bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Mesozoic/Defining Disciplines: Late Nineteenth-Century Debates Over the Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary
Authors: Lindsay Debra
Published: April 2015

The last two decades of the nineteenth century were exciting times in American paleontology, with disputes over Jurassic dinosaurs between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh appearing in the press. Less well known is the dispute over defining the Mesozoic that began in 1888 when Marsh invited Lester Frank Ward, a colleague with whom he had been working on the Potomac Formation for the United States Geological Survey, to speak on the plant fossils found there. Initially agreeing with Marsh that the Potomac was a Jurassic formation, work on fossil cycads led Ward to conclude that the Potomac was Lower Cretaceous. As Ward and Marsh grappled with the question of how to determine the age and identity of Mesozoic systems, they joined other paleontologists and geologists such as William J. McGee, Albert Charles Seward, and Samuel W. Williston in a debate that often reflected scientific training and sub-specializations as much as stratigraphic principles, becoming caught up in a trans-Atlantic dispute in which their reputations were on the line as they claimed that ‘their’ fossils were key determinants of Mesozoic systems. In the end, Marsh's reputation as a paleontologist was far better established than that of Ward, who moved on to another career as a sociologist at Brown University, but cycad discoveries from Maryland, Colorado and Wyoming, and fieldwork, trumped laboratory studies—even when performed by a master systematist—as the Potomac Formation proved to be Lower Cretaceous.
V. Ben Meen and the Riddle of Chubb Crater
Authors: Plotkin Howard , Tait Kimberly
Published: April 2015

Aerial photographs of Chubb Crater, a striking 3.4 km-wide circular basin in the far north of Quebec, led the Ontario prospector Fred W. Chubb to think it might be an extinct volcano, and possibly the site of a diamond-bearing diatreme. V. Ben Meen, the Director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Geology and Mineralogy in Toronto, however, suspected it was an impact crater caused by a meteorite. Meen led two expeditions to the crater in 1950 and 1951. Despite early opposition and the initial absence of corroborative field evidence, he held on to a persistent belief in the crater's meteoritic origin. Later fieldwork ultimately provided strong evidence in support of this view. The discovery of the crater led to the development of a program at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa to search for additional impact craters on the Canadian Shield, and the development of valuable criteria by which they could be authenticated. The craters discovered through the program fit well on the Baldwin curve relating crater depth to diameter, and lent strong support to the argument for the relationship between the meteoritic origin of lunar craters and terrestrial impact structures. Chubb Crater is of historical importance because it was the first meteorite crater to be recognized in Canada, and the first anywhere to be authenticated in the absence of associated meteorites.
Contributions of the Geological Survey of India, 1851-1890, to the Concept of Gondwána-Land
Authors: Leviton Alan , Aldrich Michele
Published: April 2015

In 1864, Sclater proposed a Tertiary continent connecting Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands, off of the southwest coast of India, to explain the distribution of small mammals. His ‘Lemuria’ was superseded among biogeographers by Wallace's land bridges in 1876. The notion of an ancient continent of Gondwána-Land had a different intellectual lineage. It grew as a paleogeographical idea from the fieldwork and paleontological studies of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s and proved to be durable, albeit with different configurations, over the last century and a half. Initially, the Gondwána rocks were termed Raniganj Series, Talchir Series, and so on, after the great coalfields in India, but in the 1870s they were consolidated into the Gondwána Series and then Gondwána System. At the same time, the GSI scientists posited a continent of Gondwána age rocks stretching from Africa across India and on to Australia. In 1885, Suess proposed a more limited Gondwánan-aged Indo-African continent, mostly similar to Sclater's Lemuria, which he named Gondwána-Land. Suess's construct also included a tectonic component that the GSI's landmass did not. But it was not the vast continent in terms of its size that the GSI people had envisioned, which, in time, Suess would also acknowledge. In 1890, William Blanford, a central figure in the GSI part of the Gondwána story, reviewed and expanded the concept of the continent to South America, based on Neumayr's 1887 work, and suggested an Antarctica involvement. Curiously, however, some historians and geologists have overlooked the work that preceded Suess and have credited Suess with the entire idea.
Louis Agassiz and the Fossil Reefs of Iowa
Authors: Monson Charles
Published: April 2015

Louis Agassiz's public lectures in population centers on the east coast of the United States are well known, but he also took his ideas to smaller towns in the heart of the continent. These visits by ‘the people's naturalist’ were sometimes touted by local press in these relatively young settlements as a validation of their communities' cultural sophistication. In 1864, Agassiz gave a lecture on fossil Devonian ‘reefs’ at Iowa City, Iowa. According to local tradition, the lecture inspired so much public enthusiasm that a neighboring settlement was subsequently named Coralville. Agassiz tied the Iowa fossils to his own work on modern reefs in Florida, arguing that Devonian expansion of the North American continent had proceeded by coral growth in a manner not unlike the more recent formation of the Florida peninsula. Agassiz's coral work was a centerpiece of his public attacks on the idea of evolution, but it also served to popularize the idea that the Earth had a long history prior to the appearance of humanity.
The Controversial History of the Goose Lake, California, Meteorite
Authors: Plotkin Howard , Clarke Roy
Published: April 2015

