Repost: Here's to You, Geological Heroes

My DSL lines and WiFi, provided by Frontier (or not provided, as the case may be), are currently quite lousy with 50%-plus packet loss. For some reason, Google pages and products, including this blog, work at least slowly and sporadically, as does the NWS weather site. So I can find out how many calories I'm eating (or drinking) while checking out the latest atmospheric river that has most likely been one of the culprits in decimating my internet connection. I can also do a little research by asking Google questions and submitting search terms. If the answers show up in the blurb accompanying the resulting list of search results, then I'm good; if not, I'm stuck with a list of websites that won't open. Consequently, I can't quite finish the current post I'm working on: It needs a little more research. So I'm reposting a post from 2010: a submittal to the now defunct Accretionary Wedge blog carnival. Here it is.

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The Accretionary Wedge is coming up soon, so my thoughts are naturally turning to Geological Heroes, the topic of this month's Wedge, hosted at Mountain Beltway by Callan Bentley. Callan says,

I invite all participants (geobloggers and geoblog readers alike) to contribute stories of their heroes. It’s time to pay tribute to the extraordinary individuals who helped make your life, your science, and your planet better than they would otherwise have been.

As far as geologic heroes go, I was first thinking that maybe I don't really have any (or maybe I just don't have many personal ones that I feel I can write about on the blog). I thought, therefore, that I'd list two geologists who are heroes to me, although they aren't personal heroes:

• Tanya Atwater - a leading plate tectonicist, geophysicist, geologist, and oceanographer. She is a hero to me by way of being a leading and famous woman in my field (or a related field), one who "is especially well known for her works on the plate tectonic history of western North America, in general, and of the San Andreas fault system, in particular...."
  
  I've not yet had the good fortune to meet her, but long ago (and not very far away) I named a dog belonging to my previous partner and me after her. Upon hearing of this dubious honor from an acquaintance of ours, Tanya A. reportedly said, "Ruff ruff," while making a motion like scratching her ear with a paw.

• Tom Dibblee - a legendary field-mapping man, who mapped "565 quadrangle maps covering over 40,000 square miles, some fourth of the State of California." I first learned of his mapping while working in the Mojave, where his maps cover nearly every square inch of ground and provide the basics and details for every geological map that has come after him. He is known in that region for not having to use a Brunton to take strikes and dips (except when beds were dipping at shallow angles), because his sense of orientation and angle estimation were excellent, such that he was always within a couple degrees. He started mapping when in high school, and never stopped, completing a mapping career of almost 80 years only when he passed away in 2004.

Beyond these two, I was sitting out on the rig one day, and while thinking that I'd just leave this post at a two-person list I realized that the topic "Heroes" was making me think of Waylon and Willie, and I started singing "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."

Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks...

[technically a road song because it mentions trucks] and then that somehow led me into "All My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" followed by "Waylon, Willie, and Me."

Now, not all the lyrics of these three songs are applicable to whatever particular feeling they engendered in me on that recent field day, nor are all of the lyrics particularly applicable to the topic of geological heroes — except that:

When I start thinking about the real geologist heroes I've known over the years — whether male or female — they are rather much like cowboys, or like outlaws: out in the field all day, bouncing around in pickup trucks old and new, doing their own thing, making it on mottos such as "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" or "it's all changed now," running their own programs, districts, and companies, shooting cans, rolling boulders, and participating in other shenanigans that shall go unmentioned here, some of which have involved various forms of (legal in Nevada) explosives.

These more personal heroes of mine include my thesis advisor(s), my major professor, the professor I T.A.'d for, several former professors and T.A.'s, many geologists from both Northern Exploration Company and Former Mining Company and elsewhere, the two Larry's, the two Nancy's (you *know* who you are), most of my former field assistants — one has or is now running her own company, one patented her Hg-gas sniffing method and has run her own lab, one is now running her own exploration group at a major mine, and some have gone on to other things but are nevertheless heroes to me for making it in the "man's field" of exploration and mining geology.

My heroes, over the years and decades, have also included several FOP/Quat people: JODavis, Bud Burke, Marith Reheis, and anyone who was present for the flying Vee in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in 1987 or who made it to the 1991 FOP down in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada.

And then there are some true outlaws or aspiring, wanna-be outlaws — hmm... should these names go unmentioned? (You know who you are: R, BS, JS, PG, S+D, et al.)

Really, when it comes right down to it, there are too many geological heroes to list, refer to, or name, including all the consultants and independents attending the hospitality suites and receptions at Northwest every year, going back to the wild S+D bashes in Spokane some thirty-plus years ago.
And so, here's to you (all of you)...

