Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-05-10
first Official Report of Geological Sur
veyor on the Ground Record
of Quakes in California.


ed States Geological Survey in the
neighborhood of San Francisco at
the tine of the recent earthquake
was G.. K. Gilbert, geologist, who
has been engaged for several months,
in making hydraulic experiments in
the mining labratory of the Uniyer-
sity OF California at Berkely. In
sructions were telegraphed him inn
mediately to make as thorough a
study as possible of the earthquake
phenomena.
Mr.. Gilbert is one of the most ex-
perienced and best known biologists
connected with the Federal Sur
vey. He was with the Ohio Survey
from 1868 to 1870, with the Wheeler
Survey from 1871 to 1874, with the
Powell Survey from 1875 to 1879,
and has been member of the Fed
eral Survey since it's organization in
1879. His writings have been nu-
merous. Chief among them are his
works on Lake Bonneville and the
geology of the Henry Mountains.
His Introduction to Physical Geog-
raphy, which he wrote in collabora-
tion with Prof. A. P. Brigham, is
accepted in the schools of the Unit
ed States and Canada as a standard
text book. He is widely known as a
student of glaciology and has pub
researches into that field have TAX
en- him frequently into the high
sierras of California, so that he is
thoroughly familiar with the geo.
logic history of that state OF his
many papers on glaciologic sub
jects, probably the best known is
his work on Glaciers and Glacia-
ton, which constitutes the third
volume of the reports of the Harri-
man Alaska Expedition, of which
he was member.
Investigation of the earthquake
phenomena at San Francisco will be
congenial subject to Mr.. Gilbert,
since he has already devoted consid-
cradle time and thought to seismo-
logical problems. He is the holder
of a small grant from the Carnegie
Institution for the investigation of
subterranean temperature gradients.
In 1884, he published an article on
the theory of the earthquake of the
Great Basin, in the American Jour
nal of Science; in 1899, he contrib
uted an article on the strength of
the earth's crust to the Bulletin of
the Geological Society of America.
The September number of the Nat
ional Geographic Magazine in 1897
contained an article by Mr.. Gilbert
on the modification of the Great
Lakes by earth movement and in
the eighteenth annual report of the
Director of the Geological Survey,
1898, was included a dissertation by
Mr.. Gilbert on the recent earth
gion. More recently, Mr.. Gilbert
published, in Science, December 10,
1904, an article on the new seismol-
ogy, which was a review of the
work by Major Clarence E. Dutton,
entitled Earthquakes in the Light
of the New Seismology
Volcanic phenomena have also in
terested Mr.. Gilbert. A theory of
the formation of lunar craters was
set forth by him in 1898 in Astron-
omy and Astro-Physics, laccolites
in southeastern Colorado were de-
scribed in the Journal of Geology in
October and November, 1896, and
the mechanism of the Mont Pelee
spine was discussed by him in the
issue of June II, 1904, of Science.
Professor Harry Fielding Reid, of
Johns Hopkins university, who is
in charge of earthquake records for
the United States Geological Sur
vey, has sent out circlar letters
through which he expects to obtain
important scientific data concern
ing the recent earthquake in San
Francisco.
II may iOt OC SCI~i any NiiONNh
that few hundred dollars are de-
voted each year by the Survey to
the collection of records concerning
earthquakes. No very active seis-
biological Investigations have ever
been made by this bureau, but a
small allotment is granted Profess
sor Reid. which enables him 10 cor
respond with observers all over the
country and procure data recorded
on seismorgaphs at many different
points. Reports of his investiga-
tions are published from time TO
time, in the Weather Review, the
official organ of the Weather Blu
reau.
1t is interesting to note that Pro-