# Clarence Dutton > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Clarence_Dutton > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Clarence_Dutton.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Dutton > Source revision: 1347355413 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American geologist (1841–1912)}} {{more citations needed|date=February 2013}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Clarence Dutton |image =Clarence Dutton NOAA.jpg |image_size =150px |caption = Clarence Dutton |birth_date = May 15, 1841 |birth_place = [Wallingford, Connecticut](/source/Wallingford%2C_Connecticut) |death_date = January 4, 1912 (aged 70) |death_place = [Englewood, New Jersey](/source/Englewood%2C_New_Jersey) |residence = |citizenship = |ethnicity = |field = [Geology](/source/Geology) |work_institutions = |alma_mater = [Yale College](/source/Yale_College) |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = [Isostasy](/source/Isostasy), [Grand Canyon](/source/Grand_Canyon) geology |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''Clarence Edward Dutton''' (May 15, 1841 – January 4, 1912) was an American geologist and US Army officer. ==Life and career== Dutton was born in [Wallingford, Connecticut](/source/Wallingford%2C_Connecticut) on May 15, 1841. He graduated from [Yale College](/source/Yale_College) in 1860 and took postgraduate courses there until 1862, when he enlisted in the 21st Connecticut Volunteer Infantry; he fought at [Fredericksburg](/source/Battle_of_Fredericksburg), [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk%2C_Virginia), [Nashville](/source/Battle_of_Nashville) and [Petersburg](/source/Siege_of_Petersburg). He was elected as a member to the [American Philosophical Society](/source/American_Philosophical_Society) in 1871.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1871&year-max=1871&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} In 1875, he began work as a geologist for [John Wesley Powell](/source/John_Wesley_Powell) and, after 1879, for the [U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)](/source/United_States_Geological_Survey).{{cite journal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dutton-clarence.pdf|access-date=28 June 2022 |title=Clarence Edward Dutton: 1841-1912 |journal=United States National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir |year=1958 |page=137}} Working chiefly in the [Colorado Plateau](/source/Colorado_Plateau) region, he wrote several classic papers, including geological studies of the high plateaus of Utah (1879–80), the Cenozoic history of the [Grand Canyon](/source/Grand_Canyon) district (1882), and the [Charleston, South Carolina](/source/Charleston%2C_South_Carolina), [earthquake of 1886](/source/1886_Charleston_earthquake). As head of the division of [volcanic geology](/source/volcanology) at the USGS, he studied volcanism in Hawaii, California, and Oregon. He helped coordinate the scientific response to [a large earthquake](/source/1887_Sonora_earthquake) in the Mexican state of [Sonora](/source/Sonora) in 1887. In 1878, he was one of the ten founders of the [Cosmos Club](/source/Cosmos_Club).{{cite journal | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067229 | jstor=40067229 | title=The Cosmos Club of Washington: A Brief History | last1=Oehser | first1=Paul H. | journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. | year=1960 | volume=60/62 | pages=250–265 }} He was elected a member of the [National Academy of Sciences](/source/United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences) in 1884. In 1886, Dutton led a USGS party to [Crater Lake](/source/Crater_Lake), Oregon. His team carried a half-ton survey boat, the ''Cleetwood'', up the steep mountain slope and lowered it {{convert|2000|ft|m}} into the lake. From the ''Cleetwood'', Dutton used piano wire with lead weights to measure the depth of the lake at 168 different points. The survey team determined the lake was {{convert|1996|ft|m}} deep. The currently-accepted maximum depth figure, measured by sonar, is 1,943 feet (592 m).[https://web.archive.org/web/20061013041923/http://www.nps.gov/archive/crla/brochures/facts.htm Facts and Figures about Crater Lake] In a footnote to an 1882 review in the ''American Journal of Science'', Dutton coined the term "[isostasy](/source/isostasy)". He later stated: "In an unpublished paper I have used the terms isostatic and isostacy (sic) to express that condition of the terrestrial surface which would follow from the flotation of the crust upon a liquid or highly plastic substratum – different portions of the crust being of unequal density."