bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carolus Linnaeus: The Swedish Naturalist and Venerable Traveler
Authors: Merriam Daniel
Published: April 2015

Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) (1707-1778) lived during and helped establish the Swedish golden years of science in the early and mid Eighteenth Century (other notables of the time included Emanuel Swedenborg, Anders Celsius, Pehr Kalm, Axel Cronstedt, Daniel Tilas, Johan Wallerius, and Torbern Bergman). Although known best for his contributions to botany, he was a natural scientist of the first class and made contributions to many fields, including geology. His contributions to geology, however, are not well known. Obtaining his medical degree in Harderwijk (Holland) in 1735, he had opportunity to visit the savants of the day on the continent and in England making contacts that lasted a lifetime. But Linnaeus was a believer in having scientists see their own country first and admonished his fellow workers to learn about Sweden "… [and not to] cross the stream for water, and waste … money endeavoring to learn in a foreign country what … might have [been] acquired at home"—good advice even today. He practiced what he preached and during his lifetime made five notable resor (=journeys) in Sweden: Lappland (1732), Dalarna (1734), Öland and Gotland (1741), Västergötland (1746), and Skåne (1749). These field excursions were recorded, not in the scientific language of the day, Latin, but in Swedish and thus were not widely read outside the country. As was his custom, he recorded everything noted on the journeys. Later, through his earlier contacts via the post and his apostles (students), he kept abreast of happenings all over the globe.
Henry Shaler Williams (1847-1918) and Punctuated Equilibria
Authors: Brice William
Published: April 2015

From the first realization that organic life on this planet has evolved over geologic time, scientists have speculated about the time interval required for these changes to occur. For many years Darwin's idea of slow incremental changes, gradualism, was the accepted model. In the 1970s Stephen Gould (1941-2002) and Niles Eldridge (b. 1943) provided an alternative model of very rapid evolutionary change, followed by long periods of stability, which they called punctuated equilibria. It now appears that Henry Shaler Williams, a geology professor at Cornell University, arrived at the same interpretation almost one hundred years earlier, but only stated this belief in his class lecture notes. He, like Gould and Eldridge, noticed that the fossil record provides evidence that organisms evolved by very fast physical changes occurring in only a few generations and in a very short geological time interval. Then the organisms appear to undergo almost no change for long periods of time; i.e., long periods of stability through many generations. Exactly why Williams did not produce a formal publication of his concept remains a mystery, but his lecture notes from the early 1880s clearly demonstrate that he had developed the idea of punctuated equilibria.
William Christian Krumbein: Father of Mathematical Geology
Authors: Scherer Wolfgang
Published: April 2015

Willliam Christian Krumbein (1902-1979) is remembered by one of his former graduate students for his remarkable discipline, productivity, and dedication to his students. Krumbein published extensively in sediment analysis, stratigraphic analysis, and statistical methodology in geology.
The First Half-Century of the International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS) 1952-2002
Authors: Friedman Gerald
Published: April 2015

"On 1 September 1948, directly after the closing of the 18th International Geological Congress in London, UK, the British sedimentary petrologists, headed by P. Allen, arranged a meeting for the sedimentary petrologists who had participated in the Congress. P. Allen raised the following points for discussion: (a) is some sort of a international union in sedimentary petrology desirable? (b) Should some kind of international meeting of sedimentary petrologists be held regularly in the future?"
John Cedric Griffiths (1912-1992): Geologist, Statistician, Philosopher, and Advocate
Authors: Drew Lawrence
Published: April 2015

John Cedric Griffiths (1912-1992) received the first Krumbein Medal in 1977 for his research. In 1996, The International Association for Mathematical Geology named their medal for excellence in teaching after him. Griffiths dedicated his career to mathematical geology, to his students, and to laying the basis for a rational search for the Earth's mineral riches. This article relates the experience of the author as a graduate student under Griffiths.
Richard Arthur Reyment: Father of the International Association for Mathematical Geology
Authors: Merriam Daniel
Published: April 2015

Richard Arthur Reyment was born of parents of English, Swedish, and Spanish descent in Coburg, Victoria, Australia on 4 December 1926. After obtaining his bachelor degree from Melbourne University in 1948 he spent several years with the British Colonial Service in Nigeria. While there he obtained his masters degree from Melbourne and a doctorate from the University of Stockholm (Sweden). His work in Nigeria led to the appointment as professor at the University of Ibadan. He returned to Sweden in 1965 with an appointment from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council. In 1967 he was awarded his DSc from Melbourne University and was appointed to the Chair of Historical Geology and Paleontology at the University of Uppsala (Sweden), where he remained until his retirement in 1991. His early studies on random events, multivariate morphometrics, and statistical analysis in geology and biology naturally led him into the quantitative aspects of his chosen profession, and whetted his desire to share these experiences with others with similar interests. This, he decided, could best be accomplished through an organization to promote quantitative methods and approaches, which led to his concept of the International Association for Mathematical Geology (IAMG). His efforts and enthusiasm resulted in the founding of the Association at the ill-fated International Geological Congress (IGC) in Prague in 1968. Reyment was elected the first IAMG secretary general and later the second president. The IAMG is affiliated with both the IGC and the International Statistical Institute (ISI). In recognition of his scientific accomplishments he was awarded IAMG's highest award, the William Christian Krumbein Medal, in 1979 and a special Certificate of Merit in 2002. Reyment's pioneering efforts have influenced a generation of geologists and paleontologists.
Earthquakes, Damage, and Prediction: the Spanish Seismological Service, 1898-1930
Authors: Anduaga Aitor
Published: April 2015

