactive waste, he served from 1984 to 1986 as science adviser to South Carolina governor Richard Riley.[2] Hatcher served from 1990 to 1996 on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Board on Radioactive Waste Management and from 1993 to 1996 on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Federal Advisory Committee on reactor safety.[3]

Research edit

He deals with tectonics and stratigraphy of the southern and central Appalachians, stratigraphy in medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks, formation of mountain ranges, petroleum geology, engineering geology (e.g. landslides), and geology of radioactive waste deposition. He also studies earthquake risk in East Tennessee (a seismically active area inside a tectonic plate) and discovered some previously unknown displacements there.

Beginning in the 1970s, he was a leader in the plate tectonic reassessment of the tectonics of the central and southern Appalachians (Ridge and Valley Region) using terrane analysis. The research was also motivated by the search for oil and gas after the oil crisis in the 1970s. With the geophysicist Jack E. Oliver, Sidney Kaufman (1908–2008),[8] [9] and other colleagues, he investigated a seismic transversal in the southern Appalachians (COCORP). They discovered that the Blue Ridge Mountains formed a 200 km long tectonic blanket similar to that observed in the Alps. His Geological Map of the Appalachians was published in 1990 and replaced that of Harold Williams. With Harold Williams he wrote a paper on suspected terranes in the Appalachians.[10] In addition to the Appalachians, he conducted field studies in the Cordilleras of the USA and Canada, the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, the Caledonides in Great Britain and Scandinavia, the Carpathians, the Argentine Andes and the Pampas, in the Canadian Shield, the Xinling Mountains in China, the Mexican Cordilleras and in Siberia at Lake Baikal (where ancient Paleozoic mountains were later subjected to extensional movement in the Lake Baikal region).

He was instrumental in the planned Appalachian Deep Hole Project (ADCOH), which was not carried out in the end (deep drilling through the thrust of the Blue Ridge Mountains was planned), but whose preliminary work brought important insights into the tectonics of the Appalachians and was published in a report .

He has been the leader or co-leader of more than 40 field trips for professional societies and meetings[11] and is the author or co-author of numerous field trip guidebooks.[12] He and his colleagues have done research on "crustal-scale faults, large crystalline thrust sheets, lithotectonic terranes, geophysics, stratigraphy, and paleoseismicity." [11]

Awards and honors edit

In 1989 Hatcher was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the American Geosciences Institute (AGI).[13] He was in 1993 the president of the GSA and in 1996 the president of the AGI.[3] The GSA bestowed upon him in 1988 and in 2020 the GSA Florence Bascom Geologic Mapping Award[14]

The AGI awarded him in 2014 the Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal[15]


Education: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee B. A. 1961 (majors: geology, chemistry; minor math), M. S. 1962 (geology), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee Ph. D. 1965 (structural geology; two foreign languages required)

Professional Employment: Geologist, Humble Oil and Refining Company (1965-66), Clemson University (1966-78, Assistant Professor to Full Professor), Florida State University (1978-80, Full Professor), University of South Carolina (1980-86, Full Professor), and University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distinguished Scientist (1986-2000), UT Distinguished Scientist and Professor (2000-2018). University of Tennessee Distinguished Scientist and Professor Emeritus 2018- Present.

Research Interests: Primary research goal is to gain a better understanding of the evolution of continental crust, mostly through the study of mountain chains and mature crust. Most of my research has been concentrated in the southern and central Appalachians, but large amounts of time have been spent visiting and studying other mountain chains, and Precambrian continental crust. My primary interest is in the mechanics and kinematics of large faults, which form a natural transition into a related long-term interest in the geologic controls of petroleum occurrence in the Appalachians, radioactive waste management, the causes of intraplate seismicity and geologic evidence for determination of recurrence intervals for intraplate earthquakes. While I am a structural geologist, most of my research is interdisciplinary, integrating stratigraphic, geochronologic, geochemical, and geophysical data into structural studies. I am primarily a field geologist, however, and field data form the basis for all other supporting studies. I have been involved for many years with geophysicists and geologists in other academic institutions and the USGS in the geologic interpretation of seismic reflection and potential field (aeromagnetic and gravity) data.

Research Support: Received over $5M in grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of the Interior, state geological surveys, and private industry.

Professional Service (Abbreviated): Editor (with W. A. Thomas) Geological Society of America Bulletin (1982-88); President, Geological Society of America (1993); President, American Geological Institute (1996); Trustee, GSA Foundation (1999-2007), Chair of the GSA Foundation Board (2005-07); National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Board on Radioactive Waste Management (1990-96); Federal Advisory Committee on Nuclear Reactor Safety Research (Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1993-96); Federal Advisory Committee for the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (Department of the Interior, 1996-2006); Federal Advisory Committee Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (2009-2015; have also served on numerous committees of GSA, AAPG, AGU, and other organizations. Fellow: AAAS, Geological Society of America, Geological Association of Canada.

