science · 15 December 1975 · 50 years ago
death
Died 15 Dec 1975 at age 88 (born 15 Oct 1887).
Chester R(ay) Longwell was an American geologist, whose field work made him an authority on the geology of southern Nevada. He conducted a geological survey of the entire Boulder reservoir flood area now covered by Lake Mead, in 1934, to record the formations and structures, which would be covered by the lake. Later, he mapped the floor of the Davis Dam reservoir. His structural and mapping surveys in the western states included Arizona and the Black Hills. In the east, he studied the Triassic zone of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Longwell held an interest in geotectonics - the worldwide patterns of development - and periodically contributed to the debate of Wegener's continental drift.
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