SESSION NO. 56, 8:00 AM
Monday, October 28, 2002
History of Geology
Colorado Convention Center, A20756-1 8:00 AM Rosenberg, Gary D.
FORM AND FORMLESS: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY DRAWINGS OF ROCKS IN EUROPE AND CHINA AND THE PATHS TOWARDS MODERN GEOSCIENCE AND SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
ROSENBERG, Gary D., Indiana Univ/Purdue Univ - Indianapolis, 723 W Michigan St, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5132, grosenbe@iupui.edu
By the 17th Century, the century of Steno, the artistic depiction of rocks as natural objects had clearly begun to diverge from purely aesthetic illustration in Europe. Geometric perspective feelitated the illustration of form and appearance of rocks and projected a line of art towards the development of modern geosciences. No such separation took place in China, where illustration was a path towards spiritual enlightenment, even as it emulated the processes of nature along the way. The purpose here is to present a few of the milestones of illustration along both the Western and Eastern paths,
On the Western path are Bosse (1602-1676) and Desargues'(1591-1661) three-dimensional illustrations of quarry stones drawn in 1648 that firmly connect geometric perspective to the scientific description of rocks. Other examples include Serlio's (1475-1554) mid 16th Century drawings of theater sets that show that an awareness of the lateral continuity of strata was not confined to the early Renaissance genius of Leonardo.
At the same time, China formalized centuries of two-dimensional, calligraphic depictions of rocks in influential treatises such as The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (1679) that prescribed standard techniques of drawing rocks to illustrate Taoist principles, most notably how to paint the "three faces of a rock" in order to transmit its living quality or ch'i, rather than its surface characteristics and three dimensional structure. Similarly, Tung Chi'ich'ang (1 555-1636) and his predecessors canonized techniques of abstraction that best conveyed the Taoist philosophy that objects do not have a form of their own but are in a constant state of flux to other, often unrelated, entities, a concept which also is manifest in China's development of geobotanical prospecting.
For more than a millennium, Chinese geology had surpassed that of Western Europe, but by the end of the Renaissance, geometric perspective helped put Europe on a line towards preeminence in the geosciences.
56-2 8:15 AM Cutler, Alan H.
NICOLAUS STENO, SPONTANEOUS GENERATION, AND THE GREAT FOSSIL DEBATE
CUTLER, Alan H., Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, ahcutier@aol.com
During the Renaissance and Early Modern period a popular explanation for fossil marine shells found in mountains and regions distant from the sea was the Aristotelean doctrine of spontaneous generation. In his History of Animals Aristotle wrote that mollusks and other "non-copulative" organisms reproduced exclusively by spontaneous generation and would necessarily arise in abundance wherever conditions were appropriate, Salty desert soils and limey mountain bedrock, if infiltrated by meteoric water, could mimic the conditions in marine sediments and therefore give rise to populations of mollusks, which would then die and petrify in situ, creating fossil beds. The Prodromus on Solids (1 669) by Nicolaus Steno (1 638-1686) is generally acknowledged to be the foundational text of paleontology with its decisive critique of inorganic theories of fossil growth in situ, favored by many prominent scientists of the day. But the Prodromus alludes only briefly to spontaneous generation. There is evidence, however, that contemporary research and arguments against spontaneous generation helped frame Steno's thinking about the origin of fossils. During the period of Steno's initial studies of fossils he collaborated closely with Francesco Redi, who was then engaged in his famous experiments refuting the spontaneous generation of insects. Steno was also in close contact with the microscopicists Jan Swammerdam and Marcello Malpighi, who were studying the reproductive biology of various invertebrates and plants. Coupled with Steno's own anatomical work on reproductive biology, this likely led Steno to rule out spontaneous generation at the outset of his study, allowing him to focus on distinguishing organic from inorganic growths. Interestingly, it was in the context of the spontaneous generation debates that Malpighi defended Steno's theories on fossils and strata, and it was likely through him and his students that these ideas were passed down to later generations of Italian geologists, culminating with Giovanni Arduino, who 1760 laid the foundations for our present geologic timescale.
56-3 8:30 AM Newcomb, Sally E.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SERPENTINE ANALYSES AND THEIR MEANING
NEWCOMB, Sally E., 13120 Two Farm Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20904, senewcomb@earthlink.net
Geology began as a study of the earth from a rich diversity of sources. In the eighteenth century, as now, a multitude of disciplines, from micro to macro, coalesced to answer questions about the planet we live on. By that time, mineral analysis had been practiced for several centuries. The aim was to find materials of value or of advantage to health, but curiosity about the building blocks of matter was also evident. However, an activity that might appear to be focused on the small and limited also illuminated some larger questions about conditions of rock origin.