The creation and development of the Servicio Sismológico Español (1906-1930) clearly illustrates the complexity of the organisation of seismological networks in Spain during the Restauración and the reign of Alfonso XIII. A unique combination of technical advances, seismological knowledge and the need for safety and seismic prediction gave rise to the emergence of both state and private observatories, an important aspect of the process of scientific modernisation after the Spanish-American war of 1898. This paper aims to show how the engineer Eduardo Mier y Miura (1858-1917) played a key role in the foundation of the Servicio, despite the fact that some of his decisions and contributions were highly criticised by the next generation of seismologists. Figures such as Vicente Inglada, José Galbis, and Alfonso Rey Pastor carried out a complete reorganisation of the Servicio. These events did not stem from the well-known regeneracionismo movement which took place at the turn of the century, but were rather the result of internal dynamics.
Douglas Mawson's First Major Geological Expedition: The New Hebrides, 1903
Authors: Jago J. , Pharaoh M. , Wilson-Roberts C.
Published: April 2015

Douglas Mawson, the famous Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer, is best known for his Antarctic expeditionary work, first with Shackleton in 1907-09, and later in 1911-14 and 1929-31 on expeditions that he led himself. However, his first expedition outside of Australia was to the New Hebrides (modern Vanuatu) in 1903 at the age of 20 and before he had completed his geology degree. Mawson's field notes, and subsequent publications, are most impressive given that they were produced by a very young inexperienced geologist, working independently in an isolated area. His field notes and photographs have until now received very little attention, despite being a unique body of information full of insights into the author.
Prototaxites Dawson, 1859 or Nematophycus Carruthers, 1872: Geologists V. Botanists in the Formative Period of the Science of Paleobotany
Authors: Lindsay Debra
Published: April 2015

A fossil plant found in the Devonian rocks of the Gaspé Peninsula of Canada provoked a heated debate in the late 19th century. When geologist John William Dawson identified it as an early land plant resembling a conifer (1859), he was challenged by botanist William Carruthers who argued it was a giant alga (1872). Until recently most scientists have tended to agree with Carruthers, but recent analysis suggest that neither Carruthers nor Dawson were fully correct. This paper focuses on the historical origins of the Prototaxites-Nematophycus debate, specifically on the role the debate played in the process of establishing methods within a new sub-field of paleontology. In large measure, Dawson and Carruthers disagreed over the identity and classification of this specimen because of their scientific training and areas of specialization. Carruthers and other botanists argued that the geologists who tended to dominate paleontology knew little about plant morphology and even less about the crucial identifying characteristics of the organs of fruitification. Alternatively, geologists, such as Dawson, had provided concepts and methods (eg. stratigraphy, mineralogy, geological time-scale) to paleontology, and they were not about to relinquish authority earned in previous decades.
Isolated Ideas: Crinoid Literature of the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Ausich William , Lane N.
Published: April 2015

The first published accounts of the class Crinoidea (phylum Echinodermata) were from the latter half of the sixteenth century, during which seven or eight works were published. Because this was long before the establishment of modern systematic nomenclature by Linnaeus in 1758, this literature has been largely ignored. The first published work on crinoids was by Agricola in 1546, and the first illustrations of crinoids were by Gessner in 1565-1566. Crinoids were mentioned in these early publications as descriptions of objects dug from the earth, objects that had medicinal uses, and description of collections. The perceived medicinal use of fossil crinoids may have been an important factor for the attention that they received in sixteenth century publications. Little continuity existed from one author to the next, despite communications and mentor-student relationships. During this century, living and fossil crinoids were not allied, neither one was correctly interpreted with living comatulid crinoids (considered starfish), and fossil crinoid columnals were considered inanimate objects. At the close of the sixteenth century, circular and pentalobate columnals and pluricolumnals were related to one another even though they were categorized with an artificial classification scheme, the proposed name for pentalobate pluricolumnals is the valid name today for the Jurassic crinoid Pentacrinus, and living comatulid crinoids were regarded as echinoderms.
The Genesis of Geomagnetic Observatories in Portugal
Authors: Malaquias Isabel , Vaz Gomes Emília , Martins Décio
Published: April 2015

