G. K. Gilbert's Contribution to Selenology

Brush S. G. , “G. K. Gilbert”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xiii (1982), 71–72.

Pyne S. J. , Grove Karl Gilbert—a great engine of research (Austin, Texas, 1980), 157.

El-Baz F. , “Gilbert and the Moon”, The scientific ideas of G. K. Gilbert—an assessment on the occasion of the centennial of the United States Geological Survey (1879–1979), Special paper 183, Geological Society of America (Boulder, Colorado, 1980), 69.

For early impact hypotheses, see von Bieberstein M. , Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Ausbildung der gegenwartigan Anordung des Weltgebundes (Darmstadt, 1802); von Moll K. E. , Über den Zusammenhang der Gebirgsbildung mit dem Erscheinender Feuerkugeln (Munich, 1815); and Gruithuisen F. von P. , Annalekten Erb- und Himmels-Kunde (Munich, 1829).

Proctor R. A. , The Moon, her motions, aspect, scenery, and physical conditions (Manchester, 1873) and “The Moon's myriad small craters”, Belgravia, xxxvi (1878), 153–71. This latter essay was reprinted in Proctor, The poetry of astronomy (London, 1881), 182–214.

Meydenbauer A. , “Über die Bildung der Mondoberfläche”, Sirius, x (1877), 180; and “Die Gebilde der Monoberfläche”, ibid., xv (1882), 59–64. Gilbert was also aware of, but not familiar with an impact hypothesis by “Asterios” (W. and A. Thiersch) in Die Physiognomie des Mondes (Nördlingen, 1879).

Hooke R. , Micrographia (London, 1665).

One example must suffice. In the many editions of his Outlines of astronomy during the last half of the nineteenth century, Herschel John F. W. Sir declares that the lunar craters “offer … in its highest perfection, the true volcanic character …”. The emphasis is Herschel's.

Jacoby H. , transactions of the New York Academy of Science, meeting of 16 February 1893, Astronomy and astro-physics, xii (1893), 286.

“Dr. Gilbert on the evolution of the Moon”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, iv (1892), 263–4. Proctor once noted without elaboration that “I cannot doubt that the substance of the Moon once formed a ring around the Earth”. See Proctor , “The Moon's myriad small craters”, 155.

Gilbert G. K. , “Geology”, 14th annual report, US Geological Survey (for 1892), 1893. El-Baz , op. cit., 69, 72, reverses the order of these investigations in time.

Gilbert G. K. , “Notes made in Arizona, Oct. 22–Nov. 19, 1891”, Index No. 51, Accession No. 3448, US Geological Survey field records file, US National Archives; and “The origin of hypotheses, illustrated by the discussion of a topographical problem”, Science, n.s., iii (1896), 1–13. Gilbert thought the main mass of the iron meteorite would be buried beneath the crater.

Barringer D. M. , “Coon Mountain and its crater”, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, lvii (1906), 861–86; and “Meteor Crater (formerly called Coon Mountain or Coon Butte) in northern central Arizona”, paper read before the National Academy of Sciences at Princeton, New Jersey, 16 November 1909 (privately printed). See also Tilghman B. C. , “Coon Butte, Arizona”, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, lvii (1906), 887–914; Fairchild H. L. , “The origin of Meteor Crater (Coon Butte), Arizona”, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, xviii (1907), 493–504; and Merrill G. P. , “The meteor crater of Canyon Diablo, Arizona; its history, origin and associated meteoritic irons”, Smithsonian Institution miscellaneous collections, 1 (1908), 461–98. The recognition that impact craters exist on Earth was an important factor in the subsequent development of impact theory in general.

Gilbert G. K. , “The evolution of the Moon”, abstract, American naturalist, xxvi (1892) 1056–7.

Gilbert G. K. , “The Moon's face; a study of the origin of its features”, Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington, xii (1893), 241–92; reprinted in Scientific American supplement, xxxvii (1893–94), 15006–8, 15016–18.