Medals and Awards: Geological Society of America Distinguished Service Award (1988, the first ever awarded), AAPG I. C. White Award (1997), honorary citizen of West Virginia (by the Governor, 1998), John T. Galey Award by the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (2001), American Geological Institute Ian Campbell Medal (2006), Geological Society of America Penrose Medal (2006), and American Geological Institute Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal (2014). The latter three medals constitute the highest levels of career recognition/achievement possible in my profession.

Publications: Author or co-author of >200 scientific publications, including 10 books.



worked with both undergraduate and graduate students, and conducted research in the Pine Mountain window in Georgia, and continued to work in the North Carolina Blue Ridge. We moved to the University of South Carolina–Columbia in 1980 and in 1986 moved to the University of Tennessee–Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Distinguished Scientist and Professor. I ended my relationship with ORNL in 2000, and since have been associated only with UTK. Additional research projects in the western Blue Ridge, Norway, Valley and Ridge–Plateau, and others in the eastern Blue Ridge and Inner Piedmont have begun since moving to UTK.

when he accepted a position at Florida State University. He moved again in 1980 to the University of South Carolina at Columbia. In 1986, he returned to his alma mater at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he occupied an endowed chair at the University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

After the plate tectonic paradigm was established during the late 1950s and 1960s, the second order of questions about how ancient continental areas fit into this paradigm became the next frontier in the 1970s and early 1980s. This research involved reevaluating previously mapped areas within this new context. The field can be classified as regional tectonics and many new methods for unraveling complex relationships developed. Certain areas became hot spots for regional tectonic study. One major area was the central and southern Appalachians primarily because of the oil and gas potential of the Valley and Ridge province along the western side. This period coincided with the oil crisis of the 1970s. Many no- table geologists and geophysicists participated in this evaluation, but without a doubt, Bob Hatcher was the leader. He is mainly interested in overthrust terranes, which are important to petroleum exploration. He established his leadership position by being the first to stick his neck out and propose an all-encompassing modern plate tectonic model for the entire southern Appalachian orogen. Every researcher thereafter had to address Hatcher’s model, whether they supported it or refuted it. He has modified and revised this model several times and published additional models.

Based on this willingness to take such well-calculated risks in a high-profile venue, Bob Hatcher became the person with whom to collaborate in the southern Appalachians. Although his research is strongly field based, Bob is well versed in many supporting techniques in geophysics and geochemistry so he could participate in many projects. When jack e. oliver’s group at Cornell University decided to produce their world-famous COCORP seismic reflection line (like a sonogram of the Earth) across the southern Appalachians, it was Bob Hatcher they contacted. That research proved that much of the southern Appalachians had been thrust faulted westward some 200 kilometers and there were possible hidden oil and gas reserves under the crystalline rocks as reported in the paper, “Thin Skinned Tectonics in the Crystalline Southern Appalachians; COCORP Reflection Profiling of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont.” When the concept of building orogens (and continents) with exotic pieces of crust from other parts of the Earth was born, the concept of suspect terranes, Bob Hatcher was coauthor of the definitive work with harold williams from Memorial University (e.g., Appalachian Suspect Terranes). When the significant strike-slip faulting was discovered, Hatcher was quick to bring it into context. He compiled a detailed geologic map in 1990 that succeeded the famous map of Harold Williams as the standard for the Appalachians (e.g., Tectonic

Portrait of Robert Hatcher

Portrait of Robert Hatcher

Map of the United States Appalachians). Another high-profile project that Hatcher spearheaded was the National Science Foundation Appalachian deep hole project (ADCOH) which was to be drilled through the Blue Ridge over-thrust and into the Valley and Ridge sedimentary rocks that are proposed to be hidden beneath. The project fell through in the end but the organization and work was outstanding and reported in the paper, “Appalachian Ultradeep Core Hole (ADCOH) Project Site Investigation Regional Seismic Lines and Geological Interpretation.”

Robert Dean Hatcher Jr. was born on October 22, 1940, in Madison, Tennessee. He attended Northwestern High School in Springfield, Ohio, and he graduated in 1957. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, in 1961 and 1962, respectively, with majors in geology and chemistry and a minor in mathematics. His Ph.D. was in structural geology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1965. He then worked as an exploration geologist for Exxon USA for one year before accepting a faculty position at Clemson University in 1966. He achieved the rank of professor and remained there until

Bob Hatcher has authored or coauthored some 140 journal articles, five books and monographs, and numerous field guides. One of these books is a popular textbook entitled, Structural Geology, Principles, Concepts and Problems, and another is a companion lab manual. His service to the profession is unparalleled. He served as editor for the Geological Society of America Bulletin from 1984 to 1988. For this work, he was awarded the first-ever Geological Society of America Distinguished Service Award in 1988. He served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1993 and the American Geological Institute in 1996. Other awards include the 1997 I. C. White Award for his contributions to Appalachian geology and being made an honorary citizen of West Virginia in 1998 for the same reasons.