...from a copy of a print from an original slide taken here at a now burned-down hot spring cabin, by JODavis in the fall of 1981, photo credits to JODavis and LLLackey, photo ©2010 Looking for Detachment, all rights reserved, poem written by SH and CR.

The Spencer Hot Springs cabin, with roomy concrete bathtub and piped in hot water, was burned down later that year or the next, reportedly by the same individuals who, in their over-zealous righteousness crossed out in red marker the name "Asshole" (and other cuss words written on the interior of the cabin) — these individuals were apparently disturbed by the existence of such a den of iniquity as a hot spring where people *gasp* sometimes bathed naked. I don't know who these red-marker people were, nor do I really know that they were the arsonists — but that's the way the story goes.

The original from the 1978 album "Waylon and Willie."

April 2010 Accretionary Wedge: Heroes

Cornelia Clermont Cameron

By way of introduction, this post was originally scheduled for a long-ago second edition of the Diversity in Science Carnival, started by DNLee at Urban Science Adventures! in February, 2009 (1st edition here). The second edition — which highlighted women in science — was published at Thus Spake Zuska in March, 2009 (originally at Sb). The carnival came and went without me publishing this post about Cornelia Cameron, one of the first professional woman geologists I ever met. Now, I have a perfectly good second opportunity, because @JacquelynGill announced a Women in Science blogfest and tweetfest for today! Follow the Twitter Fest at #womeninscience.

I didn't get to work with Cornelia Cameron, but I met her — and saw her in the halls when she wasn't out in the field — when I was at the USGS in Reston part of one year while in between undergrad and grad school. She was only six years older than I am now, was often smiling, and looked sun-leathered from many years of field work. She was practically one of the first women to have a real geological career (not the first, however, read about Mary Anning and others here). The photo, which *no longer* links through to the source (the website looks like it was hacked, so I deleted its URL), was taken when she was working in the Tobacco Range Islands of central America at age 78. You can see another photo of Cornelia here.

Cornelia Cameron was born in 1911, way before my time or yours. She had the extreme good fortune to have both a scientific father and scientific mother. Her father was a professor of natural sciences and a photographer; her mother, Harriet Clearman Cameron, had an M.S. in Geology and had completed courses for a Ph.D. in Botany. Cornelia's father died when she was about 7, so she was raised from then on by her mom.

Cornelia earned a B.A. and M.A. in Botany in 1933 and 1935, and in 1940 she got her Ph.D. in Geology, with an emphasis on geomorphology. She worked for various geological outfits during her career, inlcuding Cities Service Oil Company, the Iowa Geological Survey, and Stephens College. She was at the USGS from 1951 until she died in 1994 at the age of 83. During the height of her career, she was one of the world's foremost experts on peat deposits, and received many awards for her work: the USGS Meritorious Service award in 1977, the DOI Distinguished Service Award in 1986, a Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Iowa in 1987, and DOI's Public Service Recognition Award in 1990. She was also a prolific writer, publishing a total of 110 papers, of which I list very few, below.

As I said earlier, I didn't really know her, but I do know that she was regarded as quite a character, and I heard a few stories about her field adventures when I worked at the USGS. She and her mom were both going into the field together when I was there in 1975 (she was 64, her mom was 103!), and I remember that she was known for having male field assistants to collect rocks and carry packs as needed, a luxury I have had only one time during my career. Here are a couple quotes about Cornelia and her mom (this source):

Until she was 103, the senior Dr. Cameron accompanied her daughter on field expeditions around the world. Dr. Cornelia Cameron herself continued doing field work until a month before her death at 83. Dr. Cameron joked that when her mother got so old that her eyesight had deteriorated, she put a cow bell on her mother in the field, so she could find her mother if she wandered off.

And from Jennifer Harden (same source):

In a story about daughter and mother’s adventurous military terrain investigations in the Caribbean area before the Bay of Pigs invasion (early 1960’s), Dr. Cameron recounted that “Mother and I were a perfect pair. We told everyone that we were Canadian tourists. One time, as I doing traverses along the slopes of one of the islands, Mother stayed in the car. I was upslope from her when I saw a truck full of guerrillas pull up. Mother simply charmed them and they drove off.”

At some point during my research for this post, I read something stating that Harriet Cameron died in September of 1975, shortly after I left the USGS for grad school. If so, the date — either 9/22 or 9/23 according to my notes — would jive with my memory that Cornelia's mom was still going into the field with her while I was there. I can no longer find the reference.

A Few of her many Publications:
Cameron, C.C., 1970, Peat deposits of northeastern Pennslyvania: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1371-A.

Cameron, C.C., 1970, Peat deposits of southeastern New York: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1317-B.

Cameron, C. C., 1970, Peat resources of the unglaciated uplands along the Allegheny Structural Front in West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania: U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 700-D, pp. D153 - D161.

