James Dwight Dana
Encyclopedia
James Dwight Dana was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

, mineralogist and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcanic
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

 activity, and the origin and structure of continents and oceans around the world.

Early life and career

Dana was born February 12, 1813 in Utica, New York
Utica, New York
Utica is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 62,235 at the 2010 census, an increase of 2.6% from the 2000 census....

. His father was merchant James Dana (1780–1860), and mother was Harriet Dwight (1792–1870). Through his mother he was related to the Dwight New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 family of missionaries and educators including uncle Harrison Gray Otis Dwight
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was an American Congregational missionary.-Biography:Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was born on November 22, 1803 in Conway, Massachusetts...

 and first cousin Henry Otis Dwight
Henry Otis Dwight
Henry Otis Dwight, LL.D. , was an American Congregational missionary.-Biography:He was born in Constantinople, Turkey, the son of Harrison Gray Otis Dwight. He entered Ohio Wesleyan University but left in 1861 to serve in the Civil War. He was business agent at Constantinople of the American Board...

.
He showed an early interest in science, which had been fostered by Fay Edgerton, a teacher in the Utica high school, and in 1830 he entered Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

 in order to study under Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman was an American chemist, one of the first American professors of science , and the first to distill petroleum.-Early life:...

 the elder. Graduating in 1833, for the next two years he was teacher of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 to midshipmen
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...

 in the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, and sailed to the Mediterranean while engaged in his duties.

In 1836 and 1837 he was assistant to Professor Silliman in the chemical laboratory at Yale, and then, for four years, acted as mineralogist and geologist of the United States Exploring Expedition, commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...

, in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. His labors in preparing the reports of his explorations occupied parts of thirteen years after his return to America in 1842. His notebooks from the four years of travel contained fifty sketches, maps, and diagrams, including views of both Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...

 and Castle Crags
Castle Crags
Castle Crags is a dramatic and well-known rock formation in Northern California. Although the mountains of Northern California consist largely of rocks of volcanic and sedimentary origin, granite bodies intruded many parts of the area during the Jurassic period...

. Dana's sketch of Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...

 was engraved in 1849 for publication in the American Journal of Science and Arts (which Silliman had founded in 1818), along with a lengthy article based on Dana's 1841 geological notes. In the article he described in scientific terms the rocks, minerals, and geology of the Shasta region. As far as is known, his sketch of Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...

 became the second view of the mountain ever published.

In 1844 he again became a resident of New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, and married Professor Silliman's daughter, Henrietta Frances Silliman. In 1850, he was appointed as Silliman's successor, as Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology in Yale College, a position which he held until 1892. In 1846 he became joint editor, and during the later years of his life was chief editor, of the American Journal of Science and Arts, to which he was a constant contributor, principally of articles on geology and mineralogy.

The 1849 publication of his geology of Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...

 was undoubtedly a response to the California gold rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 publicity. Dana was the pre-eminent U.S. geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 of his time, and he also was one of the few trained observers anywhere who had first hand knowledge of the northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 terrain. He had previously written that there was likelihood that gold was to be found all along the route between the Umpqua River
Umpqua River
The Umpqua River on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States is approximately long. One of the principal rivers of the Oregon Coast and known for bass and shad, the river drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west of the Cascade Range and south of the Willamette Valley,...

 in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...

. He was probably deluged with inquiries about the Shasta region, and was forced to publish in more detail some advice to the would-be gold miners.

Dana was responsible for developing much of the early knowledge on Hawaiian volcanism. In 1880 and 1881 he led the first geological study of the volcanics of Hawaii island
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...

. Dana theorized that the volcanic chain consisted of two volcanic strands, dubbed the "Loa" and "Kea" trends. The Kea trend included Kīlauea
Kilauea
Kīlauea is a volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, and one of five shield volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaii. Kīlauea means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The Puu Ōō cone has been continuously erupting in the eastern...

, Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...

, Kohala
Kohala (mountain)
Kohala is the oldest of five volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaii. Kohala is an estimated one million years old—so old that it experienced, and recorded, a reversal of magnetic field 780,000 years ago. It is believed to have breached sea level more than 500,000 years ago and to...

