Richard L. Hay

Richard LeRoy Hay (April 29 1929 – February 10 2006) was an American geologist whose most famous work was as the principal geologist working with Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge, the site of many important hominid finds in the study of human evolution. His scientific impacts went much further, however, including fundamental contributions to our understanding of the interactions of water, minerals, and organisms near the Earth's surface. He held the position of Professor of Geology at the University of California, Berkeley for 26 years (1957-1983) and at the University of Illinois for another 11. His life and scientific contributions were celebrated with a special session of the Geological Society of America at the national meeting in 2007.

Biography (contributed by W Alvarez, E. Merino, and HR Wenk.)

Personal Background

Hay was born on April 29, 1929, in Goshen, Indiana, the son of Angela and Edward Hay, a dentist. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University, in 1946 and 1948, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1952. After two years in the army, Hay began his career in academia in 1955 as assistant professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1957 he moved to Berkeley, where he advanced from associate professor to professor. In 1983 he retired from Berkeley to assume the prestigious Ralph Grim Professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He retired from Illinois in 1997, moved with Lynn to a beautiful house in Tucson, established contact with new colleagues at the University of Arizona, pursued his old hobby of collecting jade and agates, kept publishing papers, and was in touch with friends and ex-students at annual meetings of the Geological Society of America. He died of pulmonary fibrosis on February 10, 2006, at his home in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 79. He is survived by his wife Lynn, his son Randall, and his brother Robert, and their children. His ashes are buried in Goshen (along with a bit of his jade), next to his parents.

cientific Contributions

Hay had a distinguished career in sedimentary petrology and in archeological geology. He is best known for his work on the significance and interpretation of sedimentary zeolites; for providing the definitive geological framework for two famous hominid-bearing sites in East Africa, Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli; and for the discovery of the mega-replacement of Cambrian-Ordovician strata throughout the U.S. mid-continent by low-temperature potassium feldspar. Coming to Berkeley was crucial in setting those research avenues, as he put it in his acceptance of the 2001 Leakey Award, shared with Professor Garniss Curtis:

" My acquaintance with Olduvai began in 1961 with a look at rock samples which my colleague Garniss Curtis brought back for K-Ar dating. At that time I was interested in the zeolites of desert lakes, and these samples were loaded with zeolites. I was quick to accept an opportunity to go there in 1962. The main purpose was to work on the stratigraphy of Bed I and resolve some of the controversy over the age of Zinjanthropus, who had been given the almost unbelievable age of 1.75 million years. The stratigraphy of the gorge quickly proved to be an irresistible puzzle. I love puzzles, and this one took me 12 years to get most of the pieces in the right places. The zeolites were great fun and developed into a nice line of evidence about the paleoclimate. … I thank you very much for this honor today, and I wish all of you the same enjoyment in your work that … I experienced at Olduvai Gorge."

