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John C. Crowell
Born (1917-05-12) May 12, 1917 (age 107)
State College, Pennsylvania, USA
DiedMay 13, 2015
Montecito, California
Alma materUniversity of Texas
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
UCLA
AwardsPenrose Medal
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
InstitutionsShell Oil Company
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
Doctoral advisorJames Gilluly at UC Santa Barbara

John Chambers Crowell (May 12, 1917 – May 13, 2015) was an internationally acclaimed American geologist. Crowell's research contributions were primarily concerned with sedimentation, paleoclimatology[1], tectonics, and the regional geology of California.[2] Crowell was a geology student and professor for 20 years at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and then 21 years at UC Santa Barbara.

Crowell served in the US Army Air Corps as an oceanographic meteorologist and officer during World War II. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his work in forecasting the sea, swell, and surf conditions for the Normandy D-Day Invasion and other landing operations.[3]

In the early and mid 1950s Crowell published several papers dealing with the origin of submarine canyons and turbidity currents.[4] In California and the Alps he studied the characteristics of flysch-type sedimentation.[5] During the 1950s and 1960s Crowell worked out the displacement history of some of the major strike-slip faults in California, including the San Gabriel and southern stretch of the San Andreas.[6]

In the late 1960s, his interest in downslope sliding processes,[7] in California as well as in Europe, led to investigation of ancient glaciations in Europe, North American, and especially on all of the Gondwanan continents in the Southern Hemisphere.[8] Crowell has authored several books [see citations] on glacial stratigraphy on all the continents.[9]

Education

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  • BS in Geology from University of Texas at Austin in 1939
  • MA in Oceanographic Meteorology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1946
  • PhD in Geology from UCLA in 1947

World War II military service

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The U.S. Army put Crowell into intensive training as an oceanographic meteorologist with several of the world's leading meteorologists and oceanographers. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1943. Crowell became a member of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Operation Overlord weather forecasting team that made the critical forecasts of sea, swell, and surf for the June 6, 1944, Normandy Invasion which earned Crowell the Bronze Star. Later in the war he was based in Ceylon preparing for the invasion of Burma, and led a US Army convoy across the Ledo-Burma Road from India into China. He was working on the planned invasion of Japan, based at Manila, Philippines, when the war ended.

Teaching career

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  • Faculty UCLA 1947 to 1967
  • Faculty UCSB 1967 to 1987
  • Graduate Advisor at UCSB from 1969 to 1972
  • Founder of the Environmental Studies Program at UCLA with Professor Preston Cloud
  • Professor of courses in structural geology, field studies in tectonics, and graduate seminars in structure and tectonics at UCSB
  • Taught short courses all over the world for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Continuing Education Program, and for many oil companies and geological societies
  • Professor Emeritus UCSB 1987

Awards and honors

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Personal life

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In 1946 he met and married Betty Marie Bruner of Claremont. They remained married for 61 years until she died in 2007. Their daughter Marty was born in 1951. Crowell was preceded in death by his wife Betty Marie Bruner Crowell (2007) and sister Helen Hunt Chambers Crowell (2013.) He is survived by his only child, Martha Crowell Bobroskie; granddaughter, Alisha McCormack; grandson, John Bobroskie; and great grandchildren Molly and Sterling McCormack, all of Santa Cruz, California.

Works

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JC Crowell- 1974 - archives.datapages.com ABSTRACT Several sedimentary basins in southern California within and south of the Transverse Ranges display a history suggestive of a pull apart or a tipped wedge origin Beginning in the Miocene these basins apparently originated along the soft and splintered ...

MV Caputo, JC Crowell - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1985 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Continental glaciation, as recorded by sedimentary facies and by pavements scoured into underlying rocks, affected northern Africa at the end of the Proterozoic Era. This glaciation was followed in the Cambrian Period by a long, warmer interval without ...

JC Crowell - Geological Society of America Bulletin, 1957 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Massive marine mudstones containing scattered pebbles crop out at several places in California in strata ranging from Jurassic to Pliocene. Similar rocks, also characterized by unsorted lithology with widely dispersed pebbles, are exposed in Switzerland in ...

JC Crowell- Geological Society of America Special ‚ ... , 1962 - specialpapers.gsapubs.org Abstract A post-earliest Miocene displacement of about 160 miles (260 km) on the San Andreas fault system in southern California is suggested by the occurrence of similar rocks and geologic histories in three terranes‚ - the Tejon, Soledad, and Orocopia. These three ...

