Geology, 1888-1938

Published in celebration of the Geological Society of America’s 50th anniversary, this 578-page volume presents the progress in geology from 1888 to 1938. Written to serve as a comprehensive summary, both for the generalist and the specialist, it explores the fundamental fields of geology, including physiography, glacial geology, oceanography, invertebrate paleontology, vertebrate paleontology, prehistoric archeology, paleobotany, stratigraphy, sedimentation, structural geology, pre-Cambrian, mineralogy, petrology, volcanology, geochemistry, general geophysics, seismology, ore deposits, petroleum geology, exploratory geophysics, and engineering geology.
Abstract
Since most branches of geology are in large part an application of the sciences of physics and chemistry to our particular problems in geology, we are interested in all the developments of these sciences. As geology becomes more quantitative and closer to an exact science, the need of applying physics and chemistry to our problems becomes greater and greater. An extreme view of some European workers is that mineralogy, petrology, economic geology, and some other branches of geology are really branches of physical chemistry.
As we follow the progress of geology for the last 50 years, we are i m pressed by the rapid increase in the application of physical chemistry to geological problems. In the past, much of this application, except for chemical analyses, has been highly speculative, but we are rapidly accumulating sufficient data and understanding of the limitations of the application of these laws and data to enable us to reach more dependable conclusions.