The Goose Lake meteorite, a 2,573 lb (1,167 kg) iron, was found by three deer hunters on lava beds in the Modoc National Forest in northeast California in October, 1938. Although several California persons wanted possession of the meteorite for various California institutions, under the powers of the 1906 Antiquities Act meteorites found on US federal lands were typically transferred to the US National Museum at the Smithsonian Institution and accessioned into the National Collection of Meteorites. With authorization from the US Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian began a correspondence with one of the meteorite's finders to arrange for its retrieval. But the situation became complicated and controversial when meteorite collector/dealer Harvey H. Nininger (1887-1986), who harboured hopes that the meteorite might be on a parcel of private land in the National Forest, falsely presented himself to the finder as a Smithsonian agent, and was taken to the site of the meteorite. A survey showed the meteorite was on federal land, however, and the Smithsonian reluctantly allowed Nininger to oversee its recovery. During the time that the meteorite was on loan from the Smithsonian and on exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair, considerable pressure from various California individuals and institutions was put on the Smithsonian to keep the meteorite in California, but it was accessioned into the Smithsonian's National Collection of Meteorites and shipped to Washington, DC. The controversial history of the Goose Lake meteorite affirmed the applicability of the Antiquities Act with regard to the disposition of meteorites found on US federal lands, and set the stage for the later court rulings involving the Old Woman meteorite, a large (2,753 kg) iron found on government land in California in 1976. Problematic ownership issues like those involving the Goose Lake meteorite exist in other countries besides the United States, and in other branches of natural history, especially paleontology. The Goose Lake meteorite is famous for its numerous and enigmatic large holes and cavities, and is a popular attraction at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.
William Noel Benson (1885-1957): Insights into the Life and Work of an Eminent Geologist
Authors: Mayer Wolf
Published: April 2015

William Noel Benson was one of the most renowned geologists in Australia and New Zealand during the first half of the twentieth century. He studied geology at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge and occupied the Chair of Geology at the University of Otago with great distinction for thirty-three years. His research work extended across the greater part of the geological spectrum and gained him world-wide recognition and a reputation as a scholar in the classical mode. His name is today most closely associated with his pioneering work on the composition, origin and tectonic setting of the mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Great Serpentine Belt of New South Wales, and with his unfinished study of the Tertiary volcanic rocks of the Dunedin district, in New Zealand. He also made important contributions in such diverse fields as palaeontology, geomorphology, engineering geology and medical geology. Benson was a highly respected teacher and a compassionate man with deep religious convictions.
Grigory (Gotthelf) Fischer Von Waldheim (1771-1853): Author of the First Scientific Works on Russian Geology and Palæontology
Authors: Bessudnova Zoya
Published: April 2015

Sometimes called the 'Russian Cuvier', Grigory Fischer von Waldheim was born in 1771 in Waldheim near Freiberg in Saxony and graduated in 1792 from the Freiberg Mining Academy, where he studied under Werner and became friends with von Buch and von Humboldt. In Paris, he studied under Cuvier and the two became friends. In Russia, Fischer became Director of the Moscow University Natural History Museum (1804-1832), founder of the Moscow Society of Naturalists at Moscow University (1805), Corresponding Member (1805) and Honorary Member (1819) of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and Professor (later President) of the Moscow Medical-Surgical Academy (1837), where he established its Natural History Museum. He gave systematic descriptions of materials in the Paris National Natural History Museum (1802-1803) and Moscow University's Natural History Museum (1805-1806). Using binomial nomenclature, he published the first scientific descriptions of the fossil fauna of Russia (1809) and the first descriptions of the fossil flora from around Moscow (1826) and the southwestern Urals (1840). He also wrote the first Russian monograph on geology and palaeontology (Oryctography of the Province of Moscow, 1830-1837). In effect, he founded palaeontology in Russia. His achievements were recognized during his lifetime and are remembered today in Germany and Russia, but are rather little known in the Anglophone world.
A Peculiarly Personal Encyclopedia: What Desmarest's GéoGraphie-Physique Tells us About his Life and Work
Authors: Taylor Kenneth
Published: April 2015