Berkeley also was crucial in another way. The study of mineral alteration in sedimentary rocks requires petrographic analysis, the unique kind of visual reasoning one carries out on thin rock samples observed with a polarizing microscope. Whether by design or serendipity, Hay came to Berkeley in 1957, when its Department of Geology and Geophysics had the world’s greatest concentration of distinguished petrographers, Professors Howell Williams, Francis Turner, and Charles Gilbert, who had just published the book on the subject, their unsurpassed Petrography. Sure enough, Hay became another top petrographer himself, and this crucial skill would underlie not only his study of Olduvai Gorge but his discovery later, after he moved to Illinois, of the low-temperature mega-replacement of uppermost Precambrian and Cambrian-Ordovician rocks of the U.S. mid-continent by potassium-feldspar, a huge geochemical alteration still not understood dynamically in the context of the geological history of the North American continent. In the note he sent one of us along with reprints on this work Hay scribbled “But we still don’t know where the potassium comes from.” Hay was a man of few words, an excellent scientific writer, a man who loved solving geological puzzles. Hay’s publication with the most lasting impact among archeologists and anthropologists is his Geology of the Olduvai Gorge, published by the University of California Press in 1976. Here Hay worked out the stratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, chronology, sedimentology, and (thanks to the zeolitic alteration of the sediments) the Pleistocene paleogeography of the area, showing the contemporaneity of certain hominid taxa and of two cultural traditions in the last two million years. For geology, Hay’s comprehensive research at Olduvai had spin offs in magnetic stratigraphy (the “Olduvai” reversal period was discovered there) and in geochemistry and petrography. A remarkable paper in Contributions to Mineralogy & Petrology (1978) exemplifies Hay’s “holistic” method. Field relations and petrography, and chemical, isotopic and x-ray-diffraction analysis, are beautifully intertwined and integrated into a total picture of the nature, rapid cementation and geochemical history of the Laetoli Beds of Tanzania, about 30 kilometers south of Olduvai Gorge. As described more explicitly in papers with Mary Leakey in Nature (1979) and Scientific American (1982), those ash beds at Laetoli preserved a spectacular set of early hominid footprints discovered by Leakey. The footprints soon allowed anatomists to establish that early man was bipedal by 3.5 million years ago, long before man’s brain exploded in size, reversing the previous idea that man’s bipedalism had resulted from the increase in brain size. Hay’s penetrating understanding of the alteration and cementation of the footprint-bearing tuff ended up leading anthropologists to uncover fundamental stages of man’s evolution. Hay’s influence is pervasive through many fields of geology – sedimentology; low- and high-temperature geochemistry; weathering and diagenesis, especially zeolitic; volcanology and the petrology and alteration of ash, tephra and other volcanic sediments; geochronology; and of course archeological geology. He wrote several review papers, the latest in 2001, on the expanding field of zeolites in sedimentary rocks that he had helped establish. You knew he was “in” if his ancient Volvo was parked in front of the Earth Science Building (now McCone Hall), or by the cigar smoke coming out of his office. His impact on students and peers was gentle but lasting. His students well remember his “apparently casual scientific rigor, exceptional petrographic skill, dry sense of humor, and warmth”; “his availability and willingness to discuss ideas, evidence, concerns, and writing”; his conciseness and unfussy modesty. He “knew what to tell students in the field and what to leave for the students to work out by themselves.” The geology course for physical anthropologists that he taught at Berkeley was “the best course I ever had,” wrote one student. He insisted on integrating analytical data with the petrography, and the petrography with field relations. He studied rocks and strata that he could “walk up to in outcrop”. Another student called Richard Hay “one of the finest human beings I have ever known.”

List of Major Publications

Dr. Blair Jones, of the United States Geological Survey, provides a compelling list of the formal scientific publications that Hay wrote during his career. The list is impressive, both in terms of the breadth of the topics studied, as well as the in-depth focus of Hay's work. This list of publications, divided by Dr. Jones into topical groups below, should be considered required reading by students of related topics in geology and geochemistry.

Recent Pyroclastic Alteration and Weathering

Hay, R.L., 1959, Origin and weathering of late Pleistocene ash deposits of St. Vincent, B.W.I. Journal of Geology 67, p. 65-87.

Hay, R.L., 1959, Formation of the crystal-rich glowing avalanche deposits of St. Vincent, B.W.I. Journal of Geology 67, p. 540-562.

Hay, R.L., 1960, Rate of clay formation and mineral alteration in a 4000 year-old volcanic ash on St. Vincent, B.W.I. American Journal of Science 258, p. 354-368.

Zoning of Zeolitic Alteration in Silicic Pyroclastic Sediments

Hay, R.L., 1962, Soda-rich sanidine of pyroclastic origin from the John Day Formation of Oregon. American Mineralogist 47, p. 968-971.

Hay, R.L., 1962, Origin and diagenetic alteration of the lower part of the John Day Formation near Mitchell, Oregon. in Petrologic Studies, a volume to honor A.F. Buddington, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, p. 191-216

Hay, R.L., 1963, Stratigraphy and zeolitic diagenesis of the John Day Formation of Oregon. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 42, 199-162.

Alteration and Weathering of Basaltic Tephra

Hay, R.L. and Iijima, A., 1968, Petrology of palagonite tuffs of Koko craters on Oahu, Hawaii. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 17, p. 141-154.

Hay, R.L. and Iijima, A., 1968, Nature and origin of palagonite tuffs of the Honolulu Group on Oahu, Hawaii. Studies in Volcanology. R.R. Coats, R.L. Hay and C.A. Anderson, eds. Geological Society of America Memoir 116, p. 331-376.

