Halka Chronic’s Career and Awards

When growing up, Halka and her mother always travelled across the country. Halka became interested in geology and started learning more about rocks. Halka created an enjoyment for travelling and an enjoyment for geology. When she got married to John Chronic in 1948 they did a lot of traveling. As they travelled, Halka increased her already passionate knowledge about geology. This travelling and work with Edwin McKee at the Grand Canyon in the 1940’s created a strong impact and passion towards what would soon become her career. In addition to her interest in geology she also had a strong interest in arts and crafts, including painting.

Halka began her career at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona. After this she taught at the University of Michigan- Summerfield Campus. Chronic had a B.A. in Zoology achieved at the University of Arizona, a M.A. in Biology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Geology achieved from Colombia University. Halka travelled to Ethiopia after in the late 1940’s and taught at Haile Selassie University; when she came back she worked at the National Center for Atmosphere Research (NCAR) as a writer for eight years. She travelled often with her family and on a trip to Sydney, Australia Halka began writing geology books and worked as an editor for the Geological Society of America. When Halka returned to Colorado, she then traveled across the west especially to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah; also known as the Four Corners area. As she was doing all this travelling, Halka was studying the geology of the western national parks and then later wrote her book titled Three Pages of Stone. In addition to this Halka has two other books. Halka also worked as a consultant for groundwater and petroleum research. In 2004 Halka Chronic received the Geoscience in the Media Award given from the American Association of Petroleum Geologist.