山高水长路漫漫——纪念丁文江先生

A monument, a spirit and an endless exploration——in memory of Dr. Ting Ven-kiang

丁文江先生是我国近代地质学的奠基人之一,也是中国地质学会的主要创始人之一。他在地质学的诸多领域都开展了卓有成效的工作,组建了我国最早的地质调查和科研机构,立德树人,培养了第一代地质学家,主导了前中央研究院的重大机构改革,为地质甚至科学事业在中国的落地生根起到了决定性的作用。同时他也积极参与到当时的社会和政治活动中,践行自己报效国家的理念。他是在我国开展系统性区域地质调查的第一人,开启了中国人系统地质填图的先河,先后填制了诸多不同比例尺的地质图,为后世我国构造地质界奠定了研究传统。他填图的区域从克拉通到造山带,从弱变形区到强变形带,填制的地质图也从简单到复杂,从关注地层到构造内容的逐步增加,不仅体现了一个地质学家野外填图经验和技术的逐步成熟,也体现了我国构造地质学逐渐从地层学中独立出来的过程。这个过程与国际上构造地质作为一个独立的专业从地层学中分离出来的阶段一致。因此丁文江先生不仅仅是我国地质学的奠基人之一,更是我国构造地质学的开山宗师。丁文江先生始终怀揣科学救国的信念,将自己的一生融入到科学救国、传播科学思想的过程中,将自己的科研活动与当时的国家建设联系,积极参与多项铁路选址、矿产调查与开发以及生态环境变迁等工作,这永远值得我们学习。他为中国地质学乃至科学发展做出的贡献永载史册。

Dr. Ting Ven-kiang is one of the founders of modern geology in China and one of the main founders of the Chinese Geological Society. He has carried out fruitful work in many fields of geology, established China’s earliest geological survey and scientific research institution, trained the first generation of geologists, led the major institutional reform of the former Academia Sinica, and played a decisive role in the rooting of China’s geological and scientific undertakings in China. He also actively participated in the social and political activities at that time and practiced his idea of serving the country.He was the first person in China to carry out systematic regional geological survey, set the precedent of Chinese systematic geological mapping, and successively mapped many geological maps at different scales, which laid a research tradition for the later tectonic work in China.From cratons to orogenic belts, from weak deformation zones to strong deformation ones, the geological maps prepared by Dr. Ting Ven-kiang have increasingly become more detailed, and pay more attention to structural contents, which not only reflects the gradual maturity of a geologist’s field mapping experiences and technology, but also reflects the gradual independence of China’s structural geology from stratigraphy.This process is coeval to the separation of the structural geology from stratigraphy as an independent specialty in the world. Therefore, Dr. Ting Ven-kiang is not only one of the founders of China’s geology, but also the founder of China’s structural geology. Dr. Ting Ven-kiang has always cherished the belief of saving the country through science, integrated his life into the process of saving the country through science and broadcasting scientific ideas, closely linked his scientific research activities with the national construction at that time, and actively participated in a number of railway site selections, mineral investigation and development and ecological environment change, which will always be an example for us to learn from, and his contribution to China’s geology and even science will always be a monument in our hearts.