Nicolas Desmarest's Géographie-Physique, his contribution to the Encyclopédie Méthodique, is a surprisingly useful resource for his biographer. The four volumes he completed during his declining years offer insights into his activities over a long period, such as the extent of his travels, and the sorts of phenomena he selected for observation. Leaving aside those articles that he plagiarized, the many entries he wrote testify to the depth of his commitment to a place-specific construction of a new science of the Earth. In comparison with the article ‘Géographie Physique’ that he provided for the Diderot-d'Alembert Encyclopédie (1757), the components of Géographie-Physique also exhibit Desmarest's deepened interest in cultivating knowledge of the Earth's past. Nonetheless his basic conception of physical geography—which he regularly distinguished from both Theories of the Earth and the emerging géologie (whose definition he found elusive)—remained centered on a search for law-like generalizations about the natural world's order, rather than its historical development.
Retrospective on the plate tectonic revolution focusing on K/Ar dating, linear volcanic chains and the geomagnetic polarity time scale
Authors: McDougall Ian
Published: April 2015

Notions of migration of volcanism in the Hawaiian Islands were contemplated for decades, but no quantitative measurements were made until the early 1960s. Collections of volcanic rocks from the accessible high islands were undertaken by the author in 1961. Surprisingly, K/Ar dating was possible, owing to much lower atmospheric argon in the samples than anticipated, allowing radiogenic argon to be detected. It became evident that there had been a progression of volcanism from Kauai (~4.4 Ma) in the WNW of the archipelago to the Island of Hawaii in the ESE, where there is active volcanism, with a rate of migration of volcanism averaging ~13-16 cm/year. These results gave strong support to J Tuzo Wilson's hotspot model for the origin of certain island chains, proposed in 1963. Later, rates determined in other Pacific island chains were concordant with Hawaii as indicators of direction and rate of plate motions. Concurrently with the successful Hawaiian age measurements, palaeomagnetic results were obtained by Don Tarling and combined with the K/Ar ages these showed that normal and reversed polarity zones were time related, and a geomagnetic polarity time scale was rapidly developed. Marine magnetic measurements across mid ocean ridges showed symmetry of parallel zones of magnetized crust, interpreted by Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews as reflecting normal and reversely magnetized new ocean floor, that was soon calibrated against the geomagnetic polarity time scale, providing persuasive evidence in favour of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading. But K/Ar dating was crucial to the major changes in tectonic hypotheses.
Encounters with Charles Hartt, Louis Agassiz and the Diamonds of Bahia: The Geological Activities of the Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay in Brazil, 1858-1869
Authors: Downes Peter , McNamara Kenneth , Bevan Alex
Published: April 2015

The Reverend Charles Grenfell Nicolay (1815-1897) made an important contribution to early geological work in Western Australia as a scientific adviser to the Colonial government and founder of the Colony's first public collection of rocks, minerals and fossils. During his early career he taught geography at King's and Queen's Colleges in London, before leaving London in 1858 to serve as the Anglican Church Chaplain to the British residents in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. We describe here some of his geological activities in Brazil over the period 1858-1869. He assisted Charles Frederick Hartt (1840-1878) and Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) on the Thayer Expedition of 1865-1866 in their geological investigations of the province of Bahia, most notably providing geological descriptions of the diamond deposits of the Chapada Diamantina, then a diamond province of world importance. After returning to England, he presented his findings on the Chapada Diamantina to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Norwich in 1868. From May to August 1869, he made a brief return visit to Brazil acting as a geological advisor to the Brazilian Turba Company, who were hoping to exploit bituminous sedimentary deposits adjacent to the Bahia de Camamu, Bahia, in the production of oil and gas. Following his arrival in Western Australia, he corresponded with the Reverend William B. Clarke (1798-1878), in 1871-1872, on the subject of Brazilian diamonds, as Clarke sought to understand the diamond occurrences in eastern Australia. Through Clarke, Nicolay's description of the geology of the Chapada Diamantina was circulated to the Australian scientific community.
Johan Gunnar Andersson: Archaeological Geologist and Pioneer
Authors: Rapp George
Published: April 2015

Johan Gunnar Andersson was a Swedish economic geologist who went to China in 1914 as a mining consultant to the Chinese Government but soon, without prior experience or education in archaeology, became an archaeological geologist who discovered the famous ‘Peking Man’ site at Zhoukoudian and uncovered and defined the prehistoric Chinese Neolithic Period with his excavations and analysis of the site of Yangshao, Henan Province, China. These two discoveries were only the highlights of his pioneering expeditions in China. In his eleven years there he helped open up the country to modern methods in archaeology. As an outgrowth of his excavations in China he founded the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. This museum became the recipient of a sizeable portion of his many excavated artifacts, some unique in China and in the West.
Peat bogs as geological archives: Lennart Von Post et al., and the development of quantitative pollen analysis during World War I
Authors: Nordlund Christer
Published: April 2015

