Dorothy Jung Echols

Dorothy Jung Echols (September 9, 1916–February 4, 1997) was an American geologist, micro-paleontologist, and educator. She was regarded as a pioneering woman in the geosciences field.^[1] She worked in the petroleum industry from 1938 to 1946, followed by a teaching career at Washington University in St. Louis from 1951 until her retirement in 1982.^[1]

Echols was born in The Bronx, New York, on September 9, 1916.^[1] As a high school student, Echols developed an interest in minerals.^[1] Her personal mineral collection, began in 1922, later formed the basis of New York University's teaching collection.^[2]

She graduated from New York University in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology. During her studies, she was captain of the Varsity swim team from 1934 to 1935, a member of the Women's Swimming Association, and the 1935 recipient of the Florence Frankel Medal for swimming.^[3]

She completed her master's degree in geology from Columbia University in 1938. She then moved to Houston, Texas, working for three years as a geologist and micro-paleontologist at the Republic Production Company.^[1]

In 1941, she married Leonard S. Echols, a research chemist working for Shell, and moved to New York. Together, they had four children: Leonard S. Echols III, Jon Jung Echols, Lizette DePue Echols, and William Ring Echols.^[1]

Between 1941 and 1942, she was the assistant to the chief geologist at the Texas Company in New York. In 1942, the family moved to St. Louis. From 1946 to 1951, Echols worked as a geologic consultant for Pond Fork Oil and Gas Company.^[1] In 1948, she became a laboratory instructor in the Department of Geology at Washington University. In 1951, she was hired as a research associate in the department to fill the position previously held by her colleague, Betty Kellet Nadeau.^[1] She remained on the faculty until her retirement in 1982.

Her husband, Leonard, who was Shell's chief engineer in St. Louis,^[1] died in 1963.

Echols was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 1997, which led to her death on February 4, 1997.

Echols worked in the petroleum industry from 1938 to 1946, a period when few female geologists were employed in the field.^[4] Her subsequent career largely focused on micropaleontology, specializing in micro-fossils.^[1][5] In 1948, she co-authored a publication with Doris S. Malkin, titled "Wilcox (Eocene) Stratigraphy, a Key to Production". Echols expanded the understanding of Eocene stratigraphy and its implications for petroleum geology. Their work examined the Wilcox Group sedimentation patterns to map trends that informed petroleum production in the productive sands across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi up until 1945.^[6] This research explained the relationship between the Wilcox and Midway Sea, describing how petroleum accumulated in the region by analysing deposits and surrounding materials. She showed that hydrocarbons migrated into permeable sands and were trapped beneath an overlying seal.^[6]

Echols participated in The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), a scientific endeavor aimed at exploring the composition and structure of the Earth's oceanic crust by drilling and coring deep below the ocean floor. Initiated in 1968, the project provided direct sampling of deep ocean basins, representing a step forward in oceanography and geology, and offered insights into Earth's geological past, including the history of its oceans, the development of its crust, and the processes that govern plate tectonics.

The project used the drilling vessel Glomar Challenger to recover samples of sediment and basaltic crust from various depths and locations across the world's oceans. These samples were used for testing and confirming theories such as plate tectonics and seafloor spreading. They revealed the age and distribution of oceanic crust and provided evidence for past climate conditions by examining sediment layers.

Echols's role as a sedimentologist and micro-paleontologist in this project involved analyzing the recovered cores for microfossil content such as the remains of tiny organisms like foraminifera, diatoms, and coccolithophores. These microfossils are used in dating sediments and reconstructing past environmental conditions, thus aiding in understanding Earth's climatic and geological history.^[7]

• Echols was among the early women to work professionally in field geology.
• In 1952, she became one of the first female geologists hired by Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon), specializing in micro-paleontology for hydrocarbon exploration.^[8]
• From 1968 to 1972, she served as the only woman on the scientific team for DSDP Legs 11 and 19. Her work involved analysis of sediment cores recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.^[9]
• In 1979, she co-founded Curtis and Echols Geological Consultants with Doris Malkin Curtis. The firm developed sequence stratigraphy techniques used in oil exploration.^[10]

• Listed in Marquis Who's Who from 1976 to 1996 as a geological consultant^[14]
• Delivered the 1985 Paleontological Society Distinguished Lecture on "Foraminifera as Paleoenvironmental Indicators"^[15]
• Served on the National Science Foundation Oceanography Advisory Panel (1978–1981)^[16]

Echols published research throughout her academic and professional career.^[17]

In 1956, Echols contributed to the Journal of Paleontology. She co-authored papers with John J. Gouty on Fern Glen (Mississippian) Ostracoda,^[18] Bruce L. Stinchcomb on Missouri Upper Cambrian Monoplacophora, previously considered cephalopods,^[19] and Courtney Werner on Three Dimensional Graptolites in the Maquoketa Shale (Upper Ordovician) of Missouri.^[20] The writings describe findings from trips taken by Echols, including animal fossils located in their original habitats and various rock samples. Echols and Gouty, in their studies on Fern Glen Ostracoda, divided the land into four sections for research and collection of sedimentary samples containing Ostracods. Echols and Stinchcomb found fossils originally believed to belong to breviconic cephalopods, but which were determined to be Monoplacophora belonging to the genus Hypseloconus. The fossils appeared to have cone-shaped and curved forms.^[19] Echols and Werner published their findings on the Maquoketa shale of Missouri, which is a light brown colored shale that contained varied fauna, including ostracods, bryozoans, brachiopods, conodonts, pelecypods, and quantities of pieces of unpressed and replaced graptolites preserved beneath it.^[20] The unpressed graptolites belonged to the genus Climacograptus and possibly the species Climacograptus putillus.^[20]