Frank Leverett

March 10, 1859 (age 84)

Denmark, Iowa, United States

Leverett taught in public schools for two years before becoming an instructor in natural sciences at Denmark academy for the following three years. With his students he collected fossils from the quarries and coal beds in the area and thus developed an interest in paleontology. The geologist W. J. McGee after reading Leverett's thesis thesis on an artesian well, suggested that he apply for work to Thomas C. Chamberlin, head of the United States Geological Survey's new Division of Glacial Geology at Madison, Wis. For the interview, Leverett walked the 250 miles from Denmark to Madison, studying the geological formations as he went; he was hired as field assistant for that summer (1886). He continued to work for several years, on a temporary basis, under the supervision of Chamberlin, who so frequently quoted his assistant's observations that students came to refer to Leverett as "Chamberlin's eyes. " In 1890 Leverett received a permanent appointment with the Geological Survey, which he held until his retirement in 1929. In 1909 he moved to the University of Michigan, where he continued until 1929 as a lecturer in geology, also conducting field trips. His exceptional knowledge outran the interests of many students but to others it was a unique asset. Throughout his career Leverett adhered undeviatingly to the study of glacial geology. He was adept in tracing the principal features of the terrain through a welter of superficial topography, and was amazingly acute in spotting minor rises on a flat plain. In the extent of ground examined he is unequaled. He probed nearly every square mile of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota, and large parts of contiguous states and Canada. In 1908 he made a trip to Europe, where he studied the Pleistocene glacial deposits for comparison with those on the North American continent. He made most of these excursions on foot, and later calculated that during his lifetime he had walked the equivalent of four circuits of the earth. From his maps of glacial and associated deposits throughout the upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes areas, Leverett established a temporal classification which, with slight modification, remains the standard for the Pleistocene period in North America. It identifies four sheets of glacial drift from four ice advances, the duration of each advance being judged by the thickness of the drift, and the antiquity of the drift by the depth of weathering and the extent of stream dissection of its surface. He made the primary study of the Illinoian stage, and named it as well as the bracketing interglacial stages. His interpretation of the "gumbo" as a weathered product of ancient till was a further contribution to glacial geology. By tracing the high beaches of the Lake Erie basin to outlets and to moraines at former ice margins, he ended a long-standing controversy about the problem of glacial high water levels in the Great Lakes. His studies were intended mainly to advance knowledge, but they also produced practical benefits in helping to determine the local distribution of soils, supplies of gravel, clay, and marl, and especially ground water. Leverett's great contribution was in the realm of observation rather than theory. Compared with contemporaries in the same field, he lacked the inductive powers of Chamberlin, the knack for elegant exposition of Israel C. Russell, McGee's joy in the curious, and the imagination of Frank B. Taylor. More than any of these men, however, Leverett remained steadfast to his original theme. The great value of his work lies in its thoroughness and in the scrupulous accuracy and systematic recording of his observations. His professional publications total more than 5, 600 pages, and include three massive government monographs that are bibles to geologists in their respective territories: The Illinois Glacial Lobe (1899), Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (1902), and, with Frank Taylor, The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes (1915). He died at his home in Ann Arbor at the age of eighty-four of myocardial failure and was cremated at Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.

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Works

book

Early stages and outlets of Lake Agassiz

Surface geology of the northern peninsula of Michigan

Water Resources If Indiana and Ohio

( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditio...)

Excerpt from Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota Soil is the loose unconsolidated material which nearly everywhere covers the surface of the earth and in which plant life may be maintained. It is made up of finely divided rock in which decaying vegetable matter and animal matter are mingled. A soil is generally in a state of change. It is being washed little by little to the creeks and rivers which carry it to the sea, where it often forms delta deposits; if no new soil formed. Hard rock would finally be exposed instead of the loose plant-producing Soil. But rocks at and near the surface are continually changing and new soil is being formed from the Underlying rock or from loose clayey or gravelly material that may constitute the subsoil, or from bowldery material that at many places in Minnesota lies between the hard rock and the soil. Water and air attack rock matter and break it down. Heat and cold, freezing and thawing, shatter the rocks and give plants an opportunity to send roots into the cracks that are formed, and these, prying the rocks apart, reduce them to particles of still smaller size. Even the hard, solid rocks are ultimately broken down; a building of good solid stone may crumble in a few hundred years, particularly in a moist climate. Some of the rocky matter is dissolved by the water and carried to the sea in solution. It is such dissolved material that makes water hard and that gathers in the bottom of a vessel when water is boiled. But not all of the soluble substances are dissolved and carried away; some remain in the soil and the character of the soil depends largely upon these. Some soils are acid because they have not enough lime. Some are deficient in potash or phosphates, which are necessary if soil is to produce certain crops satisfactorily. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Illinois Glacial Lobe (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Illinois Glacial Lobe Introduction Clas...)

Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies in the Southern Portion of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies i...)

The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes - Primary Source Edition

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Comparison of North American and European glacial deposits

Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of ...)

Wells of Northern Indiana (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Wells of Northern Indiana Sir: I have the h...)

Frank Leverett

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geologist

Background

Frank Leverett was born in Denmark, Iowa, the oldest of at least three children of Ebenezer Turner Leverett, a farmer, and Rowena (Houston) Leverett. His father was a native of Maine, his mother of New Hampshire.

Education

He received education in Denmark Academy. Leverett entered Colorado College at Colorado Springs in 1883. Field excursions into the mountains and assaying work in the laboratory there brought about a shift in his interests from paleontology to geology, and after a year he transferred to the Iowa State College at Ames to make up his deficiencies in physics and chemistry. He received the B. S. degree in 1885 with a thesis on an artesian well near Des Moines, Iowa. In 1930 he received the Sc. D. degree from the University of Michigan.