In 1916, at the 16th Convention of Scandinavian Naturalists in Kristiania (Oslo), a novel quantitative method for the analysis of postglacial vegetation and climate history was presented. The idea behind the method, later known as pollen analysis, was to utilize peat bogs as geological archives and fossil tree pollen stored in such archives as data. In the historiography of palynology, this lecture by the Swedish geologist Lennart von Post (1884-1951) remains a classic. Pollen from postglacial deposits had indeed been used before, but the approach represented a breakthrough through the launch of the so-called pollen diagram, by which it was possible to summarize and visualize a large amount of data. In the present essay, certain aspects of the intellectual, social and material context of von Post's work are explored. I argue that the aim of the pollen analytical method was to solve Quaternary geological problems rather than biological, and that the method's empirical foundation was connected to an extensive survey of peat bogs, conducted in order to secure energy supply during the First World War. Furthermore, although the method soon won adherents within the scientific community, it is demonstrated in the essay that it did not receive unanimous approval.
Shiyan Tao and the history of indigenous meteorology in China
Authors: Chen Zhenghong , Yang Guifang , Wray Robert
Published: April 2015

This paper gives an account of some of the indigenous characteristics of China's atmospheric sciences. We use the contributions of Academician Shiyan Tao to demonstrate how scientific advances in an international context were adapted to the evolving field of meteorology in China. The article outlines the major scientific contributions of Shiyan Tao, pays specific attention to his academic career in an international context, and highlights the possible implications of his achievements to the meteorological field in China. Tao came into meteorology while studying at the National Central University (NCU) in 1938. In 1944, he entered the Institute of Meteorology of Academia Sinica (IMAS), and in 1950 he joined the Joint Center for Weather Analysis and Prediction (JCWAP), where he furthered his experiences in weather prediction. In 1958, he published, with coauthors Tu-cheng Yeh and Chen-chao Koo, three important articles in Tellus, giving wider access to his academic contributions in the areas of satellite meteorology, rainstorms in China, East Asian Monsoon, and Tibetan atmospheric research. In this paper, we outline how the indigenous innovations of Tao integrated many international meteorological ideas into the Chinese setting, thereby promoting the development of atmospheric sciences in China. His successes benefited greatly from the desire to: pursue Chinese national requirements, integrate international advances into Chinese meteorology, coordinate research groups, and undertake practical research. He created a Practical School of Atmospheric Science in China and helped mold it with distinctive characteristics indigenous to contemporary China. By virtue of his position, Tao also trained numerous other Chinese meteorologists.
Eugene W. Hilgard and Scientific Education in Mississippi
Authors: Pittman Walter
Published: April 2015

Hilgard is renown as the Father of Soil Science, and the founder of that scientific discipline. Born in Bavaria, he was brought to America as a child. He returned to Europe for university education at Freiburg and at Heidelberg, where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1853. In 1855, he came to Mississippi as Assistant State Geologist and Professor at the University of Mississippi. He came at the behest of Chancellor F. A. P. Barnard, who was trying to build a great scientific center at Oxford.

Hilgard remained for 18 years, through the drama of the Civil War when he put his scientific talents to the use of the Confederacy. He sought out nitrate and salt sources, and tried to build calcium flood lights for the batteries at Vicksburg. Hilgard was a kind, gentle, patient man of extraordinary intellect, beloved by students and associates. In 1873 he moved to the University of California where his fame grew.

Hilgard was the first to delineate the field of soil science. In that discipline most of the long-used definitions, concepts, physical parameters, standard units, and techniques originated with him. He bridged the gap between theoretical science and practical farming.
History of the Earth Sciences at Southeast Missouri State University
Authors: Unfer Louis
Published: April 2015

The history of Southeast Missouri State University parallels that of other teacher education institutions. It started as Southeast Missouri Normal School in 1873 and reached university status in 1972. A department of Geology and Geography was established in 1909, becoming the Geography Department in 1915. In 1924, the sciences were combined into the Science Department. In 1960, this became the Division of Science and Mathematics and the Department of Earth Sciences was formed.

An earth science major began in 1937, with separate geology and geography majors established in 1958. Recently the Department has developed more specialized, job-oriented programs in mining geology and in cartography. Since 1983 the Department has also operated a field camp, headquartered on the campus of Dixie College, St. George, Utah.
The Career of Clarence King
Authors: Tarbell D. , Tarbell Ann
Published: April 2015

As the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey Clarence King had significant influence on the development of American geology. From his first professional work, in 1863, until he died, in 1901, King was a leading figure within the American geological community. Although he was always interested in geology, King's career reflects personal concerns that had little, if anything, to do with science. Some of these personal factors and personal values can be identified. Examining them provides insight into the complexity of scientific careers in the late nineteenth century.
Early Survey Work and the Roots of Geological Education in the Carolinas
Authors: Johnson Markes
Published: April 2015

