William Walden Rubey

Background

William Walden Rubey was born in Moberly, Missouri, where his father, Ambrose Burnside Rubey, owned a store. His mother was Alva Beatrice Walden. The boy developed an early interest in the outdoors.

Education

After graduating from high school in Moberly, he entered the University of Missouri, intending to study forestry, but was diverted to geology and received his B. A. in the latter field in 1920. He also took graduate studies at The John Hopkins University (1921 - 1922) and at Yale University (1922 - 1924). When the Geological Survey recalled Rubey for a special assignment in Kansas, he decided not to take the Ph. D. qualifying examination at Yale and never received a doctorate.

Career

Rubey began his professional career in 1920 with a consulting firm, Johnson Huntley, in Pittsburgh, Pa. After a few months he joined the U. S. Geological Survey. From 1924 to 1960 Rubey worked full time for the Geological Survey. He began as a geologic aide and advanced to the agency's highest scientific grade, that of research geologist. During the period 1944-1945 he led the geologic branch's division of Areal Geology and Basic Science. Rubey considered himself primarily a field geologist, and in that discipline he was both competent and rigorous. Outdoors he also took an interest in the local wildlife, especially birds, on which he published some papers.

After his first assignment in the Eldorado oil field of Arkansas, Rubey went to the rim area of the Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming. For almost half a century, beginning in 1924, he did field work in the overthrust-fault area of southwestern Wyoming, where he geologically mapped four quadrangles at a scale of 1:125, 000. This constituted more than 3, 300 square miles. In order to provide more details the Geological Survey enlarged the scale of these base maps to 1:62, 500, a change that delayed their publication for many years.

Rubey mapped an area in Illinois in a cooperative project between the United States and On a separate assignment the Illinois State Geological Surveys. His landmark report, which analyzed the stratigraphy, structure, physiography, geological history, economic geology, and stream dynamics of the area, was mysteriously misplaced by the Illinois office and finally published twenty years later (1952).

Through the years Rubey studied and published on stream hydrology, sedimentation, and structural geology of the relatively flat midcontinent and Great Plains region. As noted by Ernst, his publications "in general discussed the relationships among porosity, compaction, stratigraphy, and structure, " thus leaving a clearer picture of the nature and mechanisms of midcontinent erosion and deposition. He noted examples of stream capture by erosion and the development of badland topography, and he discussed the forces affecting the settlement of rock particles in flowing streams. He explored several areas for the possibility of oil production and was primarily responsible for outlining a rich vanadium field in Wyoming in 1943.

On special assignment in 1933 he helped to investigate mineral resources in the area where Boulder (now Hoover) Dam was to be built. Rubey defined the magnitude of the helium gas field that extends from the Texas panhandle to Kansas; his findings led the federal government to regulate its gas production.

During World War II he directed a search for sources of uranium in the United States, having previously determined that vanadium and uranium are concentrated in black shales and phosphorites. He also served as liaison between the U. S. Geological Survey and the armed forces. Long interested in the interrelationships between geology, chemistry, and physics, Rubey presented in 1950 a theory that the oceans and the atmosphere had accumulated gradually by outgassing of water from the mantle of the earth. This broad concept entered into early discussions of seafloor spreading during the 1960's when all aspects of the origins of the oceans were being considered.

With geophysicist M. King Hubbert in the 1950's, Rubey analyzed the mechanics of overthrust faults; they determined that fluid pressure reduced frictional resistance sufficiently to allow slippage along such low-angle faults. In the mid-1950's Rubey added teaching to his research and field activities. He was a visiting professor successively at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); the California Institute of Technology; and The John Hopkins University. In 1960 he became a professor of geology and geophysics at UCLA but continued some field work in Wyoming for the U. S. Geological Survey.

At UCLA he conducted an advanced seminar on large-scale, unsolved problems in geology. To some extent this was an outgrowth of his custom, while with the U. S. Geological Survey, of hosting evening seminar meetings at his home in Washington, D. C. A wide range of scientists would gather over a plate of sandwiches (and beer) and hold discussions on a specific topic of geology. A patient, tactful person, known for taking assignments seriously, Rubey became much in demand for committee and advisory appointments. His advice on policies and programs was sought by successive directors of the U. S. Geological Survey. As secretary of a committee on stratigraphic nomenclature, he worked diligently to create the first American Stratigraphic Code in 1933.

For the National Research Council, Rubey served as chairman of the Division of Geology and Geography (1943 - 1946) and as chairman of the council itself (1951 - 1954). Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1945, he served for two terms on its council (1951-1954, 1965 - 1968). Rubey was a member of the American Miscellaneous Committee's Mohole Project (1957 - 1963), that proposed drilling a hole through the earth's crust to the Mohorovicic Discontinuity. He was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a six-year term (1960 - 1966) on the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation. In 1966 for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, he investigated microearthquakes near Denver, Colo. , for their connection with the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Disposal well. Rubey then investigated the relation of fluid injection with earthquake activity in Colorado for the Advanced Research Projects Agency.

He was a consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for some years and was the director (1968 - 1971) of its Lunar Science Institute in Houston when the first lunar rock samples were brought to earth for scientific analysis. Rubey died in Santa Monica, California.

Achievements

• During his career Rubey made multiple contributions to the science of geology, including studies of the hydrology of streams, the geology of western Wyoming, seismic energy, mountain building from overthrust faulting, the growth of continents, the origins of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans, and the evolution of terrestrial planets. Rubey received many honors for his seminal work in geology. The Department of the Interior awarded him its Award of Excellence (1943) and Distinguished Service Medal (1958). In 1965 he received the National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Membership

Member of the American Miscellaneous Committee's Mohole Project

Connections

Rubey married Susan Elsie Manovill in 1919. They had three daughters.

Father:

Ambrose Burnside Rubey

Mother:

Alva Beatrice Walden

Spouse:

Susan Elsie Manovill