Hay, R.L., and Jones, B.F., 1972, Weathering of basaltic tephra on the Island of Hawaii. Geological Society of America Bulletin 83, p. 317-332.

Zeolites in Varied Sedimentary Environments

Hay, R.L., 1963, Zeolitic weathering in Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74, p. 1281-1286.

Hay, R.L. and Moiola, R.J., 1963, Authigenic silicate minerals in Searles Lake, California. Sedimentology 2, p. 312-332.

Hay, R.L., 1964, Phillipsite of saline lakes and soils. American Mineralogist 49, p. 1366-1387.

Hay, R.L., 1966, Zeolites and zeolitic reactions in sedimentary rocks. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 85, 139 pp.

ilicate Reactions in Varied Alkaline Environments

Iijima, A., and Hay, R.L., 1968, Analcime composition in tuffs of the Green River formation of Wyoming. American Mineralogist 53, p. 184-200.

Hay, R.L., 1968, Chert and its sodium silicate precursors in sodium-carbonate lakes of East Africa. p. 255-274.

Sheppard, R.A., Gude, A.J., III, and Hay, R.L., 1970, Makatite, a new hydrous sodium silicate mineral from Lake Magadi, Kenya. American Mineralogist 55, p. 358-367.

Hay, R.L., 1970, Silicate reactions in three lithofacies of a semiarid basin, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Mineralogical Society of America Special Paper 3, B.A. Morgan, B.F. Jones, G. Kullerud, E.F. Osborn, and W.T. Holser, eds. P. 237-255.

Olduvai Gorge

Gromme, C.S., and Hay, R.L., 1971, Geomagnetic polarity epochs: age and duration of the Olduvai normal polarity event. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 10, p. 179-185.

Curtis, G.H. and Hay, R.L., 1972, Further geologic studies and K-Ar dating of Olduvai Gorge and Ngorongoro Crater. in Calibration of Human Evolution. W.W. Bishop and J.A. Miller, eds., Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh and London, p. 289-301.

O’Neil, J.R., and Hay, R.L., 1973, 18O/16O ratios in cherts associated with the saline lake deposits of East Africa. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 19, p. 257-266.

Hay, R.L., 1976, Geology of the Olduvai Gorge. University of California Press, 203 pp.

Leakey, M.D., Hay, R.L., Curtis, G.H., Drake, R.E., Jackes, M.K., and White, T.D., 1976, Fossil hominids in the Laetolil Beds. Nature 262, p. 460-466.

Cerling, T.E., Hay, R.L., and O’Neil, 1977, Isotopic evidence for dramatic climate changes in East Africa during the Pleistocene. Nature 267, p. 137-138.

Hay, R.L., and Reeder, R.J., 1978, Calcretes of Olduvai Gorge and the Ndolanya Beds of northern Tanzania. Sedimentology 25, p. 649-673.

Hay, R.L., and O’Neil, 1983, Carbonatite tuffs in the Laetolil Beds of Tanzania and the Kaiserstuhl in Germany, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 82, p. 403-406.

Comparative Development of Calcrete, East Africa versus Southern Nevada

Hay, R.L., 1983, Natrocarbonatite tephra of Kerimasi volcano, Tanzania. Geology 11, p. 599-6002.

Cerling, T.E., and Hay, R.L., 1986, An isotopic study of paleosol carbonates from Olduvai Gorge. Quaternary Research 25, p. 63-78.

Hay, R.L. and Wiggins, B., 1980, Pellets, ooids, sepiolite and silica in three calcretes of the southwestern United States. Sedimentology 27, p. 559-576.

Formation of Carbonates, Silica, and Authigenic Mg Clays in Alkaline Environments

Stoessell, R.K., and Hay, R.L., 1978, the geochemical origin of sepiolite and kerolite at Amboseli, Kenya. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 65, p. 255-267.

Hay, R.L., Pexton, R.E., Teague, T.T., and Kyser, T.K., 1986, Spring-related carbonate rocks, Mg clays, and associated minerals in Pliocene deposits of the Amargosa Desert, Nevada and California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 97, p. 1488-1503.