Career

Leverett taught in public schools for two years before becoming an instructor in natural sciences at Denmark academy for the following three years. With his students he collected fossils from the quarries and coal beds in the area and thus developed an interest in paleontology.

The geologist W. J. McGee after reading Leverett's thesis thesis on an artesian well, suggested that he apply for work to Thomas C. Chamberlin, head of the United States Geological Survey's new Division of Glacial Geology at Madison, Wis. For the interview, Leverett walked the 250 miles from Denmark to Madison, studying the geological formations as he went; he was hired as field assistant for that summer (1886). He continued to work for several years, on a temporary basis, under the supervision of Chamberlin, who so frequently quoted his assistant's observations that students came to refer to Leverett as "Chamberlin's eyes. " In 1890 Leverett received a permanent appointment with the Geological Survey, which he held until his retirement in 1929.

In 1909 he moved to the University of Michigan, where he continued until 1929 as a lecturer in geology, also conducting field trips. His exceptional knowledge outran the interests of many students but to others it was a unique asset. Throughout his career Leverett adhered undeviatingly to the study of glacial geology. He was adept in tracing the principal features of the terrain through a welter of superficial topography, and was amazingly acute in spotting minor rises on a flat plain. In the extent of ground examined he is unequaled. He probed nearly every square mile of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota, and large parts of contiguous states and Canada.

In 1908 he made a trip to Europe, where he studied the Pleistocene glacial deposits for comparison with those on the North American continent. He made most of these excursions on foot, and later calculated that during his lifetime he had walked the equivalent of four circuits of the earth. From his maps of glacial and associated deposits throughout the upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes areas, Leverett established a temporal classification which, with slight modification, remains the standard for the Pleistocene period in North America. It identifies four sheets of glacial drift from four ice advances, the duration of each advance being judged by the thickness of the drift, and the antiquity of the drift by the depth of weathering and the extent of stream dissection of its surface.

He made the primary study of the Illinoian stage, and named it as well as the bracketing interglacial stages. His interpretation of the "gumbo" as a weathered product of ancient till was a further contribution to glacial geology. By tracing the high beaches of the Lake Erie basin to outlets and to moraines at former ice margins, he ended a long-standing controversy about the problem of glacial high water levels in the Great Lakes. His studies were intended mainly to advance knowledge, but they also produced practical benefits in helping to determine the local distribution of soils, supplies of gravel, clay, and marl, and especially ground water.

Leverett's great contribution was in the realm of observation rather than theory. Compared with contemporaries in the same field, he lacked the inductive powers of Chamberlin, the knack for elegant exposition of Israel C. Russell, McGee's joy in the curious, and the imagination of Frank B. Taylor. More than any of these men, however, Leverett remained steadfast to his original theme. The great value of his work lies in its thoroughness and in the scrupulous accuracy and systematic recording of his observations. His professional publications total more than 5, 600 pages, and include three massive government monographs that are bibles to geologists in their respective territories: The Illinois Glacial Lobe (1899), Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (1902), and, with Frank Taylor, The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes (1915).

He died at his home in Ann Arbor at the age of eighty-four of myocardial failure and was cremated at Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.

Achievements

Frank Leverett has been listed as a noteworthy geologist. by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

Early stages and outlets of Lake Agassiz Early stages and outlets of Lake Agassiz

Surface geology of the northern peninsula of Michigan Surface geology of the northern peninsula of Michigan

Water Resources If Indiana and Ohio Water Resources If Indiana and Ohio

Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota (Classic Reprint) Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota (Classic Reprint)

The Illinois Glacial Lobe (Classic Reprint) The Illinois Glacial Lobe (Classic Reprint)

Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies in the Southern Portion of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Classic Reprint) Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies in the Southern Portion of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Classic Reprint)

The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes - Primary Source Edition The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes - Primary Source Edition

Comparison of North American and European glacial deposits Comparison of North American and European glacial deposits

Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (Classic Reprint) Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (Classic Reprint)

Wells of Northern Indiana (Classic Reprint) Wells of Northern Indiana (Classic Reprint)

book
- Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota (Classic Reprint)
  (Excerpt from Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditio...)
- Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies in the Southern Portion of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Classic Reprint)
  (Excerpt from Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies i...)
- The Illinois Glacial Lobe (Classic Reprint)
  (Excerpt from The Illinois Glacial Lobe Introduction Clas...)
- Water Resources If Indiana and Ohio
  ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
- Wells of Northern Indiana (Classic Reprint)
  (Excerpt from Wells of Northern Indiana Sir: I have the h...)
- Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (Classic Reprint)
  (Excerpt from Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of ...)
- The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes - Primary Source Edition
  (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
- Early stages and outlets of Lake Agassiz
- Surface geology of the northern peninsula of Michigan
- Comparison of North American and European glacial deposits

Membership

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1939.

Connections

Leverett was twice married: on December 22, 1887, to Frances E. Gibson, who died in 1892; and on December 18, 1895, to Dorothy Christina Park, who survived him. He had no children.

Father:: Ebenezer Turner Leverett
Mother:: Rowena (Houston) Leverett
Spouse:: Dorothy Christina Park
Spouse:: Frances E. Gibson

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book

Early stages and outlets of Lake Agassiz

Surface geology of the northern peninsula of Michigan

Water Resources If Indiana and Ohio

Surface Formations and Agricultural Conditions of Northeastern Minnesota (Classic Reprint)

The Illinois Glacial Lobe (Classic Reprint)

Flowing Wells and Municipal Water Supplies in the Southern Portion of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Classic Reprint)

The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes - Primary Source Edition

Comparison of North American and European glacial deposits

Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins (Classic Reprint)

Wells of Northern Indiana (Classic Reprint)

Frank Leverett

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