Elizabeth Catherine Thomas Carne (1817–1873) was a British author, natural philosopher, geologist, conchologist, mineral collector, and philanthropist.

Carne was educated at home in Chapel Street, Penzance, with her sisters, and she assisted her father with his extensive mineral collections and shared his keen interest in geological formations and materials.

[8] A close friend, with whom she regularly corresponded, was the Quaker diarist, Caroline Fox of Falmouth's shipping and mining family.

Following this logic, she explained that the abrupt angles noticed in the valleys were caused by faults that formed along the boundaries of stronger and weaker rocks, not erosion.

Carne also published in 'Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Volume 9, Part 1',[11] an account of metamorphosism, where she suggested that, as evident in the multitude of structures that could be taken on by a single substance, rocks must undergo some type of change over time.

Later in her paper, Carne disputes the idea that the local granite was formed only by "igneous eruption", because of the precise arrangement of the surrounding rocks.

Instead, she suggests that if its formation occurred when magma solidified, there would not be distinct layers of greenstone and purple rock surrounding the deposit.