Laurence L. Sloss

Laurence L. Sloss was an American geologist who lived from 1913 to 1996 and taught at Northwestern University from 1947 until his retirement in 1981. He was a pioneer of sequence stratigraphy, particularly known for describing what became called Sloss sequences, large scale cycles in the sedimentary rock record that document broad patterns of marine transgression and regression across the cratonic interior of North America over geologic time. He served as president of the Geological Society of America beginning in 1980, of the Society for Sedimentary Geology and of the American Geosciences Institute, and won the William H. Twenhofel Medal in 1980. The Geological Society of America later established the Laurence L. Sloss Award in his honor. He received the Penrose Medal in 1986.