Cameron, C.C., and Palmer, C.A., 1995, The Mangrove Peat of the Tobacco Range Islands, Belize Barrier Reef, central America: Atoll Research Bulletin 431, with a tribute and photo.

Cameron, C. C., 2000, The bogs of Roosevelt Campobello International Park: Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission.

Read more about Cornelia Clermont Cameron:
Levine, Maxine, 2007, Women in Soil Science: AWSS Newsletter, v. 26, no. 3, p. 10-15.

New York Times, 1994, Cornelia Cameron; Peat Expert Was 83: August 10, 1994, Obituaries.

University of Iowa, 1987, Distinguished Alumni Winner: Cornelia Cameron.

University of Iowa, Cornelia Cameron Papers: Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries.

Minor editing 8Mar2012; Links updated 19May2013 and 25Feb2017

Here's to You, Geological Heroes

The Accretionary Wedge is coming up soon, so my thoughts are naturally turning to Geological Heroes, the topic of this month's Wedge, hosted at Mountain Beltway by Callan Bentley. Callan says,

I invite all participants (geobloggers and geoblog readers alike) to contribute stories of their heroes. It’s time to pay tribute to the extraordinary individuals who helped make your life, your science, and your planet better than they would otherwise have been.

As far as geologic heroes go, I was first thinking that maybe I don't really have any (or maybe I just don't have many personal ones that I feel I can write about on the blog). I thought, therefore, that I'd list two geologists who are heroes to me, although they aren't personal heroes:

• Tanya Atwater - a leading plate tectonicist, geophysicist, geologist, and oceanographer. She is a hero to me by way of being a leading and famous woman in my field (or a related field), one who "is especially well known for her works on the plate tectonic history of western North America, in general, and of the San Andreas fault system, in particular... ."
  
  I've not yet had the good fortune to meet her, but long ago (and not very far away) I named a dog belonging to my previous partner and me after her. Upon hearing of this dubious honor from an acquaintance of ours, Tanya A. reportedly said, "Ruff ruff," while making a motion like scratching her ear with a paw.

• Tom Dibblee - a legendary field-mapping man, who mapped "565 quadrangle maps covering over 40,000 square miles, some fourth of the State of California." I first learned of his mapping while working in the Mojave, where his maps cover nearly every square inch of ground and provide the basics and details for every geological map that has come after him. He is known in that region for not having to use a Brunton to take strikes and dips (except when beds were dipping at shallow angles), because his sense of orientation and angle estimation were excellent, such that he was always within a couple degrees. He started mapping when in high school, and never stopped, completing a mapping career of almost 80 years only when he passed away in 2004.

Beyond these two, I was sitting out on the rig one day, and while thinking that I'd just leave this post at a two-person list I realized that the topic "Heroes" was making me think of Waylon and Willie, and I started singing "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."

Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks...

[technically a road song because it mentions trucks] and then that somehow led me into "All My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" followed by "Waylon, Willie, and Me."

Now, not all the lyrics of these three songs are applicable to whatever particular feeling they engendered in me on that recent field day, nor are all of the lyrics particularly applicable to the topic of geological heroes — except that:

When I start thinking about the real geologist heroes I've known over the years — whether male or female — they are rather much like cowboys, or like outlaws: 

Out in the field all day, bouncing around in pickup trucks old and new, doing their own thing, making it on mottos such as "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" or "it's all changed now," running their own programs, districts, and companies, shooting cans, rolling boulders, and participating in other shenanigans that shall go unmentioned here, some of which have involved various forms of (legal in Nevada) explosives.

These more personal heroes of mine include my thesis advisor(s), my major professor, the professor I T.A.'d for, several former professors and T.A.'s, many geologists from both Northern Exploration Company and Former Mining Company and elsewhere, the two Larry's, the two Nancy's (you *know* who you are), most of my former field assistants — one has or is now running her own company, one patented her Hg-gas sniffing method and has run her own lab, one is now running her own exploration group at a major mine, and some have gone on to other things but are nevertheless heroes to me for making it in the "man's field" of exploration and mining geology.

My heroes, over the years and decades, have also included several FOP/Quat people: JODavis, Bud Burke, Marith Reheis, and anyone who was present for the flying Vee in the middle of the Black Rock Desert in 1987 or who made it to the 1991 FOP down in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada.

And then there are some true outlaws or aspiring, wanna-be outlaws — hmm... should these names go unmentioned? (You know who you are: R, BS, JS, PG, S+D, et al.)

Really, when it comes right down to it, there are too many geological heroes to list, refer to, or name, including all the consultants and independents attending the hospitality suites and receptions at Northwest every year, going back to the wild S+D bashes in Spokane some thirty-plus years ago.
And so, here's to you (all of you)...

