Ebenezer Emmons
Ebenezer Emmons (born May 16, 1799 in Middlefield , Massachusetts , † October 1, 1863 in Brunswick County , North Carolina ) was an American geologist . He named the Adirondack Mountains and was a pioneer of geological surveying and stratigraphy in the USA, starting from New York State , which served as a model for other states in the USA.
Life
Emmons graduated from Williams College in 1818 and Berkshire Medical School and practiced as a doctor in Chester for a while . His interest in geology - he assisted his teacher Chester Dewey (1784-1867) in 1824 with a geological map - allowed him to continue his studies with Amos Eaton at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1826. His textbook on geology and mineralogy was published in the same year. In 1828 he returned to Williams College as a professor of chemistry. He received a junior professorship there in 1830 (alongside Eaton), which he held for ten years until 1839.
Since its inception in 1836, he was associated with the Geological Survey of New York (as the state geologist of the northern district). They wanted to geologically map and explore the state based on the model of Edward Hitchcock in Massachusetts. Also involved were the geologists Lardner Vanuxem (1792–1848), Timothy Conrad (1803–1877) and William M. Mather (1804–1859) and shortly afterwards James Hall , after Conrad became a state palaeontologist.
He is the founder of the Paleozoic stratigraphy in New York State. He and his colleagues from the Geological Survey of New York (especially Vanuxem and Hall) established the New York System (also New York Transition System ) for the Paleozoic rocks (pre- Carboniferous ). In addition, around 1840 he introduced the Taconic system for the Paleozoic rocks of the folding zone of the Taconic Orogeny .
Emmons was embroiled in a heated argument with his student James Hall about the age of the layers of the Taconian system. He thought it was Cambrian (which was later confirmed) and Hall thought it was Ordovician . The dispute also went to court. Emmons lost and was excluded from the Geological Survey. He went to North Carolina in 1851 to direct the geological survey there.
In 1837 he climbed the highest mountain in New York State, Mount Marcy , as the first in recorded history.
In 1838 he named the Adirondacks and in 1844 the Taconic Mountains (part of the Appalachian Mountains on the eastern edge of New York on the border with Connecticut and Massachusetts). He co-founded the American Association of Geologists , which was founded in his Albany home in 1838 .
Emmons and Hall are buried side by side in Albany ( Albany Rural Cemetery ).
Honors
- Mount Emmons in the Adirondacks is named after him.
- A thrust line that extends from Newfoundland through Vermont and New York south to Pennsylvania and brings layers of the Lower Cambrian into contact with the middle Ordovician is named after him (Emmons Line, formerly Logan's Line in honor of William Edmond Logan ). It also runs through the middle of the campus of the Rensselar Polytechnic Institute.
Initial descriptions ( valid )
- Genus: Lepacyclotes EMMONS 1856
- Type: Lepacyclotes circularis EMMONS 1856
literature
- Cecil J. Schneer Ebenezer Emmons and the foundations of American geology , Isis, 60, 1969, 439-450
Fonts
- Manual of Mineralogy and Geology, Albany 1826 (and many subsequent editions)
- Report on the Second Geological District of New York, 1842
- Natural History of New York 1848
- Agriculture of New York, 5 volumes, Albany 1846-1854
- A treatise upon American Geology, 1854
- Geological report of the Midland Counties of North Carolina. 352 S., George P. Putnam & Co., New York 1856
- American Geology, containing a statement of the principles of the science with full illustrations of characteristic American fossils, 6 volumes, Albany 1854-1857
- Manual of Geology 1860
- The Swampland of North Carolina, 1860
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Emmons, Ebenezer |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 16, 1799 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Middlefield , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 1, 1863 |
| Place of death | Brunswick County , North Carolina |