Jacoby , op. cit.; see also, minutes of meeting of 16 February 1893, Transactions of the New York Academy of Science, xii (1893), 93–95.

Hooke , op. cit.; see also Marth A. , “Recent contributions to our knowledge of the Moon”, Sidereal messenger, i (1882), 208–10.

Beer W. and Mädler J. H. , Der Mond (Berlin, 1837).

Dana J. D. , “On the volcanoes of the Moon”, American journal of science, ii (1846), 335–53.

Neison E. (Edmund Neville Nevill), The Moon and the condition and configuration of its surface (London, 1876).

Faye H. , “Les volcanoes de la lune”, Revue scientifique, series 3, i (1881), 130–8.

Ericsson J. , “The lunar surface and its temperature”, Nature, xxxiv (1886), 248–51.

Ebert H. , “Ein Vorlesungsversuch aus dem Gebiete der physikalischen Geographie (Bildung der Schammvulkane und der Mondringgebirge)”, Annalen der Physik und Chemie, xli (1890), 351–63.

Gilbert , “The Moon's face”. The description of Gilbert's hypothesis which follows is taken from this paper.

Faye , op. cit.

Ericsson , op. cit.

At Coon Mountain, Gilbert found the volumes of the crater and its rim to be precisely equal, viz., 82,000,000 cubic yards.

Holden E. S. , review of Ebert H. , “Über die Ringgebirge des Mondes”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, iii (1891), 53–56.

Proctor , The Moon , 346. Proctor (“The Moon's myriad small craters”, 164) remarks that “It is, however, to be noted that almost every mass which thus strikes the Moon must be vaporized by the intense heat excited as it impinges on the Moon's surface…”. But neither Proctor, nor Gilbert, nor other earlier selenologists seem to have realized the implications for crater formation of the relation mv² of which, of course, Einstein's e = mc² is the ultimate case.

Gilbert , “The Moon's face”, 267–8. Gilbert here gives the mathematical derivation of the expression.

The idea of a relative chronology was not new, nor was it more fully developed for another seventy years. See Birt W. R. , “Lunar physics”, The observatory, iv (1881), 47–51, 108–11, who attributes such a chronology to Chacornac in 1859; and Shoemaker E. M. and Hackman R. J. , “Stratigraphic basis for a lunar time scale”, in Kopal Z. and Mikailov Z. K. (eds), The Moon (IAU symposium no. 14, New York, 1962), 289–300.

Holden E. S. , editor's note, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, iv (1892), 263–4.

Holden E. S. , “The lunar crater Copernicus”, ibid., 114–20.

Review of “The Moon's face”, American naturalist, xxvii (1893), 784.

Review of “The Moon's face”, by James J. F. , Science, xxi (1893), 305–7.

Davis W. M. , “Lunar craters”, The nation, lvi (1893), 342–3.

Davis W. M. , “Grove Karl Gilbert”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, xxi (1926), no. 2.

Ranyard A. C. , “The great lunar crater Tycho”, Knowledge, 1 August 1893, 149–52.

Ranyard completed and edited Proctor's posthumously published Old and new astronomy (London, 1895) in which Proctor cites the volcanic analogy for the lunar craters and does not mention his earlier impact theory.

Peal S. H. , “Lunar glaciation”, Nature, xxxv (1886), 100–1.

Miller E. , “A new theory of the surface markings of the Moon”, Popular astronomy, iii (1896), 273–8.

Shaler N. S. , “A comparison of the features of the Earth and the Moon”, Smithsonian Institution contributions to knowledge, no. 1438 (vol. xxxiv (1903)).

Chamberlin T. C. and Salisbury R. D. , Geology (New York, 1905), 596, 598.

Moulton F. R. , An introduction to astronomy (New York, 1906), 266.

T. J. J. See, Researches on the evolution of stellar systems (Lynn, Massachusetts, 1910), ii, 331–6.

Davis , “Grove Karl Gilbert”, 186–8.