William Smith, known as ‘Strata Smith’, was a surveyor who
drained marshes and built canals in England in the Industrial
Revolution. He made the connection between fossils and the layer
of rocks they were in, and used this to create the first
geological map of England and Wales. He became known as the
'Father of Stratigraphy' and 'Father of English Geology'.
Smith’s map of 1815, called A Delineation of the Strata of
England and Wales with part of Scotland was the first geological
map to identify the layers of rock based on the fossils they
contained rather than on their composition. Smith revolutionised
the study of geological time and the order of the succession of
life. His work inspired nations to map the geology of their
countries, laying the founding principles for geological surveys
worldwide. Today, it is accepted that looking at fossils is the
most accurate way of comparing sedimentary rocks and answering
questions of geological time. In his practical, matter-of-fact
way, William Smith had shown the w