, Haleakala
Haleakala
Haleakalā , or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by the West Maui Mountains.- History :...

, and West Maui. The Loa trend includes Lōihi
Loihi Seamount
Lōihi Seamount is an active undersea volcano located around off the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii about below sea level. It lies on the flank of Mauna Loa, the largest shield volcano on Earth...

, Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, and the largest on Earth in terms of volume and area covered. It is an active shield volcano, with a volume estimated at approximately , although its peak is about lower than that...

, Hualālai
Hualalai
Hualālai is a dormant shield volcano on the island of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands. It is the third-youngest and the third most active of the five volcanoes that form the island of Hawaii, following Kīlauea and the much larger Mauna Loa, and also the westernmost. Its peak is above sea...

, Kahoolawe
Kahoolawe
Kahoolawe is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Kahoolawe is located about seven miles southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lanai, and it is long by wide, with a total land area of . The highest point on Kahoolawe is the crater of Lua Makika at the...

, Lānai
Lanai
Lānai or Lanai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The only town is Lānai City, a small settlement....

, and West Molokai.

Following another expedition by fellow geologist C. E. Dutton in 1884, Dana returned to the island once again and in 1890 he published a manuscript on the island that was the most detailed of its day, and would be the definite source upon the island's volcanics for decades.

Dana died on April 14, 1895. His son, Edward Salisbury Dana
Edward Salisbury Dana
Edward Salisbury Dana was an American mineralogist and physicist. He made important contributions to the study of minerals, especially in the field of crystallography.-Life and career:...

 (1849–1935) was also a distinguished mineralogist.

Publications

Dana's best known books were his System of Mineralogy (1837), his Manual of Mineralogy (1848), and his Manual of Geology (1863). A bibliographical list of his writings shows 214 titles of books and papers, beginning in 1835 with a paper on the conditions of Vesuvius in 1834. His reports on Zoophytes, on the Geology of the Pacific Area, and on Crustacea, summarizing his work on the Wilkes Expedition, appeared from 1846 onwards. Other works included Manual of Mineralogy (1848), afterwards entitled Manual of Mineralogy and Lithology (ed. 4, 1887); and Corals and Coral Islands] (1872; revised ed. 1890). In 1887, Dana revisited the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

, and the results of his further investigations were published in a quarto volume entitled Characteristics of Volcanoes (1890).

The Manual of Mineralogy by J. D. Dana became a standard college text, and has been continuously revised and updated by a succession of editors including W. E. Ford (13th-14th eds., 1912–1929) and Cornelius S. Hurlbut (15th-21st eds., 1941–1999). The 22nd edition is now in print under the title of Manual of Mineral Science (2002), revised by Cornelis Klein.

Dana's System of Mineralogy has also been revised, the 6th edition (1892) being edited by his son Edward Salisbury Dana
Edward Salisbury Dana
Edward Salisbury Dana was an American mineralogist and physicist. He made important contributions to the study of minerals, especially in the field of crystallography.-Life and career:...

. A 7th edition was published in 1944, and the 8th edition was published in 1997 under the title Dana's New Mineralogy, edited by R. V. Gaines et al.

Dana published a number of manuscripts in an effort to reconcile scientific findings with the Bible between 1856 and 1857 and which are called Science and the Bible.

Awards

Dana was awarded the Copley Medal
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...

 by the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 in 1877, the Wollaston Medal
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...

 by the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

 in 1874 and the Clarke Medal
Clarke Medal
The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales for distinguished work in the Natural sciences.Named in honour of the Reverend William Branwhite Clarke, one of the founders of the Society...

 by the Royal Society of New South Wales
Royal Society of New South Wales
The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. It was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June 1821...

 in 1882.

