Biographical Memoirs Volume 48 (1976) / Chapter Skim
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Eliot Blackwelder
Eliot Blackwelder
Pages 82-103
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From page 83... ...
The questionnaire was a long one, requesting data about his family back to his grandparents, especially regarding occupations, diseases, longevity, "special gifts or peculiarities of mind or body," and "character, favorite studies, and amusements." The fact that he would fill out such a form with scrupulous care betrays much about his character—his attention to detail, his willingness to give time and effort to a project that he thought might ultimately benefit society, and his conviction that social problems needed the application of science for their solution. The document gives an intimate glimpse of a stalwart American family.
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From page 84... ...
From many courses in Latin and Greek came a great love of classical antiquity, and his first choice of a major subject was in this field. The interest in ancient Greece and Rome persisted in later life, giving him a reputation as an amateur classicist and providing him with a wealth of apt quotations from classical authors.
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From page 85... ...
During the numerous stopovers in Europe, including attendance at the International Geological Congress in Vienna, the young man established personal contact with many noted geologists. These contacts, several of which were to ripen into firm friendships, were the beginning ot the wide circle ot acquaintances that he ma~ntained all over the world.
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From page 86... ...
From this long field experience, he also gained the background for more general papers on the geologic history of the continent and for some memorable shorter papers on specific geological topics. These latter papers, continually pointed out to students as models of clear geologic reasoning and exposition, include a variety of subjects: the geologic role of phosphorus; the interpretation of unconformities, the breaks in a sedimentary sequence that indicate times when the land was undergoing erosion; the origin of the Bighorn dolomite; and the effect of climate on the characteristics of continental sediments.
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From page 87... ...
In the Sierra Nevada, especially on its semiarid eastern side where the evidence of glaciation is not obscured by forests, he could distinguish the debris and erosional forms produced by three major advances of ice tongues down the steep valleys and the still older debris left on a few ridge crests from an earlier advance. A similar periodic waxing and waning of glacial activity during the Pleistocene had been established for the ice cap that once covered the central part of the continent, but Blackwelder faced the necessity of working out criteria for age assign
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From page 88... ...
Blackwelder's wide-ranging interests, although emphasizing mountain glaciation and desert processes, touched many other subjects during his years at Stanford. He pointed out the abundant, but far from obvious, evidence for Pleistocene lakes in many of the now-dry valleys of the Great Basin; demonstrated the recency of formation of the valley that the Colorado River has carved across Utah and Arizona; marshaled evidence for an impact origin of Meteor Crater; and showed that certain peculiar sedimentary rocks in many of the western mountains are best explained as formed from debris left by glaciers far back in geologic time.
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From page 89... ...
When in 1940 he faced the problem of choosing a subject for his presidential address to the Geological Society of America, he abandoned geological topics for a subject that would enable him to express some of his social concerns, "Science and Human Prospects." The address is an interesting document. One theme is a forceful expression of the old idea that education is the only "sure cure" for the ills of democracy.
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From page 90... ...
For many years he played an active role in Atlantic Union, an organization whose goal was a political union of the principal democracies. During these years his only geologic activities were occasional attendance at meetings, publication of a few abstracts based on earlier work, and preparation of articles for guidebooks and symposium volumes.
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From page 91... ...
His special talents were those of a disciplined observer—the ability to see at once, almost intuitively, the essentials of a situation, to sort out the important from the unimportant, to relate one observation to another, to sense what additional observations would be needed in the field or laboratory. Beyond this was his capacity for clear, direct thinking and for expressing complex ideas in simple words.
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From page 92... ...
and an honorary member of the American Philosophical Society, the Geological Society of London, the Geological Society of Belgium, the German Geological Association, and the Geological Society of China.
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From page 93... ...
ELIOT BLACKWELDER 93 the views of others, never losing his basic humility despite the recognition and honors that came to him during a long and distinguished career. IN COMPILING this memoir I have had the assistance of Mrs.
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From page 94... ...
Bull., 314: 82-88. Glacial features of the Alaskan coast between Yakutat Bay and the Alsek River.
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From page 95... ...
Geol., 20:410-14. The Gros Ventre slide, an active earth flow.
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From page 96... ...
(A) Origin of the Rocky Mountain phosphate deposits.
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From page 97... ...
Geol., 17:217. 1924 Supposed glacial formations in the pre-Cambrian terranes of the Rocky Mountains.
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From page 98... ...
Am., 19:52-53. Glacial history of the east side of the Sierra Nevada.
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From page 99... ...
Geol., 39:133~0. Pleistocene glaciation in the Sierra Nevada and Basin ranges.
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From page 100... ...
. Glacial and associated stream deposits of the Sierra Nevada.
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From page 101... ...
Pleistocene lakes of the Afton Basin, California.
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From page 102... ...
Bailey Willis (1857-1949~. Geological Society of London Quarterly Journal, 105 (pt.
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From page 103... ...
Precambrian rocks of Utah. In: The Oil and Gas Possibilities of Utah, Re-evaluated.
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