Interest in mapping not merely the heavens but also the lands, a special concern of modern civilizations, increased mainly at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Although knowledge about geomagnetism was old, only in the nineteenth century was it possible to improve precision measurements of magnetic intensity. After Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) established an international Magnetic Union (Magnetische Verein) based in Göttingen in 1836, a network of magnetic observatories promoted a worldwide collaboration in order to get a deeper understanding of Earth's magnetism. While the participation of England, Russia, and the United States in this network is better known, Portugal also participated in this Union. This article aims to show how Portuguese institutions were influenced by the development of this branch of science and to detail their participation in the international geomagnetic network in the nineteenth century.
Henry Fairfield Osborn and Jurassic Dinosaur Reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, Along the Colorado-Utah Border, 1893-1900
Authors: Brinkman Paul
Published: April 2015

Henry Fairfield Osborn, vertebrate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, did virtually all of his fieldwork by proxy. Working mostly from his New York office, he detailed a score of fieldworkers to locate and claim fossil localities in advance of collectors from rival museums. This history of a long-forgotten Jurassic dinosaur reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, which was materially unsuccessful, explores how Osborn found and evaluated potential new field localities. He was relentless in pursuit of fossils, especially in the face of worthy competition. He received his first unsolicited tip about fossils along the Colorado-Utah border in 1893. A collector sent to scout the locality found Jurassic dinosaurs in poor condition and left them behind. Following a second tip about fossils in the same region in 1899—at the height of the second Jurassic dinosaur rush—Osborn sent two more expeditions to search the area. Both of these parties returned empty-handed also. Reliable locality data regarding the presence of typical Jurassic vertebrates would have been very useful to geologists like Whitman Cross, who was then attempting to correlate beds west of the Rockies with better-known strata on the eastern slope. But, in order to maintain a competitive advantage, Osborn kept this locality data to himself.
Joseph Silas Diller (1850-1928): Pioneer of Southern Cascadian Geology, California and Oregon
Authors: Aalto K.
Published: April 2015

Joseph Silas Diller worked as a United States Geological Survey (USGS) geologist for some forty years, from 1883 to 1923. While his principal interest was in petrography, he was responsible for production of numerous geological maps, reconnaissance surveys and economic geologic studies. A majority of these were in Southern Cascadia, the complex region of southern Oregon and northern California that encompasses portions of the eastern Great Basin, Sierra Nevada, Cascade Volcanic, Great Valley, Klamath Mountains and Coast Ranges geologic provinces. Among his achievements were the production of six maps as part of the USGS Geologic Atlas Folio Series, in-depth reports on the evolution of Crater Lake and Lassen Peak, detailed descriptions of several mining districts, and the preparation of sets of hand specimens, thin sections and descriptions for colleges and universities. He was also a specialist on asbestos, coal, placer gold and chromic iron ore. He is perhaps best remembered for his studies of Crater Lake and analysis of Tertiary peneplanation and regional uplift.
Strabismus and Pseudofossils: A Case Study of Rudolf Ruedemann (1864-1956)
Authors: Tollerton Victor
Published: April 2015

Rudolf Ruedemann (1864-1956), fourth State Paleontologist of New York, was an internationally renowned and well-respected paleontologist. Throughout his long and productive career, he named, described, and figured more than six hundred fossils. Some of those fossils have not stood the test of time, having succumbed to the usual paleontological process of being synonymized, often because the material is poorly preserved or distorted. There are, however, a surprisingly large number of his fossils that are of inorganic origin, that is, they are pseudofossils. Evidence has been discovered that indicates he may have had the eye condition known as strabismus. The major alternative hypothesis, that he knew the fossils were pseudofossils and that he established the species to prove preconceived ideas, as well as minor alternatives, concerning his ego, or his judgement, are demonstrated to be implausible. It is recommended that his collections be re-studied and that this possible eye condition be taken into account.
The First Detailed Geological Maps of France: Contributions of Local Scientists and Mining Engineers
Authors: Savaton Pierre
Published: April 2015

Modern geological cartography in France began in the nineteenth century and was marked by the creation of detailed geological maps based on the partitioning of the country's territory into administrative regions or Départements. Published between 1828 and the 1880s, these maps were primarily the work of local naturalists and, subsequently, mining engineers. Local initiatives generated by political, economical and scientific contexts were superseded within twenty years by a centralized and long-standing surveying programme, utilizing the resources of local administrations for the completion and publication of a geological map of France. Local initiatives declined as the administration took control of the scientific and technical coordination of local surveys. These early maps show only the very beginning of the process of constructing a geological map of France. Their lack of unity led, from 1868, to their replacement by a coordinated and codified covering of French territory.
Two Hundred Years of Geological Mapping in Belgium, From D'omalius D'halloy to the Belgian Federal State
Authors: Groessens Eric , Dyck Marie-Claire
Published: April 2015