Serpentine was called ophite or smaragdus from antiquity onward, both names having other meanings as well. D'arcet (1771) was one of those who detailed its behavior during analysis "in the dry way" (fusing). Almost concurrently there were wet analyses by Margraff, Bergman, Klaproth, Bayen, and others. While the analyses were not always consistent, and sometimes differed with respect to composition, they were part of the expanding knowledge base of geology. In 1833 Bakewell reported the same numerical analysis of serpentine that he had published in 1813, with additional comments about its significance. Notably important during these and other mineral analyses was Margraff's initial use of the flame test to distinguish potassium and sodium. He had also confirmed the difference between magnesium and calcium, These elements, and aluminum, would later be used to conjecture about environments of rock origin and the relations of minerals to each other.
56-4 8:45 AM Norwick, Stephen A.
THE IMAGE OF THE PLANET EARTH AS AN ACTIVE AGENT IN JAMES HUTTON'S THEORY OF THE EARTH WITH PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
NORWICK, Stephen A., Environmental Studies and Planning, Sonoma State Univ, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, norwick@sonoma.edu
James Hutton used eight metaphors for the whole of nature in his most famous book: the great flux of nature, the Macrocosmic - Microcosmic analogy, nature as a machine, nature as a book, the fabric of nature, Mother Nature, The Creation, and the globe of the planet, all of which were commonly used by other scientists of his day. In the last case, he seems to have been the person who developed the image of the planet as an active ecological and geophysical agent. This last image is in keeping with the feeling of the rock cycle, and the continuous habitability of the earth. A computerized search of most of the major prose literary works in English including almost the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1 340-1400), Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1471), the Sainted Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), John Webster (1580?-1625?), Sir lzaak Walton (1 593-1683), John Bunyan (1628-1688), Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), John Milton (1608-1674), John Dryden (1631-1700), Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), William Congreve (1670-1729), Sir Richard Steele (l 672-1729), Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Gilbert White (1720-1793), Tobias Smollett (1721-1771), Hutton's friend, Adam Smith (1723-1790), Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Thomas Paine (1737-1809), James Boswell (17401795), Richard Sheridan (1751-1816), William Blake (1757-1827), Robert Burns (1759-1796), Mary Wolistonecraft Shelly (1759-1797), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) has found no earlier use of the image of planet earth as an active agent. Beside English, Hutton read and wrote Latin, French and Chinese, and perhaps German. The next step in this study should be an examination of major works available in etext in Latin and French.
56-5 9:00 AM Dean, Deannis R.
J.D. FORBES AND NAPLES
DEAN, Deannis R., 834 Washington St, Evanston, IL 60202
Although we customarily think of Forbes as being primarily a glaciologist, he came earlier to public notice as the author of a lengthy series of articles on the volcanic phenomena of Naples. His major topics included Vesuvius, Somma, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae, the supposed Temple of Jupiter Serapis, the Solfatara, the Phlegraean Fields, Monte Nuovo, Procida, Ischia, and related phenomena. Although much of what he says is no longer surprising, some of his opinions (or those he opposes) perhaps are. Ami Bou6, in France, spoke well of Forbes's Neapolitan observations, as did Cherie Lyell in the first edition of Principles of Geology (1830-1833).
56-6 9:15 AM Bobeck, Patricia
HENRY DARCY AND THE PUBLIC FOUNTAINS OF THE CITY OF DIJON
BOBECK, Patricia, Geotechnical Translations, 1601 Barn Swallow Drive, Austin, TX 78746, pbobeck@texas.net
Henry Darcy's law of fluid flow through porous media forms the basis of hydrogeology.
Experiments on water flow through sand led Darcy to formulate the empirical law published in l856 as an appendix to his book Les Fontaines publiques de la ville de Dijon, Darcy wrote the book as a guide for engineers charged with constructing water supply systems. A recent English translation of Darcy's 650-page book provides valuable information on the historical context of Darcy's accomplishments and on Darcy the man.
Darcy describes how, as Engineer of the Corps of Bridges and Roads assigned to his native city, he gauged nearby springs and selected an abundant spring to divert to Dijon via a 12-km underground aqueduct. He built two reservoirs, 13 kilometers of pipes and 115 street fountains in Dijon. These fountains supplied free water for all inhabitants, water for flushing the streets, and water for fire pumps.