JC Crowell - 1999 - books.google.com Ancient ice ages are revealed by distinctive stratal facies that tell us much about the times of coolness and how the climate system works. Several strong ice ages were recorded in the late Paleozic time and during transitions from the Devonian in to the Carboniferous and ...

Abstract Tectonic rotation of the western Transverse Ranges block is explained by capture of the partially subducted Monterey microplate by the Pacific plate at about anomaly 6 time (ca. 20 Ma). As Pacific-Monterey spreading slowed and eventually ceased, the slip vector ...

JC Crowell - 1974 - archives.datapages.com ABSTRACT Active sedimentation along the present San Andreas transform fault occurs primarily at the head of the Gulf of California including the Salton Trough Here a vertical thickness of about 6 000 m 20 000 ft of young sediments mainly derived from ancestral ...

JC Crowell - Geological Society of America Bulletin, 1955 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Gurnigel sandstone beds in the Paleocene-Eocene Flysch of the External Prealps, Switzerland, contain primary structures which display common orientation through many feet of strata. The linearity of some of these directional-current structures is easily measured in ...

JC Crowell - 1982 - archives.datapages.com ABSTRACT Ridge Basin originated during the Miocene Epoch as a stretched and sagged crustal wedge within the complex splintered boundary between the Pacific and North American lithospheric plates. Strata filling the basin and overlap relations around its ...

JC Crowell, LA Frakes - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1971 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract The distribution of striated pavements, tillite, outwash deposits, faceted and striated stones, boulders preserved in laminated sequences and interpreted as dropped by ice floes, and other records, show that a large part of Australia was glaciated during the late ...

JC Crowell, LA Frakes - American Journal of Science, 1970 - ajsonline.org Abstract Paleozoic ice sheets, migration of Gondwanaland ice centers, Cenozoic glaciation, distribution patterns of continental masses and effect on oceanic circulation, glaciation causal factors (continental uplift, availability of moisture sources, freezing and thawing of ...

LA Frakes, JC Crowell - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1969 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Glacial activity is recorded in rocks of Early, Middle and Late Carboniferous and Early Permian (?) age in Argentina and Bolivia, and in Carboniferous and Permian (?) strata of the cratonic Parana basin in Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Direct evidence for ...

JC Crowell - 1964 - archives.datapages.com This field trip guide consists primarily of a series of annotated strip maps along the San Andreas fault from just north of its intersection with Highway 166-399 to the vicinity of Sandberg on the flanks of Liebre Mountain at the western end of Antelope Valley. The ...

JC Crowell - AAPG Bulletin, 1952 - archives.datapages.com Abstract: The San Gabriel fault zone, which trends northwesterly subparallel with the San Andreas fault for about 90 miles, appears to have a post-late Miocene right-lateral displacement of 15-25 miles. Southwest of this nearly vertical fault, 6 miles northwest of ...

LA Frakes, JC Crowell - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1967 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract In the Falkland Islands, diamictite of Carboniferous to Early Permian age unconformably overlies Devonian sandstone and quartzite and extends gradationally upward into black shale of Permian (?) age. The unit, previously termed Lafonian Tillite, ...

JC Crowell, LA Frakes - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1972 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract The Dwyka Tillite of Carboniferous-Permian age lies at the base of the Gondwana sequence within the Karroo basin of South Africa. The formation consists of up to 1,000 m of massive diamictite and locally contains laminated interbeds (some with isolated stones ...

JC Crowell - 1976 - archives.datapages.com Abstract The Santa Clara trough, part of the Ventura basin, California, originated during late Miocene time and then deepened rapidly, probably as the result of crustal extension. Inasmuch as the crustal stretching amounted to about 50 per cent it is inferred that the ...

LA Frakes, JC Crowell - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1970 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Africa, between about 4 N. and 32 S. latitude, was glaciated during the late Paleozoic as shown by glacial strata in several major basins and fault blocks‚ - Karroo, Botswana, Orange River, Zambezi, and Congo‚ - and in smaller areas of the Kaokoveld in ...

JL Matthews, JC Crowell - Geological Society of ‚ ... , 1971 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Like other Gondwanaland fragments, Antarctica was glaciated during the late Paleozoic, as demonstrated by striated floors and boulder pavements and by glacially striated clasts in diamictites and associated varvelike strata. Tillites are known throughout ...