The career of Jean-Baptiste-Julien d'Omalius d'Halloy (1783-1875), commencing with brilliant scientific activities and proceeding to his attainment of the highest administrative and political positions, in itself demonstrates that he was an exceptional individual. His scientific career started with a long voyage through the French Empire and adjacent regions, during which he gained an understanding of the geological structure of most of Europe. The geological map he compiled based on his travel notes formed the basis of all future geological maps in the areas that he covered. After the independence of Belgium in 1830, André Dumont was made responsible for the mapping of the whole country, resulting in the publication of a 9-sheet map of Belgium in 1853 on a scale of 1:160.000. In 1878, Belgium decided to produce a more detailed map on the scale of 1:20.000, entrusting the work to Edouard Dupont., but as this appointment was controversial and the mapping at this scale was abandoned and than, the newly created Geological Survey of Belgium published a new 226-sheet map on a scale of 1:40.000. Starting from 1993, after the federalisation of the country, new geological maps of the regional states are mapped and produced.
The Sustainability of Geological Mapmaking: The Case of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
Authors: Knell Simon
Published: April 2015

Henry De la Beche's leadership of the Geological Survey of Great Britain in the second quarter of the nineteenth century led to the establishment of a number of key institutions which ensured the Survey of survival beyond the initial phase of geological mapmaking. Considered as a finite activity serving only to fix on paper the spatial distribution of an unchanging physical resource, geological mapmaking alone was never a secure basis for institutional or disciplinary development. The actions taken by De la Beche in the 1830s and 1840s, at a time when public and politicians alike were suspicious of government-funded science, were echoed 150 years later by successors who served governments with similar doubts about non-commercial scientific activity. Whether buried within an empire of public institutions, illuminated in museum collections which spoke of utilitarian value, or conceptualised as an income-generating database of rare data, the continuation of geological mapmaking in Britain relied upon a relationship to, and relevance for, a wider world of politics and practice. Seen in the long view, the British Geological Survey demonstrates that a nation can only make and re-make geological maps if that activity can be submerged within, or repackaged as, a new strategically-valued socio-economic initiative.
Gravity Surveying in Early Geophysics. I. From Time-Keeping to Figure of the Earth
Authors: Howarth Richard
Published: April 2015

This two-part review of the development of the measurement of the Earth's gravity field, and its application to geology, up to the early 1960s, is intended primarily for an earth-science readership. The focus here is on the pendulum, which played the dominant role in measurement of the intensity of gravity (g), both in absolute (at national observatories) and relative terms (at field stations), until the early twentieth century. Following discovery of the properties of the pendulum and its incorporation in time-keepers, early post-Newtonian investigations used the length of a pendulum beating seconds as a proxy for g. The goal was to obtain ever-improved knowledge of the "Figure of the Earth," initially encapsulated in determination of the degree of flattening of the oblate ellipsoid used as a model for the geometry of the globe. Developments in theory went hand-in-hand with both improvements in pendulum design and the establishment of a constantly expanding network of astrogeodetic stations as a basis for national cartographic surveys. By the late nineteenth century, results from astrogeodetic determinations of the length of a degree of arc and those derived from gravity determinations (by means of Clairaut's theorem) had converged to an inverse flattening of 298, and emphasis switched to determination of the geoid. However, by the 1840s, discrepancies between observed and model-fitted values were providing increasingly strong evidence that geological factors also affected the local value of g . This would give rise to the use of gravity determination as a geological exploration tool in the twentieth century.
Marie Stopes, The Discovery of Pteridosperms And The Origin of Carboniferous Coal Balls
Authors: Falcon-Lang Howard
Published: April 2015

Marie Stopes (1880-1958) is chiefly remembered as a birth control pioneer and sexologist, but in her twenties and thirties she carved out a highly successful career as a palaeobotanist and coal geologist. This paper outlines her early geological research on coal balls—carbonate concretions found within the Carboniferous coal seams of northern England, which preserve the remains of the peat-forming plants in beautiful anatomical detail. Stopes worked on coal balls during three intervals of her career. In the first phase (early 1903), she was Francis Oliver's postgraduate research assistant at University College London, during the critical period leading up to the ‘discovery of pteridosperms’ with D. H. Scott. Stopes's role was to hunt down key specimens in coal ball collections scattered across Britain. In the second phase (late 1904-1907), which followed a year of doctoral research in Munich, she grappled with the more broad-ranging questions of the origin of coal balls, their stratigraphic distribution, and the taphonomy and ecology of the plants they contained. This work took place while she was a Demonstrator in Botany at the Victoria University of Manchester, and was undertaken in collaboration with David Watson. Their findings transformed understanding of coal ball origins and remain influential today. In the third phase (1907-1911), she searched for coal balls in other countries and other stratigraphic intervals. She explored Japan for coal balls of Mesozoic age (1907-early 1909), and although unsuccessful in this particular endeavour, later she became one of the first geologists to locate Carboniferous coal balls in North America in 1911.
Origin of the American Quantitative Igneous Rock Classification: Part 1
Authors: Young Davis
Published: April 2015

In 1902, four American petrologists, C. Whitman Cross, Joseph P. Iddings, Louis V. Pirsson, and Henry S. Washington co-authored a lengthy paper in which they proposed an extremely complex, quantitative classification of igneous rocks. Taking advantage of developments in microscopic petrography, the theory of magmatic differentiation, and knowledge of the chemical composition of igneous rocks, the ‘CIPW’ classification marked a radical break with all previous igneous rock classification schemes such as those of Rosenbusch and Zirkel.