The book contains 4 parts and an appendix. Part 1 is a description of the historical water situation of Dijon and attempts to provide water for the city. Part 2 discusses the construction of
the aqueduct and the internal distribution system. Part 3 presents experiments that Darcy conducted on the aqueduct and distribution system. Part 4 discusses the appropriation of the springs, which belonged to a nearby village. The appendix contains eight sections on such topics as the water supply systems of London and major French cities, artificial and natural filtration of river water, and pipe making. A separate 28-plate atlas includes drawing of the components of the Dijon water supply system, the Pitot tube, and the apparatus Darcy used for his experiments on water flow though sand.
56-7 9:30 AM McKinney, Kevin C.
CD-ROM DIGITAL ARCHIVE- REPORT UPON THE COLORADO RIVER OF THE WEST EXPLORED IN 1857 AND 1858 BY LIEUTENANT JOSEPH C. IVES, GEOLOGICAL REPORT WITH MAPS BY JOHN S. NEWBERRY
MCKINNEY, Kevin C., U.S. Geol Survey, Denver Federal Center, MS 913, Denver, CO 80225, kcmckinney@usgs.gov
Dams, irrigation projects and water rights keep the Colorado River in the limelight. This CD-ROM is a digital copy of the Ives Report (1857-1858) of the lower Colorado River, It includes both topographical maps and rarely seen geological maps. The report is the first systematic scientific survey of the region. Ives compiled the general and hydrographic reports; Newberry the geology, Gray, Torrey, Thurber and Engelmann the botany, and Baird the zoology. The expedition's detailed meteorological records are in the appendix. This empirical study best reflects the unfettered regional southwestern environment.
Lt. Ives prepared a remarkably detailed report of the expedition travails. In a series of chromo-lithographs and woodcut illustrations, M611hausen romantically captured the Grand Canyon's awesome towering cliffs, mesas, and colorful native tribes. Perhaps the two greatest derivatives of the expedition's report were Newberry's Geology Report and Egloffstein's newly developed shaded relief maps. Newberry's report covers his entire geologic reconnaissance: from the Coast Range of California near San Francisco; to the rendezvous with Lt. Ives in Fort Yuma, Arizona; through the Grand Canyon; to wagon roads to Santa Fe, New Mexico; and finally to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Newberry was the first geologist to examine and report upon the Grand Canyon, and the first to recognize its geologic antiquity. Newberry accumulated compelling evidence for his geologic origins thesis from viewing the tilted strata below the mesa tops and water-eroded valleys displaying the fundamental principal of superposition of geologic strata. Along the riverside trails Newberry gathered fossils that certified the various rock ages. His report includes three plates of fossils from the Canyon country. Additionally, Newberry created the first geological maps of the Lower Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.
The Ives Report is one of the finest reports prepared by the Army Topographical Corps. Like the Colorado River, the Ives Report is an endangered national treasure. The lure of collecting Western Americana prints and maps has dealt a crippling blow to the preservation of classic books such as the Ives volume. The CD-ROM medium makes contents of rare books readily accessible to current researchers with a desktop computer.
56-8 10:00 AM Newell, Julie R.
TO SEE AND BE SEEN: TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICAN GEOLOGY
NEWELL, Julie R., Social and International Studies Program, Southern Polytechnic State Univ, 1100 S. Marietta Parkway, Marietta, GA 30060, inewell@spsu.edu
In the 1830s and early 1840s, the American geological community was struggling to define itself and its place in both the American context and the context of international science. That American context included explicit and self-conscious attempts to define and defend "American" culture and re-define America's social structure. American geologists found themselves negotiating appropriate patterns of deference and authority in both the American and the international contexts. American experiences with two British geologists in particular provide insight into these tensions and the ways in which they were--or were not-resolved. George William Featherstonhaugh (1 780-1866) and Charles Lyell (1 797-1875) visited the United States in the 1830s and 1840s, and their activities generated telling conflicts. Henry Darwin Rogers (18041882) provides a useful case study of an American who made the geological journey across the Atlantic in the opposite direction at approximately the same time.