During this time I began long-term research projects in the Appalachian Blue Ridge, Inner Piedmont, and Brevard fault zone, with assistance from several outstanding Clemson undergraduates and financial support from the National Science Foundation and state geological surveys of both Carolinas and Georgia. 

I have had a long-term fascination with earthquakes that do not occur on plate boundaries, and had attempted to obtain funding to work on this problem for several years until 2008 when a group of geoscientists and I received funding from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to investigate the paleoseismology of the East Tennessee seismic zone.

This is the second most active in the eastern U.S. (behind New Madrid), but has had no historical earthquakes larger than ML of 4.8, yet seismicity associated with this zone is spread over much of eastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, and northeastern Alabama. We explored this area for several years with some success in finding some features that we felt were produced by earthquakes, but in 2012 we found a thrust fault east of Knoxville that displaced bedrock for about one meter over Quaternary river sediment.

This fault displaced some sediment-filled fractures that were since dated at XX years, so the fault had to form more recently than the sediment-filled fractures. We have since found several more faults southwest of Knoxville that displace Quaternary sediment that include a normal fault, one or more thrust faults and possible strike-slip faults. Despite the small displacements of a few meters, these faults had to have been formed by earthquakes that had a magnitude of > 6.5.

During the past several decades, I have served on numerous Geological Society of America committees, on the GSA Council (1980–1982), and as GSA Vice President (1992), President (1993), and Past President of the Society. From 1981–1988, I served with William A. Thomas as Editor of the Geological Society of America Bulletin. From 1990–1996 I served on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Board on Radioactive Waste Management and on several NAS committees, as President of the American Geological Institute (1996), on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Federal Advisory Committee on reactor safety (1993–1996), on the U.S. Geological Survey Federal Advisory Committee on the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (1996–2007), and have served since 2009 the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Committee (a federal advisory committee), going off in 2016. I also served as Chair of the GSA Honorary Fellows Committee during 2004 and 2005, Chair of the Geological Society of America Foundation Board of Trustees from 2005–2007 (appointed in 1999), and Co-Chair and then Chair of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists History of Petroleum Geologists Committee from 2002–2007, then rejoined this committee in 2015.

Er befasst sich mit Tektonik und Stratigraphie der südlichen und mittleren Appalachen, Stratigraphie in mittel- bis hochgradig metamorphen Gesteinen, Entstehung von Gebirgsketten, Erdölgeologie, Ingenieurgeologie (zum Beispiel Rutschungen) und Geologie der Ablagerung radioaktiver Abfälle. Er untersucht auch Erdbebenrisiken in Ost-Tennessee (ein seismisch aktives Gebiet im Innern einer tektonischen Platte) und entdeckte dort einige bis dahin unbekannte Verschiebungen.

Ab den 1970er Jahren war er führend in der plattentektonischen Neubewertung der Tektonik der mittleren und südlichen Appalachen (Ridge and Valley Region) beteiligt mit Terran-Analyse. Die Forschung wurde auch durch die Suche nach Öl und Gas motiviert nach der Ölkrise in den 1970ern. Mit dem Geophysiker Jack E. Oliver (Cornell University) untersuchte er eine seismische Transversale in den südlichen Appalachen (COCORP). Dabei entdeckten sie, dass die Blue Ridge Mountains eine Überschiebung über 200 km ähnlich wie man sie in den Alpen beobachtet hatte bildeten. Seine Geologische Karte der Appalachen erschien 1990 und löste die von Harold Williams ab. Mit Harold Williams verfasste er eine Arbeit über vermutete Terrane in den Appalachen.[16]

Neben den Appalachen betrieb er Feldstudien in den Kordilleren der USA und Kanadas, dem Atlas-Gebirge in Marokko, den Kaledoniden in Großbritannien und Skandinavien, den Karpaten, den argentinischen Anden und der Pampa, im kanadischen Schild, den Xinling-Bergen in China, den mexikanischen Kordilleren und in Sibirien am Baikalsee (wo alte paläozoische Gebirge später der Dehnungsbewegung in der Region des Baikalsees unterworfen wurden).

Er war wesentlich am geplanten Appalachian Deep Hole Project (ADCOH), das am Ende zwar nicht durchgeführt wurde (es waren Tiefbohrungen durch die Überschiebung der Blue Ridge Mountains geplant), aber dessen Vorarbeiten wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Tektonik der Appalachen brachten und in einem Report veröffentlicht wurden.

