Philip Burke King

Philip Burke King was an American geologist who lived from 1903 to 1987 and spent most of his career with the United States Geological Survey after earning degrees from Iowa State University and a doctorate from Yale University in 1929. His early work addressed Permian rock formations in Texas, including the Glass Mountains and Guadalupe Mountains, and during the 1940s he investigated the massive folds and low-angle thrusts of the Appalachian Mountains, informing broader regional geological syntheses. His major publications include Evolution of North America in 1959, the Tectonic Map of the United States first issued in 1944 and revised in 1962 and 1989, and the Tectonic Map of North America in 1969, and in 1974 he collaborated with Helen Beikman to produce the influential Geologic Map of the United States, which remained a foundation for later composite maps into the digital age. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1966. He received the Penrose Medal in 1965.