JC Crowell, RA Hope, JE Kahle‚ ... - AAPG ‚ ... , 1964 - archives.datapages.com Abstract: The Pliocene Pico Formation, according to paleogeographic and paleoecologic interpretations, was deposited in marine waters at least 300 m. deep. Sedimentation of mud, sand, and some gravel was largely the result of bottom-following underflows generally ...

KD Ehman, GG Gray, JC Crowell - Geological Society of ‚ ... , 1993 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract The Ridge basin, located in southern California between the San Andreas and San Gabriel faults, contains as much as 14 km of Mio-Pliocene marine and nonmarine sedimentary fill. These strata are exposed as a northwest-dipping homoclinal sequence ...

JC Crowell - Stanford Univ. Publ. Geol. Sci, 1973 - books.google.com ABSTRACT: In southern California the complicated San Andreas fault system has acquired a total right slip of nearly 300 km primarily since late Miocene times. The principal strand from the late Miocene to the late Pliocene was the San Gabriel fault which was then ...

EM Kemp, JC Crowell - Geological Society of ‚ ... , 1975 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Occurrences of glacial deposits of late Paleozoic age in the Northern Hemisphere are known only in peninsular India, along the Himalayan trend from the Salt Range in Pakistan to Sikkim and Bhutan, and there are possible deposits rafted by shore ice in ...

JC Crowell - The Journal of Geology, 1952 - JSTOR The characteristics of California submarine canyons between Monterey and San Diego differ from land canyons, suggesting that their origin is not subaerial: longitudinal profiles are steeper than those of most land canyons; profiles are more irregular; canyons head near ...

JC Crowell - AAPG Bulletin, 1950 - archives.datapages.com Abstract: During late Tertiary time a thick section of coarse and fine continental clastics accumulated in Ridge Basin. Deposition was concurrent with movement on the San Gabriel fault zone which delimited Ridge Basin on the southwest. Movement on this fault ceased ...

JC Crowell, T Susuki - Geological Society of America ‚ ... , 1959 - gsabulletin.gsapubs.org Abstract Marine Eocene strata underlie about 26 square miles in the northeastern Orocopia Mountains, Riverside County, California. The newly discovered section, which is about 4800 feet thick, lies in a structural trough within basement rocks and is overlain unconformably ...

Abstract: The distinction between separation and slip is fundamental to the proper geometric understanding of Previous Hit fault Next Hit displacements. Ideally geologists strive to find slip: the relative displacement of formerly adjacent points on opposite sides of a Previous ...

hemisphere during the Late Palaeozoic, we have studied tillites and associated rocks in Antarctica, Africa, South America and the Falkland Islands in the past few years. As ... Tectonics of ridge basin region, southern California JC Crowell - SPECIAL PAPERS-GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ‚ ... , 2003 - books.google.com ABSTRACT Ridge Basin, an elongated basin within the San Andreas transform belt of southern California, evolved through time in a dextral strike-slip regime during the late Miocene, between ca. 11 and 5 Ma. About 14,000 m of strata accumulated in a shingled ...

JC Crowell - California State Department of Natural Resources, ‚ ... , 1954 - scvhistory.com The San Gabriel fault, which trends northwestward subparallel to the San Andreas fault for a distance of about 90 miles, apparently has a right strike-slip displacement of approximately 20 miles. The evidence in support of this conclusion comes from a consideration of the ...

JC Crowell - Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological ‚ ... , 1961 - trned.lyellcollection.org Abstract Kimmeridgian boulder beds with interbedded sandstone and shale near Helmsdale, Scotland, have yielded seventy-six observations of eleven different types of sedimentary structures that give information on the direction of emplacement. The data ...

References

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  1. ^ Gornitz, Vivien. Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  2. ^ Regional Geology and Tectonics: Phanerozoic Passive Margins, Cratonic Basins and Global Tectonic Maps. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  3. ^ Ross, John. The Forecast for D-day: And the Weatherman Behind Ike's Greatest Gamble. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  4. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  5. ^ Ziegler, Peter. Evolution of Laurussia. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  6. ^ Cunningham, W.D.; Mann, Paul. Tectonics of Strike-slip Restraining and Releasing Bends. p. 48. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  7. ^ Neuendorf, Klaus. Glossary of Geology. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  8. ^ The Permian of Northern Pangea: Volume 1: Paleogeography, Paleoclimates. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  9. ^ Late Paleozoic Glacial Events and Postglacial Transgressions in Gondwana. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
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