Selected publications edit

Articles edit

Books edit

  • Cazeau, C. J.; Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Siemankowski, F. T. (1976). Physical Geology: Principles, Processes and Problems. Harper & Row. ISBN 0060412097. LCCN 75025962; x+518 pages; an introductory text primarily for undergraduates not majoring in geology{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Williams, Harold; Zietz, Isidore, eds. (1983). Contributions to the Tectonics and Geophysics of Mountain Chains. ISBN 0813711584. LCCN 83005670; iv+223 pages; volume originated from Geological Society of America Penrose Conference held in Helen, Georgia, in May 1980{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Bailey, Christopher M. (2019). Structural Geology: Principles, Concepts and Problems (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190601928. LCCN 2018059976; xxi+634 pages; earlier editions by Hatcher alone{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Thomas, W. A., eds. (1990). Centennial Articles from Volume 100 of the GSA Bulletin. Geological Society of America Special Paper 253. ISBN 0813722535. LCCN 90034478; v+463 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Thomas, W. A.; Viele, G. W. (1990). The U. S. Appalachian and Ouachita Orogens. The geology of North America, volume F-2. Geological Society of America. ISBN 0813752094. LCCN 89023732.
  • Martinez Catalán, J. R.; Hatcher Jr., R. D.; Arenas, R.; Díaz García, F., eds. (2002). Variscan-Appalachian dynamics: The building of the late Paleozoic basement. Geological Society of America Special Paper 364. pp. v+305 pages. book description, GSA Online Store; table of contents with abstracts for chapters (geoscienceworld.org]
  • Hatcher Jr., R. D., Jr.; Carlson, M. P.; McBride, J.H.; Martínez Catalán, J. R., eds. (2007). 4–D Framework of Continental Crust. Memoir 200. Geological Society of America. ISBN 9780813712000. LCCN 2007020532; vii+641 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • Engel, Annette Summers; Hatcher Jr., Robert D. Hatcher, eds. (2018). Geology at every scale: field excursions for the 2018 GSA Southeastern Section Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. doi:10.1130/2018.0050(00). LCCN 2018012902.

External links edit

[17][18]

  1. ^ biographical information American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ^ a b c Gates, Alexander (October 2019). A to Z of Earth Scientists, Updated Edition. Infobase Holdings. pp. 101–103. ISBN 978-1-4381-8328-2.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Background | Robert D. Hatcher, Jr". University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 16 March 2016.
  4. ^ Hatcher Jr., Robert Dean (1965). "Structure of the Northern Portion of the Dumplin Valley Fault Zone in East Tennessee". Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange (TRACE), University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Ph.D. dissertation{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ "2006 Penrose Medal Presented to Robert D. Hatcher Jr.; Citation by Michael W. Higgins; Response by Robert D. Hatcher Jr". GSA Medals & Awards, Geological Society of America - 2006 Penrose Medal - Citation & Response.
  6. ^ "Presentation The Channeled Scablands of the Northwestern US — Geologic Puzzle or Formation by Unique Processes (with Abstract & Biography) by Dr. Robert D. Hatcher, Jr". May 13, 2024.
  7. ^ "Dr. William Andrew Thomas of Tuscaloosa | 1936 - 2022 | Obituary". Tuscaloosa Memorial Park and Chapel.
  8. ^ https://www.chron.com/news/houston-deaths/article/Sidney-Kaufman-charted-the-way-for-offshore-1765792.php
  9. ^ Cook, Frederick A.; Albaugh, Dennis S.; Brown, Larry D.; Kaufman, Sidney; Oliver, Jack E.; Hatcher Jr., Robert D. (1979). "Thin-skinned tectonics in the crystalline southern Appalachians; COCORP seismic-reflection profiling of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont". Geology. 7 (12): 563–567. (over 600 citations)
  10. ^ Williams, Harold; Hatcher Jr., Robert D. (1982). "Suspect terranes and accretionary history of the Appalachian orogen". Geology. 10 (10): 530–536. (over 450 citations)
  11. ^ a b "2018 Duncan Heron Lifetime Achievement Award | Robert "Bpb" D. Gatcher". Carolina Geological Society.
  12. ^ "Field Trips | Robert D. Hatcher, Jr". University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 16 March 2016.
  13. ^ "Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. | Honors & Awards". University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
  14. ^ "2020 GSA Florence Bascom Geologic Mapping Award Presented to Robert D. Hatcher, Jr". Geological Society of America.
  15. ^ "Dr. Robert D. Hatcher Jr. awarded the 2014 AGI/AGIF Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal" (PDF). American Geosciences Institute.
  16. ^ Hatcher, Williams, Suspect terranes and accretionary history of the Appalachian orogen, Geology, Band 10, 1982, S. 530–536
  17. ^ "List of Members 1923" (PDF). Transactions of the British Mycological Society. 8 (4): 257–270.
  18. ^ Ainsworth, GC. (1996). Brief biographies of British mycologists. Stourbridge: British Mycological Society. p. 113.