56-9 10:15AM Pees, Samuel T
A BANNER YEAR IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF OIL, 1865
PEES, Samuel T., Samuel T. Pees & Associates, 628 Arch Street, Suite A-104, Meadville, PA 16335-2339, spees@toolcity.net
Two major events in the transportation of oil and refined products occurred in the United States in 1865: the advent of the pipeline and the introduction of the railway tank car. Both of these inventions, having undergone successful "-outs, enabled the oil industry to economically distribute crude oil from wilderness fields to centers of refining and commerce.
The first successful long distance pipeline (about five miles) was the Van Syckel two-inch line laid during 1865 in difficult terrain from the new Pithole field westward to a RR terminal at Miller Farm on the west bank of Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. Using three Reed and Cogswell steam pumps this line began to pump oil on October 10, 1865, at the rate of approximately 2000 barrels per day. A fourth pump brought the delivery of oil up to 2500 barrels daily. This event was a transportation and economic miracle. Drillers were enabled to explore for oil in distant, even seemingly inaccessible places knowing that a pipeline could find its way to the strike and enable the new oilfield to develop.
In 1865 the railroads saw the first tank car. It consisted of two 40 barrel wooden tanks mounted over the trucks on a flat bed. Invented by the Densmore Brothers, oil buyers at Miller Farm, the wooden tank cars proliferated. Much of the oil that they carried to the seaboard had started its journey in the Van Syckel pipeline.
The year 1865 saw the 42 gallon oil barrel start to become a unit of bulk measurement instead of a wooden container.
56-10 10:30 AM Brice, William R.
HENRY S. WILLIAMS (1847-1918)-THOUGHTS ON EVOLUTION
BRICE, William R., Geology & Planetary Science, Univ of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, PA 15904, brice@pitt.edu
A native of Ithaca, Now York, Williams was educated at Yale University and twice served on the faculty of Cornell University, with ten years as a member of the Yale faculty in between his two faculty years at Cornell. Williams is best known for his work in paleontology and stratigraphy. It was through his efforts that in North America the Carboniferous Period was subdivided into the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods. But also, even though he was a devoted Ch@stian, in his own way Williams was a champion of Darwin's idea of the evolutionary process by natural selection. During his first tenure at Cornell, he began to include more and more Darwinian concepts in his paleontology classes. As he gained more and more knowledge of the fossil record, especially about the Devonian brachiopods of New York, he began to wonder about the rate of evolutionary changes; something that still provides a challenge for us today. His conclusion is found in a set of class lecture notes prepared sometime in the 1880S or 1890s, but no later than 1902; notes that he used in his classes at both Cornell and Yale. In these Williams wrote, "if therefore it be a general law (as I have much reason to believe is actually the case) it could be said truthfully in many cases that genera do arise suddenly, geologically speaking, and not by slow and gradual process of evolution." [Parentheses in the original]. His interpretation appears to have been one of very fast evolutionary change, followed by long periods of stability; an idea currently associated with the term "punctuated equilibria," yet H. S. Williams came to this conclusion at least 100 years ago. The main focus of this paper is the development of the idea by Williams and what he did with it later.
56-11 10:45 AM Rowland, Stephen M.
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY IN THE WRITINGS OF MARK TWAIN: A REFLECTION OF THE WOOF AND WARP OF SCIENCE AND AMERICAN CULTURE IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES
ROWLAND, Stephen M., Department of Geoscience, Univ Nevada, Las Vegas, PO Box 454010, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4010, srowland@univ.edu
Mark Twain's life (1835-1910) parallels the rapid development of geology and paleontology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Twain's use of geology and paleontology in his writing evolved along with the science. In the 1860s through the 1880s he sometimes used geological images to embellish a story, but in some of his lesser known works he was aggressively skeptical of the ability of scientists to reconstruct the details of earth history, and he ridiculed the gullibility of journalists and the public in believing the scientists. Twain's skeptical phase coincides with the development of the geologic time scale and the appearance of Darwin's books The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1 871). Twain's skeptical essays may thus be viewed as a reflection of society's struggle to deal with the disturbing new paradigms of deep geologic time and Darwinian evolution. As early as 1870, Twain's private correspondence contains a reference to the insignificance of man in the context of geologic time and cosmic distances. In the 1880s his published writings became increasingly cynical and antagonistic toward Christianity. After 1884 Twain no longer expressed a skeptical attitude toward geology and paleontology in his writings. Rather, he used the emerging insights from these fields to communicate his disillusionment with biblical views. In his 1903 essay "Was the world made for man?" Twain discussed, without the sarcasm of earlier years, the views of Charles Lyell and Lord Kelvin about the age of the earth. In this case he used these views to satirize the biblical perspective that the events of earth history occurred specifically to prepare earth for humans. The evolution of Twain's use of geology and paleontology reflects, and helped to bring about, an increasing credibility and respectability for these fields within American society, at the expense of biblical literalism.