Hay, R.L., Hughes, R.E., Kyser, T.K., Glass, H.D., and Liu, J. Magnesium-rich clays of the meerschaum mines in the Amboseli basin, Tanzania and Kenya. Clays and Clay Minerals 43, p. 455-466, 1995.

Hay, R.L., and Kyser, 2001, Chemical sedimentology and paleoenvironmental history of Lake Olduvai, a Pliocene lake in northern Tanzania. Geological Society of America Bulletin 113, p. 1505-1521.

Hydrology, Sedimentation, and Silicate Reactions in Alkaline Environments

Hay, R.L. and Guldman, S.G., 1987, Diagenetic alteration of silicic ash in Searles Lake, California. Clays and Clay Minerals 35, p. 449-457.

Hay, R.L., Guldman, S.G., Matthews, J.C., Lander, R.H., Duffin, M.E., and Kyser, T.K., 1994, Clay mineral diagenesis in core KM-3 of Searles Lake, California. Clays and Clay Minerals 39, p. 84-96.

Lander, R.H., and Hay, R.L., 1993, Hydrogeologic control on zeolitic diagenesis of the White river sequence. Geological Society of America Bulletin 105, p. 361-376.

Finkelstein, D.B., Hay, R.L., and Altaner, S.P., 1999, Origin and diagenesis of lacustrine sediments, upper Oligocene Creede Formation, southwestern Colorado. Geological society of America Bulletin 111, p. 1175-1191.

Ashley, G.M. and Hay, R.L., 2002, Sedimentation patterns in a Plio-Pleistocene volcaniclastic rift-margin basin, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. in Sedimentation in Continental Rifts, SEPM Special Publication 73, p. 107-122.

Potassic Diagenesis of Early Paleozoic Mid-Continent Rocks

Hay, R.L., Lee, M., Kolata, D.R., Matthews, J.C., and Morton, J.P., 1988, Episodic potassic diagenesis of Ordovician tuffs in the Mississippi valley area. Geology 16, p. 743-747.

Duffin, M.E., Lee, M., Klein, G. deV., and Hay, R.L., 1989, Potassic diagenesis of Cambrian sandstones and Precambrian granitic basement in UPH-3 deep hole, Upper Mississippi valley, USA.

Liu, J., Hay, R.L., Deino, A., and Kyser, T.K., 2003, Age and origin of authigenic K-feldspar in uppermost Precambrian rocks in the North American Midcontinent.

General Reviews

Hay, R.L., 1966, Zeolites and zeolitic reactions in sedimentary rocks. Geological Society of America Special Paper 85, 130 pp.

Hay, R.L., 1977, Geology of zeolites in sedimentary rocks. Chapter 3 in Mineralogy and Geology of Natural Zeolite, F.A. Mumpton, ed. Mineralogical Society of America Short Course Notes 4, p. 53-63.

Hay, R.L., and Sheppard, R.A., 1977, Zeolites in open hydrologic systems. Chapter 5 in Mineralogy and Geology of Natural Zeolite, F.A. Mumpton, ed., Mineralogical Society of America Short Course Notes 4, p. 93-102

Hay, R.L., 1978, Geological occurrence of zeolites. in Natural zeolites: Occurrence, Properties, Use. L.B. Sand and F.A. Mumpton, eds. Pergamon Press, Oxford, p. 135-143.

Hay, R.L., 1986, Geologic occurrence of zeolites and some associated minerals. Pure and Applied Chemistry 58, p. 1339-1342.

Hay, R.L., 1995, New developments in the geology of natural zeolites. in Zeolite ’93, the 4th International Conference on the Occurrence, Properties, and Utilization of Natural Zeolites, Boise, Idaho, p. 3-13.

Hay, R.L., and Sheppard, R.A., 2001, Occurrence of zeolites in sedimentary rocks: an overview. Chapter 6 in Natural Zeolites: Occurrence, Properties, and Applications, D.L. Bish and D.W. Ming, eds., Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 45, p. 217-234.

Sheppard, R.A., and Hay, R.L., 2001, Formation of zeolites in open hydrologic systems. Chapter 8 in Natural Zeolites: Occurrence, Properties, and Applications, D.L. Bish and D.W. Ming, eds., Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 45, p. 261- 275.

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