Since the birth of the first state geological survey in 1823, all fifty of the United States have funded projects related to geology at one time or another. Most states operate vigorous geological surveys today. The first state-sponsored survey in the United States was conducted in North Carolina from 1823 to 1825 by Denison Olmsted and from 1825 to 1827 by Elisha Mitchell. Both were on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The second state survey was carried out by Lardner Vanuxem in South Carolina from 1824 to 1826. At the same time, Vanuxem was professor of geology at the College of South Carolina in Columbia. These individuals were among the first to teach college-level courses related to geology anywhere in the southern states. Indeed, Vanuxem occupied the first chair in geology to be created at a state school in the United States. Summer involvement with state survey work opened new opportunities for active field research, student associates, and the enrichment of the school-year curriculum. Although the initial Carolina surveys were modest, unsophisticated efforts by comparison with projects only a few years later, the general pattern was clearly set for the close, mutually beneficial association of state survey agencies and universities commonly found today.
Plate Tectonics and Biogeography in Historical Perspective
Authors: Greene Mott
Published: April 2015

The uncertain relationship of plate tectonics and biogeography is but the most recent chapter of a history of geoteetonics and biogeography which extends back to the middle of the last century. This history is largely unknown to Anglophone earth scientists, since most of it unfolded in Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria-Hungary. An outline sketch of this history is offered.
Geology and Zoology — A Symbiosis Darwin's Beagle Voyage and Galapagos Experience
Authors: Tasch Paul
Published: April 2015

Darwin's South American fossil collections yielded many insights. in one section he recorded the gradual vertical change in shell characteristics of fossil oysters. The giant fossil vertebrates brought the realization that several were precursors of living species. Contrary to accepted Catastrophism Theory, he inferred that all taxa found fossilized did not become extinct together since the living agouti, among others, had fossil precursors. He envisioned the way an existing molluscan fauna and its sedimentary matrix could be transformed into fossiliferous rocks reminiscent of the Tertiary, and also speculated about the kinds of fossils that the Galapagos biota would yield in some future rock column.

Volcanic islands (Galapagos Archipelago and others) were linked in Darwin's thought to the appearance of "peculiar" taxa inhabiting these "mere spots" in the sea. Were these migrants from the nearest continents? If so, why were they so distinctive while carrying the imprint of their place of origin? If not, how did these four-legged and other terrestrial creatures get to the islands? Were the archipelagos ever united to the continents? Gradually Darwin was led to a continent-archipelago-continent concept. Continents were elevated archipelagos. (He had the Andean volcanoes in mind.) Archipelagos were submerged remnants of continents. He incorporated into this concept the rise and extinction of species: elevation of archipelagos were the "best nurseries" for appearance of new taxa, while subsidence of continents generally led to extinction of extant forms.
Nineteenth Century Views on the Australian Marine Permian
Authors: Archbold N.
Published: April 2015

Marine Permian sequences and faunas are widely distributed on the Australian continent and Tasmania. Marine fossils were found in eastern Australia as early as 1804 and were first described in 1825. Progressive investigations during the nineteenth century established the essential constituents of the eastern Australian faunas and the general nature of the sedimentary sequences. Nevertheless the faunas were invariably ascribed by local stratigraphers to the Carboniferous System, or after 1879 when the term Permo-Carboniferous was introduced by Robert Etheridge Jr, to the latter age. Rarely, a Permian age was indicated for the sequence.

Western Australian Marine faunas were not studied systematically until the 1880s and available collections were small. However, even these early studies revealed few similarities with eastern faunas. Western faunas were invariably referred to the Carboniferous Period until well into the twentieth century.
The Development of Chemical Geology in the Nineteenth Century with Special Reference to the Situation in Britain
Authors: Hamilton Beryl
Published: April 2015

The overlapping field of interest of geology and chemistry varied in extent and degree throughout the nineteenth century. In the ‘heroic’ days of geology, at the beginning of the century, there was a close relationship, with chemists of note displaying not only an interest but a considerable expertise in geology. Geologists who were interested in crystalline rocks, caught up in the Neptunist/Vulcanist debate, dealt with chemical aspects of their subject as a matter of course. This pattern of work persisted throughout the century on the continent of Europe, but in Britain, for a wide variety of reasons, geologists used chemical data and techniques very little, and petrology in that country suffered accordingly. However, in the second half of the century, as advances were made in the technology used by geology, especially with the polarising microscope, in the education of professional geologists and the dissemination of knowledge from Europe and the Americas, the situation improved, so much so that, by the last two decades of the century British petrology had absorbed chemical geology into its armory of skills and knowledge and was on a par with geology from elsewhere in the world.
The Multiple Glaciation Debate1 The Canadian Perspective, 1880-1900
Authors: Eagan William
Published: April 2015

While geologists in the United States were engaged in a debate about the multiple glaciation of the North American continent, geologists in Canada were still debating the more basic concept of continental glaciation itself. Inhibited by the political setting of Canada, with western development well behind that of the United States, and by the British allegiance and dominating personality of Sir William Dawson of McGill, the Canadians were decidedly behind their American colleagues in their interpretation of glacial phenomena. Only with a younger generation of Canadians utilizing American periodicals and ideas in the early 1890's did Canadian glacial geology come into agreement with the ideas used in the United States.
John Mason Clarke: James Hall's Protégé - Successor
Authors: Fisher Donald
Published: April 2015

