Clyde A. Wahrhaftig (December 1, 1919April 6, 1994) was an American geologist who worked for the United States Geological Survey and taught at the University of California at Berkeley.
His research areas included
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
, and the
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains.
P ...
. He is also known for his field guides to the geology of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
.
Biography
Wahrhaftig was born and raised in Fresno, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in geology at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1941, and a Ph.D. in geology at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1953. He worked for the
US Geological Survey (USGS) as a field geologist from 1941 until his death; the bulk of his USGS work was in Alaska.
[ Starting in 1960, he also taught in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the ]University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. During his tenure at Berkeley, he started his researches in the Sierra Nevada.[ When heart issues began to affect his physical activities in the mid-1980s, he shifted his research to the nearby California coast range.] His interest in environmental issues led to him taking the position of Chair and Director of the new Environmental Sciences interdepartmental undergraduate major in 1975. He retired from UC Berkeley in 1982.[
In the late 1960s, Wahrhaftig took an active role in trying to get minority and female students active in the earth sciences. He was also active in environmentally-based community projects, working extensively in the Bolinas and Tomales Bay areas][
Wahrhaftig was a dedicated user of public transportation, partially motivated by his concern about the environment impact of fossil fuels.][ He eschewed automobiles and airplanes and routinely traveled by sea to his field work in Alaska. He continued to use horse-pack trains while working in the field for as long as the USGS permitted it. His support of public transportation also helped him fulfill his commitment to making geology accessible to the public by writing field guides that could be understood by laymen and did not require long trips by car to see the relevant sites. Some of his most popular field guides include ''Streetcar to Subduction and Other Plate Tectonic Trips by Public Transport in San Francisco'',] ''A Walker's Guide to the Geology of San Francisco'', and ''The Hayward Fault in Hayward and Fremont, via BART''. Wahrhaftig was also the co-author of two geology textbooks. Streetcar to Subduction has been revisited in digital form with a Google Earth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
-based online field trip guide series Streetcar2Subduction released in December 2019 at the American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...
Fall Meeting in recognition of the 35th anniversary of the original book and the 100th anniversary of Wahrhaftig's birth.
Wahrhaftig spent most of his career as a closeted homosexual, but he came out as a gay man during his acceptance speech for the Geological Society of America's "Distinguished Career Award" in 1989. He had a close personal and professional relationship with the geophysicist Allan Cox that lasted until Cox's death in 1987.
Wahrhaftig died of heart failure in San Francisco at the age of 74.
Scientific work
Wahrhaftig made significant scientific contributions to the field of geology; his work is credited with inspiring the research of many colleagues and students.[ He was known for his systematic and meticulous field observations.][ His 1959 paper on Alaskan ]rock glacier
Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms, consisting either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between. Rock glaciers are normally found at high ...
s (co-authored with Allan Cox) inspired a world-wide surge in research on rock glaciers.[ Wahrhaftig's 1965 paper "Stepped Topography of the Southern Sierra Nevada" was awarded the ]Geological Society of America
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences.
History
The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchco ...
(GSA) Kirk Bryan Award
The Kirk Bryan Award is the annual award of the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division of the Geological Society of America. It is named after Kirk Bryan (geologist), Kirk Bryan a pioneer in geomorphology of arid regions. The award was esta ...
. He was one of the first Bay Area scientists to bring the role of plate tectonics in causing earthquakes to public awareness. He was also a pioneer in applying geological science to environmental problems, with a particular focus on forest management practices (e.g., effects of logging on soil erosion). He was appointed to the California Board of Forestry in 1975, where he advocated for forest practices legislation that took a long-term perspective on geomorphological effects of forest management.
Wahrhaftig was given the GSA's Distinguished Career Award in 1989.
Wahrhaftig was largely responsible for paleomagnetist Allan Cox entering the field of geology, and considered this to be one of his major accomplishments in the field. In 1950 and 1951, Wahrhaftig hired Cox (then an undergraduate chemistry major) to be a field assistant in Alaska. Cox later described the rock glacier research as "one of the most interesting and exciting projects" he'd ever worked on; the rock glacier work also brought Cox's attention to the issue of rock dating
Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares ...
. After 2 years of army service (during which Wahrhaftig continued to send him geology books), Cox returned to the university and changed his area of study to geophysics. The rock glacier work was published as Wahrhaftig and Cox (1959).[
Wahrhaftig and his graduate students at UC Berkeley spent decades mapping the effects of the Tioga glaciation in the ]Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
area, but his map was not finished at the time of his death in 1994. He left a bequest for its completion, and the task was taken up by Yosemite Park geologist Greg Stock. The completed map was published online in 2019.
Publications
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References
External links
Finding Aid to the Clyde Wahrhaftig Papers
at The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
Berkeley Alumni Magazine article on Wahrhaftig's life
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahrhaftig, Clyde
20th-century American geologists
American geophysicists
United States Geological Survey personnel
American LGBT scientists
1919 births
1994 deaths
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
California Institute of Technology alumni
Gay academics
Gay scientists
University of California, Berkeley faculty
20th-century LGBT people