George Davis Louderback (April 6, 1874 – January 27, 1957) was an American geologist, known for identifying and describing benitoite and joaquinite.

Biography

Louderback was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and received an A.B. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1896, followed by a Ph.D. in 1899. He married Clara Augusta Henry on October 3, 1899. He was a teaching assistant in mineralogy at UC Berkeley in 1897–1900 and then taught at the University of Nevada in 1900–1906. At UC Berkeley's department of geology, Louderback became an assistant professor in 1906, an associate professor in 1907, and a full professor in 1917. In Nevada, Louderback studied the geological structure of the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

, especially of the Basin ranges, and Nevada's

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

deposits. He did research on the Mesozoic formations of southern Oregon, the relation of radioactivity to vulcanism, the glaucophane of the

Pacific Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States; ; ) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Althoug ...

, and the stratigraphy of

Mount Diablo Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton, California, Clayton and northeast of Danville, Califo ...

. He also studied the effects of the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

and sedimentation in

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. In 1914–1916 Louderback led an expedition searching for petroleum reservoirs in the interior of China; after the expedition, in 1916 he also searched for petroleum in the Philippine Islands. He was a member of the

Seismological Society of America The Seismological Society of America (SSA) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to the advancement of seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society. Founded in 1906, the society has members ...

and its president in 1914 and again in 1929–1935. He died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

on January 27, 1957, aged 82. In 1972, the Louderback Mountains in central

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

were named for Louderback.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

"Guide to the George Davis Louderback Papers, 1900–1956"
Online Archive of California {{DEFAULTSORT:Louderback, George Davis American geologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Geological Society of America University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Scientists from San Francisco 1874 births 1957 deaths