David White (paleontologist)

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David White

Charles David White (born July 1, 1862 in Palmyra , New York , † February 7, 1935 in Washington, DC ) was an American paleontologist and especially paleobotanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " CDWhite ".

Life

White was the son of a farmer, was interested in botany as a teenager and received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1886 with Henry S. Williams (1847–1918) with a thesis on the fossil plant Ptilophyton from the Devonian. He financed his studies mainly as a drawing teacher. On the recommendation of Williams, he was from 1889 as a paleobotanist at the United States Geological Survey in Washington DC, where he rose to chief geologist (1913). In 1903 he became an associate curator at the Smithsonian Institution .

He was married to Mary Houghton since 1888.

plant

At the US Geological Survey, he first ordered and classified the large collection of coal plant fossils from the Carboniferous by Ralph D. Lacoe, which came to the National Museum of Natural History in 1893 , and thereby solved stratigraphic problems of the Pottsville Formation in Pennsylvania . In 1890 he examined the fossil flora of Gay Head on Martha's Vineyard and found that, contrary to what was believed at the time, it did not come from the Tertiary but from the Middle Cretaceous. In 1899 he correlated the American Pennsylvania with the European stratigraphic system. His research in eastern Pennsylvania also led to the discovery of new coal deposits. With his assistant Reinhardt Theissen (1867–1938) he examined thin sections of coal and both confirmed the theory of the allochthonous formation of coal, presented in a 1913 book.

He also studied the carboniferous flora in coal deposits in Missouri and the Glossopteris flora in Brazilian coal deposits.

He himself described his Carbon Ratio Hypothesis as his greatest scientific achievement: in 1913 he found that with a carbon content of over 65 to 70% in coal deposits, no accompanying oil and natural gas deposits were to be expected, which had significant effects on oil and gas exploration. This also earned him a reputation as a petroleum geologist. He trained many future oil geologists with the US Geological Survey. He investigated the oil shale potential of the Green River Formation during World War I , promoted research into the origin of crude oil and the search for crude oil using gravimetry, and under his direction the first official estimates of US oil and natural gas reserves were made.

In 1897 he took part with Charles Schuchert in a Greenland expedition led by Robert Edwin Peary to study a meteorite find and found a site of Cretaceous flora.

White worked closely with the National Park Service (and often wore their uniform in the field) from the late 1920s, studying the Permian flora and Precambrian algae in the Grand Canyon .

His assistants included the paleobotanists Charles B. Read (1907–1979) and William C. Darrah (1909–1989).

Memberships and honors

In 1912 he was President of the Paleontological Society and in 1923 President of the Geological Society of America . Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1912 , he received the Mary Clark Thompson Medal and the Penrose Gold Medal in 1931 and the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal in 1934 .

Fonts

  • Flora of the outlying Carboniferous basins of southwestern Missouri, US Geological Survey Bulletin, No. 98, 1893
  • Fossil flora of the lower coal measures of Missouri, US Geological Survey Monograph No. 37, 1899
  • with GO Smith: The geology of the Perry Basin in southeastern Maine, US Geological Survey Professional Paper No. 35, 1905
  • Fossil Flora of the Coal Measures of Brazil, Commissão de Estudos das Minas de Carvão de Pedra do Brazil, Final Report, Rio de Janeiro 1908, pp. 337-617
  • The effect of oxygen in coal, US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 382, ​​1909
  • with R. Theissen (editor): The origin of coal, US Bureau of Mines Bulletin, No. 38, 1913

literature

  • PC Lyons, ED Morey: David White (1862-1935): American paleobotanist and geologist, in: PC Lyons, ED Morey, RH Wagner (Ed.) Historical Perspectives of Early Twentieth Century Carboniferous Paleobotany in North America, Geological Society of America Memoir 185, 1995, pp. 135-148.
  • WC Mendenhall: Memorial of David White, Geological Society of America, Proceedings for 1936, GSA 1937, pp. 271-292.
  • Charles Schuchert: Biographical Memoirs National Academy 1935, pdf

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ White, Algal deposits of Unkar Proterozoic age in the Grand Canyon, Arizonam, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 14, 1928, pp. 597-600
personal data
SURNAME White, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleobotanist and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Palmyra , New York
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1935
Place of death Washington, DC