The present paper is the first in a series that explores the genesis and conceptual development of the American quantitative classification. In 1893 Iddings posed a simple question to three young American petrologist friends, Cross, Pirsson, and George H. Williams, about the legitimacy of the use of the terms ‘porphyry’ and ‘porphyrite’. Henry Washington was to join the group later, but Williams was one of the original four. From this question there emerged an expanded discussion, conducted primarily via correspondence and mutual criticism of lengthy essays written by each of the four, dealing with larger questions of principles of classification and nomenclature. Any future classification, they agreed, should be based on igneous rock chemical composition and must reject geological age and geological occurrence as factors. Despite calls within the group for construction of a totally new igneous rock classification, the process evolved cautiously to a decision to publish a statement of general principles of igneous rock classification together with suggestions for changes in nomenclature for the benefit of petrologists. Eventually the project foundered because of health problems for Williams and the press of other obligations and interests on all four. In 1894, the project ground to a halt with the untimely death of Williams from typhoid fever.
Lyell's Journey in Catalonia
Authors: Aragonès Enric
Published: April 2015

Lyell's expedition through Spanish and French Catalonia in the summer of 1830 is here documented from his field notebooks—a source still unexplored. As a result, the chronology, his itinerary and his activities are specified day by day. Several previously unknown aspects are revealed, especially Lyell's unpublished geological observations on Tertiary basins, his contacts with native naturalists and the role of chance in choosing his itinerary. An attempt to reconstruct two of Lyell's cross-sections through the Pyrenees has been made. The further influence of his papers on Spanish and French geologists is also discussed.
Archibald Geikie on the Last Elevation of Scotland
Authors: Wilson Leonard
Published: April 2015

Archibald Geikie announced in 1861 that Scotland had been elevated twenty-five feet since Roman times. In stratified sediments at Leith, he identified pottery fragments as Roman. Other observers promptly noted that the beds had not been deposited under water but were made ground, and that the pottery was recent. Geikie still insisted on the elevation of Scotland since Roman times, based on the terminations of the Antonine Wall. In 1871, David Milne Home showed that if in Roman times Scotland had been twenty-five feet lower than at present, Roman roads, fords, and buildings would have been submerged. In 1873, Milne Home showed further that the eastern end of the Antonine Wall would have been under water. In 1863, in Antiquity of Man, Sir Charles Lyell accepted Geikie's claims, but in the fourth edition of Antiquity in 1873 he presented Milne Home's evidence against them. Geikie never forgave Lyell for exposing his error and subsequently did his utmost to belittle him.
The Forests Before the Flood: The Palaeobotanical Contributions of Edmund Tyrell Artis (1789-1847)
Authors: Cleal Christopher , Fraser Helen , Lazarus Maureen , Dannell Geoffrey
Published: April 2015

Edmund Tyrell Artis is best known as an archaeologist who during the early nineteenth century made extensive excavations of Roman sites in the Nene Valley in Northamptonshire. However, his approach to archaeology had evolved from his earlier experiences collecting Carboniferous plant fossils. Between about 1816 and 1821, he amassed a major collection of plant fossils from the Yorkshire Coalfield and this formed the basis of a book entitled Antediluvian Phytology. This book was a landmark in British palaeobotany but was his only contribution to the subject. This was partly because of his growing archaeological interests and partly because of disagreements with William Buckland, one of the most influential geologists then in Britain.
The Education and Career of Carlotta J. Maury: Part 1
Authors: Arnold Lois
Published: April 2015

Carlotta Maury (1874-1938) was a paleontologist who specialized in Tertiary mollusks. She was involved in confidential explorations for the oil industry as well as teaching and museum work. This paper—the first of a two-part biographical narrative—traces her educational background and the earlier part of her career. She was born into a family with significant scientific interests and accomplishments. Influenced by the educator Elizabeth Agassiz, Maury attended Cornell University, where despite different academic programs designed to prepare women for occupations considered suitable for them, and the prejudice of male faculty, she obtained a PhD. Her mentor was the paleontologist Gilbert Harris. Women's difficulties in gaining acceptance in fieldwork with men and academic advancement are explored. Maury's failure to be promoted at Barnard College led her to accept a position at a college in South Africa. By 1918, expeditions there, in New York, Louisiana, Trinidad, and one that she led to Santo Domingo had resulted in several publications.
Remembering First Oil in Nevada
Authors: Picard M.
Published: April 2015