John Mason Clarke, the successor to James Hall as State Paleontologist of New York, was both similar and dissimilar to his mentor in his approach to paleontology and paleontologists. Both were intensely passionate in their pursuit of paleontological research. However, their opposing personalities mandated that they travel vastly differing avenues toward implementing the accomplishments of the New York State Geological Survey and State Museum during their respective eras.
"I would have sworn my life on your interpretation:" James Hall, Sir William Logan and the "Quebec Group"
Authors: Eagan William
Published: April 2015

The establishment of a stratigraphic succession for the Paleozoic rocks south of Quebec City created a bitter international confrontation in the 1860's. Establishing the geological framework for Canada after 1842, Sir William Logan relied on the system of nomenclature established by the New York Geological Survey and James Hall. Moreover, in elaborating a stratigraphic succession for the Quebec rocks, Logan drew directly on Hall's paleontological expertise. Their combined skills contributed to a coherent column for the "Quebec Group." Yet in 1861 new trilobite evidence proved the column wrong, created a strident conflict between Logan and Hall, dragged them into the "Taconic" controversy and seriously damaged their close working relationship.
Robert Parr Whitfield: Hall's Assistant Who Stayed too Long
Authors: Batten Roger
Published: April 2015

R. P. Whitfield was born near Utica in 1828. He had no formal education. He was deeply committed to natural history and joined a Utica society at 17 and bought a microscope and soon became well known as a naturalist illustrator. At 20 years of age he began working in a scientific instrument business at Utica and within a year became a partner. He caught the attention of Col. Jewett, a curator of the State Cabinet and joined the Hall paleontology group in 1856. He was Hall's chief illustrator for 10 years, gradually learning the trade and becoming Hall's chief assistant. In 1869, trouble developed over the authorship of a paper on Devonian clams and their relationship quickly deteriorated to the point that Whitfield looked for a position elsewhere, securing such at the American Museum of Natural History in 1877. Even when he left, Hall accused him of breach of contract but evidence indicates that Hall knew that he had the job in New York following the purchase of Hall's collection by the American Museum of Natural History. Whitfield became an active producer of papers on a wide variety of paleontology averaging 3-4 per year and became a major influence in Paleontology in the 1880-1900 period. He died shortly after he was retired at the age of 82 in 1910.
William Barton Rogers and the First Geological Survey of Virginia, 1835 - 1841
Authors: Milici Robert , Hobbs C.
Published: April 2015

Virginia was the fifth state in the United States to establish a geological survey. Support for this bold venture to develop the state's mineral wealth came from the Geological Society of Pennsylvania, several prominent Virginia citizens, and county legislators. On March 6, 1835 the General Assembly passed an act to authorize a geological reconnaissance. Shortly thereafter William Barton Rogers was appointed to direct the survey, as well as being elected to the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Within a nine-month period he prepared a report on limestones, sandstones, granites, slates, soapstones, coal, ores of iron, copper, gold, and other materials having economic potential. This report influenced the legislature to give financial support to the survey through April 1842. He prepared six annual reports and numerous papers and in 1853 left Charlottesville for Boston, Massachusetts, where he founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rogers identified several rock units using stratigraphic names correlative with those in Pennsylvania and New York. His works were among the first to deal with igneous and metamorphic rocks in the state. He and his brother, Henry Darwin Rogers, made the first major structural synthesis of the Appalachian chain, recognizing inverted folds and reverse faults. Rogers' works were used as a basis of the development of Virginia geology and mineral resources beyond his demise in 1882. Emma Rogers, his wife, compiled his papers and reports, a vital legacy published in 1884.

William and Henry were in constant contact with one another and many other geologists during their years of study in the Appalachian mountains. Indeed, they relied heavily upon Conrad and Hall of New York for detailed paleontologic and stratigraphic work, which they applied to their own areas in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Henry Rogers and James Hall of the Pennsylvania and New York Geological Surveys, 1836 to 1842
Authors: Hoskins Donald
Published: April 2015

The Pennsylvania and New York Geological Surveys received authorization in 1836, within days of each other. Their authorization ended in 1842, within a few months of the other. Largely through the indomitable characters of James Hall and Henry Rogers, after authorization lapsed, both Surveys continued and produced large, important volumes on the geology of their respective states that set the framework for much of the later geological survey work of the Appalachians.

New York had its John Dix, who was the Secretary of State, and Pennsylvania had its Charles Trego, Member of the House of Representatives - both government officials who shaped the course of each Survey. But the differences in the Paleozoic rocks - thin, ubiquitously horizontal and replete with fossils in New York; thick, repetitively folded and faulted, with fewer well-preserved fossils, in Pennsylvania - determined the approaches and results of these Surveys.

