1942: Geology

As has been the case in virtually every field of scientific endeavor, the effect of the war upon Geology has been profound. During the year 1942 the geological profession found itself confronted with the gigantic problem of conversion from a highly individualistic group concerned largely with the free inquiry into nature to a smooth-running machine closely integrated with the war effort. Emerging from the Golden Age of pure research that reached its crest in the 1920's with the American Museum of Natural History's Gobi Expeditions and other such elaborate undertakings, the profession has suddenly focused its attention upon the economic and military applications of its science.

This shift has caused important repercussions within the geological sphere. Some of the country's leading research institutions have found it necessary to curtail their usual activities, reduce their scientific staffs, and discontinue funds financing non-essential work. Science for science's sake has indeed become science for the nation's sake.

The petroleum industry, bereft of many of its geologists now engaged in government work, is experiencing a rapid decline in the production of oil, a great restriction of the exploratory work necessary in the search for new fields, and the continuous tapping of its reserves as the result of ever-increasing war demands.

The task of gearing this ramified science with our nation's 'All Out' effort has fallen to the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel of the National Resources Planning Board and the U. S. Civil Service Commission. In its capacity as the principal contact between the United States Government and the geological profession the Roster has made a tabulation of the nation's geological man-power, through the agency of the Geological Society of America, the Association of American Petroleum Geologists, and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. The Geological Society of America's Committee on War Effort and similar bodies in other organizations have been designed expressly for this job of contacting the entire field by means of questionnaires, and for formulating plans for its utilization in the present emergency.

Formed in the last war for just such an exigency as this, the National Research Council is once more performing the duties for which it was originally intended.

This is primarily a war for land — land that will provide the wherewithal for the fabrication and powering of military machines. Both in the quest for vital minerals and fuels and their subsequent employment on the field of battle, the geologist is an all-important factor.

The steadily rising demand for war minerals, the exhaustive drain on already developed deposits, plus the loss of many sources of supply, have made the discovery of new ore deposits imperative. Hence the call for geologists, particularly those with experience in Latin American countries.

Rising to the occasion, the U. S. Geological Survey has trebled its staff. In cooperation with the United States Bureau of Mines, with State Geological Surveys, with the Mineral Advisor to the Materials Division of the War Production Board, with groups affiliated with the State Department, its members are conducting intensive investigations for strategic minerals both at home and abroad, especially in South America.

Recently several million tons of tungsten ore (that hardest of all metals so necessary in the manufacture of armor-piercing shells, gun breeches and bores) were added to our coffers through the enterprise of the Government Survey. From Idaho which bids fair to become a heavy tungsten producer, to Bolivia, our chief source of supply, American geologists are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for new mineral deposits. Hand in hand with the search for tungsten has gone the hunt for its principal substitute — molybdenum.

Mexico, where Dr. Paul Bateman of Yale has carried on such important work during the year, has been the scene of much field activity. Here mercury deposits, so valuable because of the acute shortage of this mineral, have been under the scrutiny of David Gallagher for the Metals and Minerals Division of the U. S. Geological Survey.

In the Argentine, J. T. Singewald of Johns Hopkins University has been studying the expansion of tungsten, mica and beryl production while his colleagues, William Buras and Quentin Singewald, have been conducting investigations in Columbia.

Quartz, greatly in demand because of the need for the quartz crystal oscillators used in radio transmission, is being sought eagerly in Brazil from which country, but a short time ago, it was shipped to the United States by plane.

Some Latin American countries have employed our men directly for the solution of their more pressing geologic problems. Such is the case of Norman D. Newell, former editor of the Journal of Paleontology and a member of the Geological faculty of the University of Wisconsin, who is now engaged in making a general stratigraphic survey of the Peruvian government's oil properties in the eastern part of that country.

Africa, too, has become an important base for the supply of raw materials to the United Nations. Here Dean Frasche is combing the Congo and the West Coast for tin, chrome, and tantalum while Anton Gray is subjecting Northern Rhodesia and other parts of the interior to intensive investigation.

In all this work the geologist is not only serving the purpose of uncovering new stores of ore, but is functioning as an American ambassador of good will continually striving to strengthen our Good Neighbor Policy and stimulate trade relations.

Aside from actual prospecting in the field, many members of the profession are occupying key positions on various executive and advisory boards in Washington, D. C. Outstanding in this group of men are Professor C. K. Leith, now the Government's chief authority on war minerals; Dr. Paul Bateman, chief of the Mineral Division of the Board of Economic Warfare in which body many of his fellow geologists are now serving; and Roy E. Dickerson whose intimate knowledge of Pan-America gained as a geologist for the Atlantic Refining Company is today being used to further our common cause.