In June 1954 Nevada became the twenty-ninth oil-producing state in the United States (Picard 1955). Interestingly, production was from volcanic rocks from the open-hole interval 6,450 to 6,730 ft (1,966 to 2,051 m) in the Oligocene Garrett Ranch volcanics, an unexpected reservoir in the kind of rocks rarely productive anywhere in the world. The pour-point (65-80° F) and gravity (26-29° API) of the crude were high, similar to oils found in the Eocene Green River Formation of the Uinta Basin, northeast Utah. Cumulative production in the field through September 1978 was 3.3 million barrels of oil. An early estimate of ultimate primary reserves was four million barrels of oil (Bortz and Murray, 1979). The trap is a faulted truncated wedge of Oligocene and Cretaceous-Eocene rocks with a top seal of impermeable valley fill, a bottom seal of Paleozoic rocks, and an east-side seal formed by a basin boundary fault and impermeable Paleozoic rocks. The new field in Railroad Valley of east-central Nevada, finally totaling fourteen producing wells, was called Eagle Springs after the locality and the name of the discovery well drilled by the Shell Oil Company. Twenty-two years after the Eagle Springs discovery a larger oil field, Trap Spring, was discovered by Northwest Exploration Company less than ten miles west of Eagle Springs, in Tertiary ash-flow tuffs. Two hundred dry holes had been drilled in Nevada between the two discoveries. In 1982, six years after the Trap Spring discovery, Amoco Production Company drilled the first well outside of Railroad Valley at Blackburn field on the east side of Pine Valley in Eureka County. Blackburn, a structural trap above a Tertiary low-angle extensional fault, produces from Devonian reservoirs. In 1983, Northwest Production brought in the Grant Canyon field about 10 mi (6 km) south of Eagle Springs. The oil reservoir of Devonian carbonates there is entrapped in a ‘buried-hill’. The discovery in 2004 of the Covenant field in Central Utah, because of similarities to large oil fields in the thrust belt of Wyoming and Utah and some resemblance to the Nevada fields of the Great Basin, ignited a frenzy of leasing which still goes on when land is available. Located along the thrust-belt (hingeline), Covenant produces oil from the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone that apparently originated in the Paleozoic.
The Geological Work of the Baudin Expedition in Australia (1801-1803): The Mineralogists, the Discoveries and the Legacy
Authors: Mayer Wolf
Published: April 2015

The Baudin expedition to Australia included among its scientific staff Louis Depuch and Joseph Charles Bailly, the first professionally educated geologists to visit this country. Together with the zoologist François Péron, they carried out the earliest geological surveys along large parts of its coast. Their views on the origin of the major rock types were mainly guided by Neptunist thinking. However, in line with the beliefs of a number of French geologists at the time, they recognized basalt as a volcanic rock. Their identification of earth materials was hampered by the still imprecise definition of the physical properties of minerals and rocks. Their work provided the first detailed descriptions of the major rock types and their distribution along the margins of the continent and its islands, and led to some tentative conclusions with regard to the presence of mountains in the country's interior. The three investigators concluded that Australia was built on a foundation of granite, overlain by a variety of sedimentary rocks and fringed by extensive deposits of largely unconsolidated sediment, left behind by a retreating sea. Their mistaken identification of dolerite as basalt led them to believe that they had discovered evidence of volcanic activity in Australia. Issues such as the presence of marine organisms in rocks now above sea level, and the finding of various species of mollusks on Australia's shores, known to be extinct in Europe, led to lively discussions among a number of European naturalists.
Earth, Sky and Prayer in Harmony. Aspects of the Interesting Life of Father Edward Pigot, SJ, BA, MB, BCH (1858-1929), a Jesuit Seismologist: Part 1
Authors: Branagan David
Published: April 2015

Edward Francis Pigot (1858-1929) spent the last twenty-four years of his life as Director of the Observatory of the Jesuit ‘Riverview’ College, Sydney, Australia. Specialising in seismology and earth deformation, he established a worldwide reputation for his work in this field. In the years to 1911 he also participated in two eclipse expeditions. Irish-born Pigot, a fine musician from his youth, graduated first in arts and medicine and became a medical missionary in China until ill health forced his move into scientific work at Zi-Ka-Wei near Shanghai before moving finally to Riverview in 1907. Pigot's personality gained him many friends in the international seismology field. They included the Japanese F. Omori, the German G. Angenheister, and the Russian Count B. Galitsin.
Father Damian Kreichgauer SVD (1859-1940) and Father Erich Wasmann SJ (1859-1931): geology, earth history and evolution in two German lives between science and faith
Authors: Kölbl-Ebert Martina
Published: April 2015

The physicist Damian Kreichgauer entered the German Missionary Order Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) in 1892. From 1895 onwards, he taught natural sciences to future missionaries at the Order's seminary St Gabriel (Austria). In 1902, he published a book called Die Äquatorfrage in der Geologie (The Question of the Equator in Geology) with the Order's publishing outlet, in which he advocated the idea of a mobilistic Earth, where the Earth's crust as a whole moved with respect to the fluid core and the Earth's rotational axis. The main evidence for this idea he found in the changing of climate zones during geological epochs. Due to a small database, which was basically restricted to European plate localities, Kreichgauer did not notice discrepancies between polar wander on different continents. Nevertheless, the book was later cited and discussed as one of his precursors by Alfred Wegener in his book on the origin of continents and oceans. Kreichgauer also introduced his ideas to parallel the events of the biblical Genesis with geological epochs. He later expanded this ‘concordance theory’ in a separate book Das Sechstagewerk (The Work of the Six Days). He eventually abandoned scientific work, possibly due to censorship wielded by the Superior of his Order, unlike his contemporary, the Jesuit Erich Wasmann, a respected entomologist, who defended evolutionary ideas despite adverse Church politics and censorship.
Origin of the American quantitative igneous rock classification: Part 3
Authors: Young Davis
Published: April 2015