From the efforts of the State Geologists of New York and Pennsylvania, along with Edward Hitchcock of Massachusetts, was born the Association of American Geologists, this later to became the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Not all of the interactions between the two surveys were to be so cooperative. Hall sought to obtain other states' information for his maps. Refused by Henry Rogers, Hall circumvented him by contacting Charles Trego, who later became an impediment to Rogers' plans for publication of the Pennsylvania reports.
Luminaries of the Albany Era: Beecher, Schuchert, and Hall
Authors: Cloud Preston
Published: April 2015

James Hall of Albany, Director of the New York State Museum from 1866 until his death at 86 in 1897 was the most noted American geologist and paleontologist of his time. He originated the geosynclinal concept of mountain-building and ideas of gravity-mass-movement. He became the 19th century's most productive paleontologist by dint of unsparing drive, coupled with high ability and the talent and labors of six unusual "personal assistants".

Among the latter were two gifted and dedicated Charleses, Beecher and Schuchert, who later established invertebrate paleontology at Yale and made it the North American mecca of the field for many years. Beecher, comfortably raised, well educated, biologically focussed, tragically short-lived, preceded his close friend and successor in Hall's employ, Schuchert, son of an impoverished immigrant cabinet maker, with only a primary school education, was geologically inclined, and long-lived. Coming to New Haven as he did, after 10 years of experience with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, as well as his time in Albany, Schuchert provided the ideal complement to Beecher. Both were fine collectors, preparators, and illustrators as well as first rate scientists. Both became renowned scientists in their time. And both enriched the global scientific heritage with their publications.

The Albany School was clearly the place to launch a career in paleontology during the last half of the 19th century. The subsequent lives of Beecher and Schuchert testify to that.
The Foundations of South Australian Geology : 1802-1860
Authors: Corbett David
Published: April 2015

The Colony of South Australia was founded at a time when the science of geology was developing rapidly and increasing in popularity among all levels of society. Adelaide, the foundation city, had good reason to foster its 'sense of difference' from the other colonies in Australia, being largely isolated from them, but also, and more significantly, because it had been established by free settlers. Among these was a group of well-educated men concerned with geological matters - partly from necessity and the need to locate useful natural resources but equally, imbued with a well-developed sense of intellectual curiosity. The early observations were made by explorers, surveyors and interested laymen who applied their imported concepts and ideas in the new and unknown land. Their writings reflect the varied strands of current thought during this formative period in the history of geology and their investigations, though uncoordinated, provided a foundation upon which later workers were able to build as the century progressed.
Geophysics in Australia
Authors: Doyle H.
Published: April 2015

Geophysical observations began in Australia with the arrival of the first European explorers in the late 18th Century and there have been strong connections with European and North American geophysics ever since, both in academic and exploration geophysics. Government institutions, particularly the Bureau of Mineral Resources, have played a large part in the development of the subject in Australia, certainly more so than in North America. Academic research in geophysics has been dominated by that at the Australian National University. Palaeomagnetic research at the Australian National University has been particularly valuable, showing the large northerly drift of the continent in Cainozoic times as part of the Australia-India plate. Heat flow, electrical conductivity and upper mantle seismic velocities have been shown to be significantly different between Phanerozoic eastern Australia and the Western Shield. Geophysical exploration for metals and hydrocarbons began in the 1920s but did not develop strongly until the 1950s and 1960s. There are relatively few Australian geophysical companies and contracting companies, and instrumentation from North America and Europe have played an important role in exploration. Exploration for metals has been hampered by the deep weathered mantle over much of the continent, but the development of pulsed (transient) electromagnetic methods, including an Australian instrument (SIROTEM), has improved the situation. Geophysics has been important in several discoveries of ore-bodies. In hydrocarbon exploration the introduction of common depth point stacking and digital recording and processing in reflection surveys have played an important part in the discovery of offshore and onshore fields, as in other countries.
A History of Geological Exploration in the Canning Basin, Western Australia
Authors: Passmore V. , Towner R.
Published: April 2015