{{cite journal|last1=Dutton |first1=Clarence |date=1882 |title=Physics of the Earth's crust; discussion |journal=American Journal of Science |series=3 |volume=23 |issue=April |pages=283–290 |doi=10.2475/ajs.s3-23.136.283 |bibcode=1882AmJS...23..283D |s2cid=128904689 }}{{cite journal |last1=Orme |first1=Antony |date=2007 |title=Clarence Edward Dutton (1841–1912): soldier, polymath and aesthete |journal=Geological Society, London, Special Publications |volume=287 |issue=1 |pages=271–286 |doi=10.1144/SP287.21 |bibcode=2007GSLSP.287..271O |s2cid=128576633 }} Thus, he realised that there is a general balance within the Earth's crust, with lighter weight blocks coming to stand higher than adjacent blocks with higher density, an idea first expressed by Pratt and Airy in the 1850s. Dutton elaborated these ideas in his address to the [Philosophical Society of Washington](/source/Philosophical_Society_of_Washington) in 1889.{{cite journal |last1=Dutton |first1=Clarence |date=1889 |title= On some of the greater problems of physical geology. |journal= Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington |volume=11 |pages=51–64 }} When this was printed in 1892, the term isostasy was formally proposed, Dutton having, on the advice of Greek scholars, changed the ‘c’ to an ‘s’. Dutton was a close associate of [John Wesley Powell](/source/John_Wesley_Powell), [G.K. Gilbert](/source/G.K._Gilbert), and [William Henry Holmes](/source/William_Henry_Holmes) at the USGS. He was an energetic and effective field geologist: in 1875–1877 Dutton's field party mapped {{convert|12000|sqmi|km2}} of the high plateaus of southern Utah, an area of rugged topography and poor access. Dutton had a distinctive flair for literary description, and is best remembered today for his colorful (and sometimes flamboyant) descriptions of the geology and scenery of the [Grand Canyon](/source/Grand_Canyon) region of [Arizona](/source/Arizona). "Dutton first taught the world to look at that country and see it as it was... Dutton is almost as much the '' [genius loci](/source/genius_loci) '' of the Grand Canyon as [Muir](/source/John_Muir) is of [Yosemite](/source/Yosemite)" – [Wallace Stegner](/source/Wallace_Stegner), ''Beyond the Hundredth Meridian''. In 1891 he retired from the USGS to serve as commander of the arsenal of [San Antonio, Texas](/source/San_Antonio%2C_Texas); then as ordnance officer of the department of Texas. After retiring from the Army in 1901, he returned to the study of geology. Dutton spent his last years at the home of his son in [Englewood, New Jersey](/source/Englewood%2C_New_Jersey). ==Notable publications== * 1880, ''[https://archive.org/details/reportongeology02duttgoog Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah]''. U.S. Geog. and Geol. Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, vol. 32, 307 pp. and atlas. * 1882, ''Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District''. U.S. Geol. Survey Monograph 2, 264 pp. and atlas. * 1884, ''Hawaiian Volcanoes''. U. S. Geol. Survey, 4th Ann. Rpt., pp. 75–219. * 1889, ''[https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-02639_00_00-002-0001-0005 The Charleston Earthquake of August 31, 1886]''. U.S. Geol. Survey, Ann. Rpt. 9, pp. 203–528. * 1889, ''On Some of the Greater Problems of Physical Geology.'' Bull. Phil. Soc. Wash., 11:51–64. Proposed the new term [isostasy](/source/isostasy). * 1904, ''[https://archive.org/details/earthquakesinlig00duttuoft Earthquakes, in the light of the new seismology]'' ==References== {{reflist}} ==Further reading== * [Stegner, Wallace](/source/Wallace_Stegner) (1954). ''Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West''. University of Nebraska Press. {{ISBN|0-8032-4133-X}} (and other reprint editions). * Stegner, Wallace. (1936). ''Clarence Edward Dutton: An Appraisal''. University of Utah Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87480-865-0}}. * {{NIE|title=Clarence E. Dutton}} ==External links== {{commons category|Clarence Edward Dutton}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Clarence Dutton |sopt=t}} {{Crater Lake}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Dutton, Clarence}} Category:1841 births Category:1912 deaths Category:People from Wallingford, Connecticut Category:Crater Lake (Oregon) Category:19th-century American geologists Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Grand Canyon history Category:Yale College alumni Category:United States Geological Survey personnel Category:United States Army officers Category:National Geographic Society founders Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers Category:19th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American geologists Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Scientists from Connecticut Category:Writers from New Haven County, Connecticut Category:People of Connecticut in the American Civil War --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Clarence Dutton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Dutton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Dutton?action=history)). 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