56-12 11:00 AM Allmon, Warren D.
?THE PRE-MODERN HISTORY OF THE POST-MODERN DINOSAUR
ALLMON, Warren D., Paleontological Rsch Institution, 1259 Trumansburg Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850-1398, wdal@cornell.edu
Because of its sheer abundance, the history of dinosaur art closely reflects the history of scientific dinosaur interpretation, and shows very clearly how profoundly those interpretations have changed since dinosaurs were first reconstructed in the 1820s. The history of dinosaur art can be usefully divided into phases. In all of these phases, the style of restoration is governed both by the nature of available fossils and by the theoretical agendas and background of the paleontologists interpreting those fossils. In particular, the shift back and forth between lumbering, lethargic monsters and "hot-blooded", highly active animals seems to have been governed as much by changes in accepted evolutionary theory as by the discovery of new fossils. Richard Owen's Crystal Palace sculptures (1 851 ) reflected his anti-evolutionary (i.e., anti-progressive) view that dinosaurs were just as advanced as mammals. The post-1 859 history of dinosaur reconstruction is more complex than it would at first appear. This is due, in large part, to the complex reaction to Darwinism among practicing paleontologists. As abundant new fossils came to light in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the American West, there followed a period of widely varying views about whether dinosaurs were highly active or "stupid" and ponderous, or both. O.C. Marsh held both views and was likely undecided at the end of his life; E.D. Cope leaned toward the more active model. As paleontological ideas on evolution turned increasingly toward orthogenesis in the early 20th century, the ponderous model assumed increasing dominance, and almost all other ideas on dinosaur metabolism were excluded from the mainstream. The modern synthesis of the 1930S and '40s banished progressive ideas from evolutionary theory (at least officially), but they held on in dinosaur science (and art), essentially requiring that dinosaurs be seen as archaic and poorly adapted. The revolution in dinosaur paleontology that has occurred since 1970 represents in many ways dinosaur science Gatching up to evolutionary theory.
56-13 11:15 AM Elston, Wolfgang E.
WALTER BUCHER'S LAST FIELD TRIP AND CONVERSION TO THE IMPACT ORIGIN OF METEOR CRATER: A TRIBUTE TO AN OPEN MIND
ELSTON, Wolfgang E., Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Univ of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, weelston@earthlink.net
Into the 1960's, Walter H. Bucher (1888-1965) eloquently defended cryptovolcanic origin of explosion structures against R. E. Dietz's astrobleme interpretation, even invoking endogenic control of Meteor Crater by the Holbrook anticline. I was present when E. M. (Gene) Shoemaker changed his mind, on May 2, 1964.
Bucher had arrived armed with anti-impact arguments. H. H. Nininger had described augite in crater ejecta, which reminded Bucher of euhedral pyroxenes scattered at Monument Bufte, a diatreme within sight of Meteor Crater. Gene showed him vesicular droplets of fused Kaibab dolomite with microscopic radial cpx aggregates. Having seen Permian Kaibab limestone at the Grand Canyon, Bucher wondered if dolomite crater ejecta could be Mississippian (Leadville) from depth. Within minutes of arrival, he identified brachiopods in ejecta as Permian. On an earlier visit, he had noted reverse grading in rim ejecta. Gene interpreted this deposit as a Pleistocene terrace. Finally, Gene's meticulous structural mapping convinced Bucher of the realities of the overturned rim and outward thrusts. As we left, he conceded Meteor Crater, "but the Ries, that's different." He died nine months later.
Walter Bucher presciently recognized the planetary importance of cratering and taught all aspects of the problem. Although wrong on impact (and fixed continents), his students fondly remember "Uncle Walt's" enthusiasm, generosity, legendary absentmindedness, and, above all, his open mind. These characteristics are evident in my 1949 Columbia class notes, copies of 1964 letters between Bucher and C. S. Beals (Dominion Observatory, Ottawa) on Canadian craters, personal correspondence about our trip to Meteor Crater, and my recollections of the trip, written shortly afterwards. The evidence for impact cratering and plate tectonics became overwhelming within three years after Bucher's death. Judging by his Meteor Crater conversion at age 76, is it possible that he would have accepted these novelties, had he lived?