Edwin James' and John Hinton's revisions of Maclure's geologic map of the United States

摘要

William Maclure's pioneering geologic map of the eastern UnitedStates, published first in 1809 with Observations on the Geology of the United States, provided a foundation for many latermaps – a template from which geologists could extend their mapping westwardfrom the Appalachians. Edwin James, botanist, geologist and surgeon for the1819/1820 United States Army western exploring expedition under MajorStephen H. Long, published a full account of this expedition with map andgeologic sections in 1822–1823. In this he extended Maclure's geologyacross the Mississippi Valley to the Colorado Rockies. John Howard Hinton(1791–1873) published his widely read text: The History and Topography of the United States in 1832, which included acompilations of Maclure's and James' work in a colored geologic map andvertical sections. All three men were to some degree confounded in theirattempts to employ Wernerian rock classification in their mapping andinterpretations of geologic history, a common problem in the early 19thCentury prior to the demise of Neptunist theory and advent ofbiostratigraphic techniques of correlation. However, they provided afoundation for the later, more refined mapping and geologic interpretationof the eastern United States.