Herbert Harold Read (born Dec. 17, 1889, Whitstable, Kent, Eng.—died March 29, 1970, Whitstable) was a geologist known for his research on the origins of granite.
A member of His Majesty’s Geological Survey from 1914 until 1931, when he became George Herdman professor of geology at the University of Liverpool, Read in 1939 moved to the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London, retiring in 1955. His work included studies of metamorphic rocks, time intervals involved in rock formation and mountain building, and determination of differences in basic magmas (molten rock). Read wrote Geology (1949), The Granite Controversy (1957), and Beginning Geology (1966).