Although the search for strategic metals is perhaps the geologist's primary function in war time, his activities in other phases less apparent, are of vital concern.

Engineering Geology's contribution in the construction of the vast system of hydro-electric units that power our war plants throughout the nation may escape the itinerant observer's attention. Nevertheless, since the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1927, this branch of Earth Science has played a notable role in the planning and erection of these huge public works. The most noteworthy achievements of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation — Boulder Dam on the Colorado River and Grand Coulee on the Columbia, as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority's famous series of structures — were all made possible only through the perfect coordination of engineer with geologist.

Professor Charles Berkey of Columbia University has served the nation well and the world at large in this field of the Multiple-Purpose-Projects whose aim is flood-control, water conservation, and most significant, power for the wheels of industry.

In the stupendous war building program, concrete has assumed a new importance. Along with the accelerated construction of airdromes, barracks, fortifications, gun-emplacements, etc., has arisen the need for a particular type of fast concrete that will withstand repeated shock. Since the strength of this substance is determined largely by the elements used in its composition, it is readily seen that here is work for the petrologist. Research toward the development of better concrete has been given great impetus through the efforts of the Association of Cement Manufacturers, and the Bureau of Standards in Washington, not to mention the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation whose laboratory in Denver is thoroughly pursuing the petrographic study of this problem.

Militarily, the geological profession represents a vast reservoir of technical information that could well be used by our military leaders in the prosecution of the war. Though some progress has been made toward this end, the utilization of geology in a military sense leaves much to be desired.

The very nature of this war demands a deep understanding of the surface features of the earth. Where battle lines are in a continual state of flux over vast areas, the planning of campaigns, the establishment of operating bases, and the maintenance of troops necessitates a ready knowledge of terrain.

The geologist as a fighting factor has gained recognition slowly. Principally through the efforts, during World War I, of Colonel Alfred H. Brooks of the U. S. Army Engineering Corp and the U. S. Geological Survey, the military mind has been led to accept geology as an important adjunct to the Armed Services. As Chief Geologist with the A.E.F. attached to General Headquarters, he organized a geological staff that rendered the Allies invaluable service during the conflict of 1917 and 1918. Today his report on The Use of Geology on the Western Front is being used as an indispensable handbook by the fighting geologists of 1942.

The army that can turn the very rocks upon which they fight into their allies is doubly assured of victory. With this in mind a corps of 'Terrain Analysts' composed of geologists drawn from various branches of the Armed Forces has been organized to act in conjunction with Armored Tank Divisions during actual operations. A training program to acquaint these men with their special duties at the front is now being carried out at the Armored Force Headquarters at Fort Knox, Kentucky. This small group will undoubtedly form the nucleus for other similar units that will be developed elsewhere.

Toward the solution of problems revolving around the ground-water supply for troops in the various theatres of war, a special division of the U. S. Geological Survey acting as a liaison between the geological profession and the General Staff and also in the capacity of an advisory board to our military leaders, has taken up the work of supplying the Service with geological maps of the fighting fronts.

In the field of active operations the cooperation of the army engineer with the geologist is essential in the sinking of underground ammunition dumps, hangers, bomb-shelters; in camouflaging strategic points; in the selection of suitable rock formations as foundations for heavy artillery emplacements; in the construction of earthworks with their network of intercommunicating trenches; in the utilization of natural obstacles toward offence or defence; in determining strategic locations for the erection of airdromes; in the location of water-bearing strata for the establishment of an army's water supply; in the location of campsites with good drainage conditions for the installation of latrines, cesspits, and germicidal plants; in advising on the placement of land-mines and tank traps; and the composition of surface mantle (rocks, soil, sand) that will affect the maneuverability of tanks and other motorized vehicles.

The strategist draws heavily upon his knowledge of the physical character of the land over which a contemplated advance is to be made. Avenues of attack, natural strong points upon which to concentrate, spots in which to regroup or retrench are all greatly influenced by the advice of the geologist. His acquaintance with topography and map reading is utilized by the Air Corps in interpreting aerial photographs of enemy territory.

In the development of landing techniques to be used by invasion forces, work has been going along steadily on our west coast where Francis Shepard is making a special study of beaches and shorelines. It is said that the astounding success of the landing operations on the coast of Morocco and the initial advance of American troops into Tunisia was in part due to expert geological work of this nature.

War, destructive as it may be, stimulates enterprise in geology as in every other field of endeavor. In this struggle new applications will be found for the Earth Science, new horizons for the geologist to conquer. So it was in the last war when Max Mason and L. B. Schlichter, based on ideas taken from their war experience of 1917-18, organized the first Geophysical Prospecting Company and started Geophysics off on its great mission of usefulness to mankind.