Markes E. Johnson

Markes Eric Johnson (born December 30, 1948) is an American geologist and emeritus professor at Williams College, known for his contributions to the study of ancient rocky shorelines, coastal ecosystems, and Silurian stratigraphy. His interdisciplinary research combines geology, paleoecology, and geomorphology to reconstruct ancient marine environments.

Education Johnson earned a Bachelor of Arts in geology from the University of Iowa in 1971. He completed his PhD in stratigraphy and paleoecology at the University of Chicago in 1977 under advisor Alfred M. Ziegler.

Career and research Johnson joined Williams College in 1977 as an assistant professor, and becoming full professor in 1989. Throughout his career, Johnson conducted fieldwork across six continents, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund.

Johnson has published in academic journals and books, contributing both scholarly research and public science communication. In 2023, he published Islands in Deep Time, which reflects on the geologic legacy of islands discovered across his career.

Johnson’s research on ancient rocky shorelines has enhanced understanding of intertidal ecosystems through geological time. His 2012 chapter, Development of Intertidal Biotas Through Phanerozoic Time, co-authored with B. Gudveig Baarli, reviews fossil assemblages from 361 global localities, documenting over 1,600 species from Cambrian to Pleistocene strata. The study distinguishes between rocky, muddy, and sandy shorelines, with 45% of sites representing ancient rocky shores, which exhibit the change.

Johnson's early research focused on Silurian sea-level changes, examining global stratigraphic patterns through studies in the U.S., Canada, Norway, Estonia, England, Australia, Siberia, and China.

From 1992 to 2000, he chaired the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy under the International Union of Geological Sciences, leading global research efforts. His findings culminated in three books published by the University of Arizona Press: Discovering the Geology of Baja California (2002), Off-Trail Adventures in Baja California (2014), and Baja California’s Coastal Landscapes Revealed (2021), which combine scientific insights with travelogue reflections, often referencing Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck's 1940 expedition.

In 1999, with support from the National Geographic Society, Johnson, Baarli, and Chinese paleontologist Rong Jia-yu discovered Bater Island in Inner Mongolia—a fossilized Silurian island with stromatoporoids and tabulate corals. This discovery was the first of its kind in China.

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