death_date death_place work_institution birth_place nationality field birth_date article_title name alma_mater
04 august 1965 los angeles , california united states geological survey auburn , new york american geology 11 november 1882 levi f. noble
 levi fatzinger noble yale university
levi f. noble

levi fatzinger noble -lrb- november 11 , 1882 -- august 4 , 1965 -rrb- was an american geologist .
he was born in 1882 into a prominent and wealthy family of auburn , new york .
he received his bachelor 's degree in 1904 and his doctorate in 1909 , both from yale university .
in 1910 , noble married dorothy evans of pittsburgh , pennsylvania .
as a wedding gift , dorothy 's parents gave them a fruit ranch near valyermo , california , at the foot of the north slope of the san gabriel mountains and athwart the san andreas fault zone .
the ranch was their principal residence for the rest of their lives .
dorothy served as the valyermo postmaster from 1914 to 1930 .
his entire career was spent as a member of the united states geological survey .
upon retirement , he received the interior department 's gold medal for distinguished service .
in his field investigations , which began in 1917 and continued off and on for 45 years , he observed and accurately recorded most of the major geologic features of death valley .
he also is remembered for his studies of precambrian and paleozoic rocks of the grand canyon and as the first to prepare a detailed geologic map of a large part of grand canyon national park .
in addition , he engaged in a long-term investigation of a fifty-mile segment of the san andreas fault .
he was the first to cite evidence for many miles of horizontal displacement along this major structural feature of western north america .