The Canning Basin in northern Western Australia is a large, relatively remote, mainly desert-covered Phanerozoic basin covering 595 000 sq km. Aborigines probably first entered the basin area 30-40 000 years ago, but the main European expeditions were not until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Geological exploration in the basin has been largely devoted to the discovery and exploitation of natural resources, primarily oil. Earliest geological traverses were conducted by geologists of the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA). The accidental discovery of traces of oil in a water well in 1919 in the northern part of the basin diverted exploration to assessment of sediments and structures for petroleum potential. The earliest phase of oil exploration was a pioneering phase, concentrating on surface mapping and surface delineated structures as drilling sites, that was dominated by the Freney Kimberley Oil Company. West Australia Petroleum Ltd became the most active oil exploration company in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, using geophysics as an exploration tool in petroleum search in the basin. The late 1970s and 1980s saw an influx of companies and the application of diverse scientific approaches to the oil search. Persistence was rewarded in 1981 and 1982 with the discovery of the Blina and Sundown fields, small commercial oil accumulations. Commonwealth Government involvement in exploration was initially in the form of financial aid to exploring companies or commissioning specialist consultants for special studies. In the 1940s and 1950s and again in the 1970s the Bureau of Mineral Resources carried out basin-wide regional geological mapping in conjunction with the GSWA; onshore and offshore geophysical surveys were conducted until the 1970s. Exploration has revealed exploitable resources in the basin besides oil - diamonds, lead-zinc, coal, salt, phosphate, uranium, and heavy minerals. Only lead-zinc has present economic viability.
A History of Geology and Geological Education in China (to 1949)
Authors: Zhang Dazheng , Faul Carol
Published: April 2015

References to geology are in the earliest Chinese writings. However, the literature was little disseminated-and mostly unknown to the rest of the world until recently.

The purpose of the imperial examination system, which began in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), was to select government officials- and thus greatly influenced topics studied by ambitious Chinese, The natural sciences were not included, and even mathematics was eventually excluded. Therefore, education in the sciences was neglected and the study of geology was virtually ignored.

It was not until late in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that the government formulated a policy to introduce foreign science and technology into China. Modern geologic ideas were introduced with the establishment of technical schools and the translation into Chinese of works by James D. Dana and Charles Lyell during the 1870s. Early in the twentieth century, foreign geology teachers were brought to China and Chinese students were sent to foreign countries to study geology. This infusion successfully developed the modern teaching and practice of geology in China.
America's First Commercial Oil Well Shepherd
Authors: Shepherd Russell
Published: April 2015

The first commercial oil well in North America was drilled with a spring pole rig in 1818 by Marcus Huling on the South Fork of the Cumberland River in McCreary County, Kentucky. The well was 200 feet deep and flowed at the surface. The discovery was reported in the fall of 1818 in the newspaper Argus of Western America, and in a letter written by Huling in 1820. Oil from the well was sold locally and also in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. Two thousand gallons were exported to Europe. Comparison of early geologic and structure sections and maps with recent publications and field data indicates that, in contrast to previous interpretations, the accumulation, in the Big Lime, is stratigraphically controlled. Today oil can be sampled from a well at the site, now in a National River Recreation Area. Employing formal definitions, the Beatty well may become generally recognized as the first-documented comercial oil well in North America, even though it was originally drilled for salt.
The Evolution of Creationism
Authors: Armstrong John
Published: April 2015

Creationist campaigns have Increasingly confronted pluralistic democracies during the past three decades. The combination of biblical literalism, anti-evolutionary bias and radical diluvial theories had already influenced Christian fundamentalism for half a century, but the impact multiplied when leaders with advanced degrees asserted a scientific basis, established international organizations to market their views in all media, debated, lobbied, went to court. Their movement is a small minority, not only among those who have studied science, but among biblical believers: most of twenty three plaintiffs opposed to creationist legislation at Little Rock, Arkansas in 1981 represented churches and synagogues. Creationism developed in reaction to trends in religion, philosophy and science, and to the very diversity of perspectives. It adapted theories from past centuries, evolved despite denial of evolution; declared a simple dichotomy rather than a complex spectrum; used "creation" and "evolution" as shibboleths for a host of underlying issues. Concepts and alienation from mainstream science were nearly complete before Darwinian theory began: these roots, hidden by recent rhetoric, are examined here, together with the distinctive biblical interpretation pattern; the schism is traced to a dispute within diluvialism.
Historical Aspects of Agassiz's Lectures on Glacial Geology (1860-61)
Authors: Dexter Ralph
Published: April 2015

Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) is regarded as one of the founders of glacial geology and the originator of the ice-age theory. His public lectures and popular writings included those topics. In 1860-61 he gave a series of class-room lectures on glacial geology to his students at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Excerpts have been made to show his explanation for the formation of glaciers, their movements, seasonal advancement and retreat, and their eventual covering of much of the earth. Also included were the structure of the glacier, its production of moraines, and its action on bedrocks and the landscape. He gave credit to his predecessors and colleagues, especially de Saussure, Venetz, and de Charpentier, for their pioneering work on glaciers. Brief attention was given to the effect of glaciers on the fauna, according to his interpretation, following the catastrophism theory of Cuvier.
Uranium Bicentenary
Authors: Kupsch Walter , Strnad Jiří(George)
Published: April 2015

September 24, 1989, will mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the discovery and naming of the chemical element uranium. In light of the prominent place uranium now holds in serving as a source for energy it is appropriate to recall the work of the chemist Martin Klaproth in Berlin in the year of the French Revolution.