Named in honor of Dana

  • Dana Park
    Dana Park
    Dana Park is a small urban park in Albany, New York and includes a memorial to James Dana which doubles as Albany's last remaining horse trough. It is located in the Y-intersection caused by Delaware Avenue to the east and Lark Street to the west, with the third leg of the triangle formed by Dana...

     in Albany, New York
    Albany, New York
    Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

    , with a fountain/monument in his honor
  • Mount Dana
    Mount Dana
    Mount Dana is a mountain on the eastern edge of Yosemite National Park in the U.S. state of California. At an elevation of , it is the second highest mountain in Yosemite . Mount Dana is the highest peak in Yosemite that is a simple hike to the summit...

     (and the nearby Dana Meadows
    Dana Meadows
    For the activist, see Donella "Dana" Meadows.The Dana Meadows can be found at the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park, at the foot of Mount Dana, not far from Tuolumne Meadows and the Tioga Pass entrance station...

    ) in the Sierra Nevada, California
    California
    California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

    , USA
  • Dorsa Dana
    Dorsa Dana
    Dorsa Dana is a wrinkle ridge at in Mare Smythii on the Moon. It is 70 km long and was named after James Dwight Dana in 1976....

     (a wrinkle-ridge system) on the Moon
    Moon
    The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

  • Danalite
    Danalite
    Danalite is an iron beryllium silicate sulfide mineral with formula: Fe2+4Be33S.It is a rare mineral which occurs in granites, tin bearing pegmatites, contact metamorphic skarns, gneisses and in hydrothermal deposits...

    , a mineral
    Mineral
    A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

    .
  • Dana Passage in Puget Sound
    Puget Sound
    Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

    , USA
  • Dana, a crater
    Impact crater
    In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

     on Mars
    Mars
    Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

  • The Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America
    Mineralogical Society of America
    The Mineralogical Society of America is a scientific membership organization. MSA was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry, and the arts...

     was named for Dana and his son Edward Salisbury Dana
    Edward Salisbury Dana
    Edward Salisbury Dana was an American mineralogist and physicist. He made important contributions to the study of minerals, especially in the field of crystallography.-Life and career:...

    . It recognizes outstanding scientific contributions through research in the mineralogical sciences by an individual in the midst of their career.
  • The James Dwight Dana House
    James Dwight Dana House
    The James Dwight Dana House, also known as the Dana House, is a historic 19th century Italianate house in New Haven, Connecticut in the United States. This building, designed by New Haven architect Henry Austin on Hillhouse Avenue, was the home of Yale University geology professor, James Dwight Dana...

     in New Haven, Connecticut
    New Haven, Connecticut
    New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

     was declared a National Historic Landmark
    National Historic Landmark
    A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

     in 1965.
  • The fossil horseshoe crab
    Horseshoe crab
    The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America...

     Euproops danae

Further reading

  • http://books.google.com/books?id=9-wEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22james+dwight+dana%22+gilman&source=bl&ots=B1vC3I39TB&sig=AwO9Rlz6q-k2h1OcvCRLWfr5BEo&hl=en&ei=T1ckTL6ZAYPfnAfe7dzHBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=falseThe Life of James Dwight Dana: Scientific Explorer, Mineralogist, Geologist, Zoologist, Professor in Yale University, Daniel Coit Gilman
    Daniel Coit Gilman
    Daniel Coit Gilman was an American educator and academician, who was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and who subsequently served as one of the earliest presidents of the University of California, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, and as...

    , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1899]
  • Artikel James Dwight Dana in der Encyclopaedia Britannica von 1911. Gemeinfrei.
  • David R. Oldroyd (1996): Thinking about the Earth, Harvard Press, ISBN 0-674-88382-9; dt.: Die Biographie der Erde. Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Geologie, Frankfurt a.M., 1998.
  • Johannes Uray, Chemische Theorie und mineralogische Klassifikationssysteme von der chemischen Revolution bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. In: Berhard Hubmann, Elmar Schübl, Johannes Seidl (Hgg.), Die Anfänge geologischer Forschung in Österreich. Beiträge zur Tagung „10 Jahre Arbeitsgruppe Geschichte der Erdwissenschaften Österreichs“ von 24. bis 26. April 2009 in Graz. Graz 2010, S 107-125.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK