A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
History
A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
American journal of science; Science -- United States -- History
The first geologist to produce a series of maps showing the progressive
geologic geography of a given area was Jukes-Brown, who in the volume
entitled “The Building of the British Isles,” 1888, included fifteen
such maps. Karpinsky published fourteen maps of Russia, and in 1896 Canu
in his Essai de paléogéographie has fifty-seven of France and Belgium.
Lapparent’s Traité of 1906 is famous for paleogeographic maps, for he
has twenty-three of the world, thirty-four of Europe, twenty-five of
France, and ten taken from other authors. Schuchert in 1910 published
fifty-two to illustrate the paleogeography of North America, and also
gave an extended list of such published maps. Another article on the
subject is by Th. Arldt, “Zur Geschichte der Paläogeographischen
Rekonstructionen,” published in 1914. Edgar Dacqué in 1913 also produced
a list in his Paläogeographischen Karten, and two years later appeared
his book of 500 pages, Grundlagen und Methoden der Paläogeographie,
where the entire subject is taken up in detail.
_Conclusions._—Since 1833 there have been published not less than 500
different paleogeographic maps, and of this number about 210 relate to
North America. Nevertheless paleogeography is still in its infancy, and
most maps embrace too much geologic time, all of them tens of thousands,
and some of them millions of years. The geographic maps of the present
show the conditions of the strand-lines of to-day, and those made fifty
years ago have to be revised again and again if they are to be of value
to the mariner and merchant. Therefore in our future paleogeographic
maps the tendency must ever be toward smaller amounts of geologic time,
if we are to show the actual relation of water to land and the movements
of the periodic floodings. Moreover, the ancient shore lines are all
more or less hypothetic and are drawn in straight or sweeping curves,
unlike modern strands with their bays, deltas, and headlands, and the
ancient lands are featureless plains. We must also pay more attention to
the distribution of brackish- and fresh-water deposits. The periodically
rising mountains will be the first topographic features to be shown upon
the ancient lands, and then more and more of the drainage and the
general climatic conditions must be portrayed. In the seas, depth,
temperature, and currents are yet to be deciphered. Finally, other base
maps than those of the geography of to-day will have to be made,
allowing for the compression of the mountainous areas, if we are to show
the true geographic configurations of the lands and seas of any given
geologic time.
_Paleometeorology._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account