1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782759403321

Autore

Pyne Stephen J. <1949->

Titolo

Grove Karl Gilbert [[electronic resource] ] : a great engine of research / / by Stephen J. Pyne

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, c2007

ISBN

1-58729-754-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (321 p.)

Collana

American land and life series

Disciplina

550.92

B

Soggetti

Geologists - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Originally published: Austin : University of Texas Press, c1980.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-[295]) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Author's Note to the Paperback Edition; Preface and Acknowledgments; 1. In a Nutshell; The Education of a Classicist; A Clerk in the Cosmos; Of Mastodons and Mathematics: The Cohoes Potholes; Cracking the Nutshell; 2. "Astride the occidental mule"; A Volunteer Assistant; "Labels written by the Creator": John Strong Newberry; "Hydrographical peculiarities"; West with Wheeler; "A systematic approach": The Geology of a Reconnaissance; The Lieutenant and the Major; 3. The Major Years; "The western fever"; By Virtue of Its Ensemble: Powell, Dutton, Gilbert

"Certain allied problems in mechanics": The Henry MountainsLanguages for a New Geology: Mechanics, Mathematics, Literature; The Society of a Geologist; 4. A Great Engine of Research; The Division of the Great Basin; The Revolving Chair: Chief Geologist of the U.S.Geological Survey; The Scientist as Aristocrat: George Ferdinand Becker; Lake Bonneville; Time's Ratio: The Meaning of Geologic History; "A little daft on the subject of the moon"; The Great Basin Mess; 5. Grade; A "buried star"; The Mean Plain; The Inculcation of Scientific Method

The Text for a University Science: Thomas Chrowder ChamberlinAn Elder Statesman; 6.  The Inculcation of Grove Karl Gilbert; Geophysics in the Giant Forest; Gilbert the Glaciologist; Gilbert the Geophysicist; Gilbert the Geomorphologist; The Cycle of Erosion: William Morris Davis; A New Life; Notes; Sources; Biographical Memoirs; Index

Sommario/riassunto

As Stephen Pyne reveals in his biography, few other scientists can



match Grove Karl Gilbert's range of talents. A premier explorer of the American West who made major contributions to the cascade of new discoveries about the earth, Gilbert described two novel forms of mountain building, invented the concept of the graded stream, inaugurated modern theories of lunar origin, helped found the science of geomorphology, and added to the canon of conservation literature.