...from a copy of a print from an original slide taken here at a now burned-down hot spring cabin, by JODavis in the fall of 1981, photo credits to JODavis and LLLackey, photo ©2010 Looking for Detachment, all rights reserved, poem written by SH and CR.

The Spencer's Hot Springs cabin, with roomy concrete bathtub and piped in hot water, was burned down later that year or the next, reportedly by the same individuals who, in their over-zealous righteousness crossed out in red marker the name "Asshole" (and other cuss words written on the interior of the cabin) — these individuals were apparently disturbed by the existence of such a den of iniquity as a hot spring where people *gasp* sometimes bathed naked. I don't know who these red-marker people were, nor do I really know that they were the arsonists — but that's the way the story goes.

The original from the 1978 album "Waylon and Willie."

A live version probably recorded in 1990.

April 2010 Accretionary Wedge: Heroes

Geological Mysteries (Of the Book Kind)

So far, in the Frankie McFarlane mystery series by Susan Cummins Miller, I've read these books, listed by title, publication date, series number; the ones I haven't read yet are in parentheses.

Hoodoo, 2008, #4
Quarry, 2006, #3
Death Assemblage, 2002, #1
Detachment Fault, 2004 #2
(Fracture, scheduled 2011, #5)

In the Em Hansen mystery series by Sarah Andrews, I've read these books, by title, publication date, series number (ones I haven't read are in parentheses):

(Tensleep, 1994, #1)
(A Fall in Denver, 1995, #2)
(Mother Nature, 1997, #3)
An Eye For Gold, 2000, #6
Only Flesh and Bones, 1998, #4
Bone Hunter, 1999, #5
Fault Line, 2002, #7
Killer Dust, 2003, #8
Earth Colors, 2004, #9
Dead Dry, 2005, #10

I read An Eye for Gold first, after the author gave a talk about her books at a GSN meeting in Reno a few years back. I've followed on with several other books by both authors more recently, but not always in the correct order. Reading either of these series in order provides continuity with regard to the heroines' lives, but otherwise isn't necessary (though I do recommend it). At the moment, I'm enjoying the Frankie McFarlane stories more than the Em Hansen stories: the geologists seem more realistic to me, and the books seem to have less of an emphasis on romance than than in the Em Hansen books I've read so far. But I recommend all of them!

I'll try to update my reading of these books on this post - if I remember!

It's Not Too Late!

Video created by The Sneer Review.

It's not too late to vote for GrrlScientist, who blogs at Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted). She's in the running in the Blog Your Way to Antarctica contest, and has been endorsed by many. Tomorrow is the last day to vote!

Vote here! Vote now! It's not too late!

Survey on Women Geoscientists and Blogs

Kim Hannula and several other colleagues are conducting a survey about how women geoscientists use blogs, both as readers of blogs and as blog authors. Please read the official request and statement about the survey at All of My Faults Are Stress Related. Note that while women and minority geoscientists are the main focus of the survey, others are welcome to participate.

Summer Reading List Meme

I haven't been terribly good about finishing books I've started in the last year, so I've taken a few off the list and put them out of my sight, at least for now. Nevertheless, I still have a reading list, including a few re-reads.

• Sweet Promised Land - Robert Laxalt



• Sand: The Never-Ending Story - Michael Welland (his blog is at Through the Sandglass)



• The Hard Road West: History and Geology along the Gold Rush Trail - Keith Heyer Meldahl (my dad has been waiting for me to finish this one so I could respond to his request, "let me know if the geologic history of the Basin and Range is correct
  in the Hard Road [West].")



• A Mine of Her Own: Women Prospectors in the American West, 1850-1950 - Sally Zanjani (I may have read this before in the 1980's)



• Geo-Logic: Breaking Ground between Philosophy and the Earth Sciences - Robert Frodeman (This one looks a little dense, to me, but it's on my list, and I want to get through at least some of the chapters)

Sweet Promised Land falls into the catetgory of a re-read. The book is a biography of Dominique Laxalt, a Basque sheepherder in Nevada, as written by his father, Robert Laxalt. I first read the book sometime in the 1980's. I highly recommend this 50th anniversary edition (it was first published in 1957).

This summer reading-list meme seems to be predicated on listing seven books, but I'm not going to push my luck and will only list five. I have already completed the two books listed below - in the last two months, no less! I'm encouraged by that, and by the fact that I know I'll finish Sweet Promised Land. Finished:

• Not Becoming my Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me along the Way - Ruth Reichl



• Annie's Ghosts: A Journed into a Family Secret - Steve Luxenberg

Yay for already finishing two books! Much better than my 2008 book-reading record (except for some escapist paperbacks).

Other book lists can be seen at Clastic Detritus, Reporting on a Revolution, and The Dynamic Earth.