After evaluating two contrasting proposals, four American petrographers, Cross, Iddings, Pirsson, and Washington, meeting in late March 1901, formulated a preliminary quantitative classification of igneous rocks on a chemico-mineralogical basis. The team agreed that five different mineral groups should serve as factors for subdivision of the rocks into different orders. They also defined several further categories of subdivisions and established chemical and/or mineralogical criteria for those taxonomic levels. Washington began work on appropriate nomenclature for the various subdivisions.

During the ensuing month, Iddings and Washington suggested several modifications to the group proposal. After intense discussion by way of letter, the quartet struggled to work out further details of their scheme logically even as they encountered a host of difficulties in applying the scheme. Washington recognized that their preliminary scheme was too complex and impractical for use by working petrographers.

To meet the challenges, Washington and Pirsson met in late April 1901 and proposed that the team abandon its scheme and substitute one based on two factors only: ‘light minerals’ rich in Si, Al, K, and Na and ‘dark minerals’ rich in Si, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Al. All four agreed in principle to the new scheme and worked feverishly on the identity of and criteria for the subdivisions. Meeting in July 1901, Iddings, Pirsson, and Washington decided that the time had come to move toward publication of a statement of principles of the new two-factor scheme. Iddings was commissioned to write a rough draft describing the scheme and Washington was charged with working on nomenclature.
Vening Meinesz and the theory of Wegener
Authors: Barzilay Willemjan
Published: April 2015

The Dutch geophysicist Felix Vening Meinesz is a familiar name in the history of plate tectonics, because of his discovery of the so-called Meinesz zone, a large-scale gravity anomaly in Indonesia. However, what is not familiar is how he himself viewed the theory of Wegener. This article traces how Vening Meinesz thought about Wegener's theory, how it related to his scientific work and how his view of it changed during his career. Vening Meinesz influenced how Dutch geologists thought about Wegener's theory.
William Smith and the United States
Authors: Eyles Joan
Published: April 2015

It will probably be a surprise to many to learn that William Smith had any connection with the United States or with Americans, but in fact he made the acquaintance of two well-known American geologists and another American became a subscriber to his geological map (1815). He also received the offer of a post as canal engineer in North Carolina, an offer which his friends persuaded him to decline.
Louis Cordier (1777-1861), initiateur de l'étude microscopique des laves: percée sans lendemain ou innovation décisive?
Authors: Ellenberger François
Published: April 2015

Certain crucial advances in the development of geology have been due to men and women whose work is rarely cited by historians.
Through-The-Earth Radio Communications For Trapped Miners
Authors: Pittman Walter
Published: April 2015

Through-the-earth radio offers a possible means of communication with trapped miners after a mining disaster. Much of the original work was the outgrowth of war research. Since the 1920's the efforts to develop through-the-earth radio have paralleled developing electromagnetic geophysical techniques. The electrical characteristics of the earth medium as well as the ambient electromagnetic noise have been determined and theoretical models of electromagnetic propagation have been derived. Since 1969, under U.S. Bureau of Mines leadership, numerous researchers have tried to develop deployable systems. Despite some successes the basic problem remains unresolved. Low frequency signals must be used to penetrate the earth to a sufficient depth; but low frequency equipment is bulky, heavy, expensive and requires large power supplies which are not available to trapped miners. New techniques utilizing miniaturized circuitry and computers shows promise of providing a technology from which workable through-the-earth communication systems may develop in the near future.
The Austrian Geologist Otto Ampferer as Founder of the Sea-Floor Spreading Concept A Contribution to the History of Earth Sciences
Authors: Thenius Erich
Published: April 2015

Although Hess is generally credited with the concept of sea floor spreading in 1960, his work was anticipated by the Austrian geologist O. Ampferer for the Atlantic in 1941. First attempts in this direction were made by Ampferer (1925) and Holmes (1931). The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the work of the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer.
Kansas Skirmishes in the Cope/Marsh War
Authors: Skelton Lawrence
Published: April 2015

Few scientific rivalries of the past century engendered greater hostility than that between Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. These giants of vertebrate paleontology fought bitterly from the 1860's until their deaths in the 1890's.

Kansas was the origin for many of their jousts. By Marsh's account, the casus belli was in 1869 when he pointed out Cope's error in placing the head on the tail end of a restored Kansas plesiosaur. Cope explained the feud as stemming from his beating Marsh to publication on paleontological discoveries in the eastern United States.

Marsh visited Kansas' Smoky Hill region in 1870, 1871, and 1872; Cope made his only visit in 1871. After their expeditions, future fossil collecting was undertaken by teams of Kansans who included the pioneers of Kansas geology. Collecting for Marsh were Benjamin F. Mudge, Samuel W. Williston, and others. Cope's team of collectors was led by Charles H. Sternberg. The two groups, friendly enough at supply stations, vied in the field for the best fossils. Kansas specimens were of extreme importance. Marsh's discovery and description of Hesperornis in 1870 was the zenith of his finds in Kansas; that and another avian fossil furnished by Mudge were the first toothed birds recognized. Their discovery enhanced Marsh's reputation in the scientific world. Both Cope and Marsh had a profound impact on vertebrate paleontology and the fossils they described from Kansas were instrumental in establishing their influence.
Finally Persuaded: The Creation of the 1889 Geological Survey of Kansas
Authors: Buchanan Rex
Published: April 2015

While much has been written about the State's first two geological surveys in 1864 and 1865, much less information is available concerning the establishment of the current incarnation of the Geological Survey at the University of Kansas in 1889. This paper briefly traces the events leading to the Survey's recreation: legislative attempts at a survey in the 1880's, arguments made for and against a survey, and the circumstances leading to the Survey's placement at KU. The Kansas Academy of Science particularly was active in the battle for a survey, and appealed to State pride and practical benefits as reasons for a survey's creation. The Academy finally succeeded in 1889, probably in part because of a burgeoning minerals industry in the State. In addition, a change in the KU budget allowed the Legislature to establish the Survey at KU without appropriating additional funds for its operation. No appropriation was made for the Survey from 1889 to 1895, although some field work was undertaken. This paper also explores several reasons that the Survey was placed at KU rather than Kansas State College.
Darwin's Early Notes on Coral Reef Formation
Authors: Burkhardt Frederick
Published: April 2015

Darwin's letters and some rough notes found in his field notebooks of 1835 confirm the statement in his Autobiography that he had formulated his theory of coral reef formation before the Beagle left South America and before he had seen a coral reef. His geological observations having convinced him of the elevation of the South American continent, Darwin predicted that evidence of a compensatory gradual subsidence of the Pacific Ocean floor would be found in the existence of shallow-water coral genera in the Pacific reef formations. The first draft of the theory was written on board the Beagle shortly after seeing the reefs of Moorea in November 1835. After visiting the Cocos (Keeling) Islands he wrote a summary of his view in a letter of April 1838, in which he expressed his conviction that he had found an explanation which would "put some of the facts in a more simple and connected point of view, than that in which they have hitherto been considered".
Communication and ‘Forestructures’ at the Geological Intersection of Caves and Subsurface Water Flow: Hermeneutics and Parochialism
Authors: Florea Lee , Vacher H.
Published: April 2015

The direction of cave and karst science throughout its history has been partly determined by communication—or, more commonly, the lack of communication—between non-scientist cavers and non-caving physical geologists writing about karst. Within each community, advancement of ‘cave awareness’ occurred through a hermeneutic circle in which ‘forestructures’ guided progress. One result was regionalism of speleo-genetic theories developed within karst science because of the weight of evidence placed upon local or regional observations. Many speleogenetic theories of the mid-1900s suffer from this parochialism, failing to take into account findings from karst of different geologic settings. During the past half-century, the accumulated worldwide data on caves and karst suggest larger, more encompassing theories of speleogenesis. One such example of how speleogenetic theories have changed, partly explored in this essay, is the relation of cave formation to the position of the water-table. In many karst aquifers, including but not limited to alpine systems, one modern view envisions the enlargement of caves to proceed in a punctuated manner, driven by floods.
The Chicanery of the Isthmian Links Model
Authors: Krill Allan
Published: April 2015

Two papers, ‘Gondwana land bridges’ by Charles Schuchert and ‘Isthmian links’ by Bailey Willis, were published together in 1932. They were apparently motivated by Schuchert's desire to defend his paleogeography of fixed continents against the threat of Alfred Wegener's continental mobilism. Schuchert and Willis both held to land-bridge theory but admitted that they could not accept each other's types of bridges. Schuchert insisted that some bridges had to be wide and of continental material, without explaining why he felt this was so. Willis insisted that wide continental bridges were isostatically and volumetrically impossible; so any ancient bridges that had sunk must have been narrow isthmuses of dense oceanic rocks. They wrote separate papers, but issued together, perhaps to lead readers to the impression that a compromise was possible; but it was not. They avoided alerting readers to fatal flaws in both their models, in part by limiting their discussion to the less familiar southern hemisphere (Gondwana) and never mentioning the continental connection between Europe and North America. Willis went further in his inventions than Schuchert, trying to explain the extremes of Permian climate. Fixed-continent paleogeography required glacial conditions at equatorial latitudes and tropical conditions at arctic latitudes. We now understand that these climate differences can only be explained by ‘continental drift’ (or plate tectonics), but in his valiant effort to support fixism, Willis postulated not only tectonic uplifts of oceanic isthmuses, but also uplifts in continental areas that were known to be stable.