Kriger was a great loess scholar and published vast amounts of material on loess. He worked with Marton Pecsi within the confines of the INQUA Loess Commission- mostly on practical problems with loess. He was concerned with the connection between loess and aridity. His major work was his book on loess as a geographical entity which was produced for the INQUA Congress in the USA in 1965. Only 1350 copies were printed, and it was not translated into English; it was not as widely appreciated as it should have been. It had a fine bibliography attached, which was published separately by Loess Letter as Supplement 13 in 1986.
Thursday, 17 November 2016
Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Loess in Britain XVI: Rye and the River Rother
I have been reading about the extraordinary Benson family; A.C.Benson and E.F.Benson and their father Archbishop of Canterbury Benson. They were a family of writers; I believe AC was said to have written 3000 letters per year and his dairy was eventually 160+ volumes. EF published an autobiography right at the end of his life - 'Final Edition (1940)' and it contains some interesting observations on the town of Rye, where he lived (and was mayor of). Actually the following excerpt is from the introduction by Hugo Vickers:
"The town of Rye stands like a pyramid on an isolated rock, crowned by its fine old church. With Winchelsea it is one of the Cinque Ports, having been added to the original five as far back as the twelth century.
"Rye was in earlier times a haven for smugglers. So many of the innocent looking houses concealed vast intercommunicating cellars, the chimneys contained secret hiding places, stairways were hidden in cupboards."
You see the critical phrase: vast intercommunicating cellars -one of the indicators of loess ground. Its not easy to dig vast intercommunicating cellars; the task is made easier if you are digging in loess. So could it be loess; how is Rye placed as a site for a loess deposit? Actually- not bad. We could have a local loess deposit at Rye- a bit like the local deposit at Pegwell Bay. At Pegwell Bay the River Stour carries loess material out of the eastern parts of the Weald and concentrates it sufficiently for a real loess deposit to form. Loess material which had fallen into the southern part of the Weald was concentrated and transported by the River Rother, and deposited at Rye (or nearby). Most of the loess material which fell into the Weald was eventually transported north by the River Medway and contributed to the brickearth deposits in north Kent, but some fell into the catchments of the Stour, and the Rother, and made separate loess deposits on redeposition.
"The town of Rye stands like a pyramid on an isolated rock, crowned by its fine old church. With Winchelsea it is one of the Cinque Ports, having been added to the original five as far back as the twelth century.
"Rye was in earlier times a haven for smugglers. So many of the innocent looking houses concealed vast intercommunicating cellars, the chimneys contained secret hiding places, stairways were hidden in cupboards."
You see the critical phrase: vast intercommunicating cellars -one of the indicators of loess ground. Its not easy to dig vast intercommunicating cellars; the task is made easier if you are digging in loess. So could it be loess; how is Rye placed as a site for a loess deposit? Actually- not bad. We could have a local loess deposit at Rye- a bit like the local deposit at Pegwell Bay. At Pegwell Bay the River Stour carries loess material out of the eastern parts of the Weald and concentrates it sufficiently for a real loess deposit to form. Loess material which had fallen into the southern part of the Weald was concentrated and transported by the River Rother, and deposited at Rye (or nearby). Most of the loess material which fell into the Weald was eventually transported north by the River Medway and contributed to the brickearth deposits in north Kent, but some fell into the catchments of the Stour, and the Rother, and made separate loess deposits on redeposition.
Monday, 14 November 2016
Co-Authors (Largely Loessic) Part Three
The co-author lists are roughly in proper historical order- at least for the first three lists. Part Three contains co-authors 21-30; we edge a bit further east; contact with Wroclaw is revived, the wonders of Vojvodina begin to be appreciated, we venture to Tashkent.
21. Nadira Mavlyanova. Uzbekistan to Nottingham. We pursue the 15 loess research targets set by G.A.Mavlyanov. NTU links up with the Seismological Institute in Tashkent. The great Tashkent earthquake destroyed an amazing number of loess buildings. Seismology Institute built at epicentre.
22. Ken O'Hara-Dhand. Standing in a quarry in Korshiv, in Ukraine. Admiring the loess, and noticing the sand-martins. The beginnings of the 'birds & loess' project. The properties of loess make it the ideal ground material for sand-martin nesting. Sand martins detect loess; sand martins indicate the presence of loess by living in it.
23. Zdzislaw Jary. ZJ was a student of Jerzy Cegla, and now carries a banner for Silesian loess. A series of essays in New Zealand Soil News, and adventures in Polish biobibliography. A shared appreciation of the S.Z.Rozycki book.
24. Slobodan Markovic. An extraordinary meeting in 1999, an adventure shared in Moscow, an acquaintance renewed in 2006. A dance around hydroconsolidation and loessification and fragipans and history- but always in the background the great cliffs of Stari Slankamen. A persistence with INQUA, a dawdling beside the Danube, a rumination at Ruma..
25. Sue McLaren. Birds again; ZJ proposed that bee-eaters were the birds to study; so bee-eaters in Europe, Africa, India and Australia were examined. The 'Heneberg Compromise' was invented and invoked. The bee-eater as environmental engineer was pursued worldwide. In Europe the relationship of bird to loess is explicit; in Australia the relationship is speculative- but where loess should be in Oz- there are bee eaters.
26. Mladen Jovanovic. History. We identify Karl Caesar von Leonhard 1824, Charles Lyell 1833, Heinrich Georg Bronn 1830, Samuel Hibbert 1832, Leonard Horner 1836 and recognise the beginnings of loess scholarship.
27. Tivadar Gaudenyi. The first publication of the word loess in English was possibly by Sam.Hibbert in his book on Eifel volcanos(sic). Hibbert published a map of part of the Eifel region; maybe the first mapping of loess?
28. Zorica Svircev. Cyan-bacteria; the role of bacteria in the formation of loess deposits. Loess on Mars and Titan and other distant places. We await definite recognition of loess on Mars; of course if there is no geological mechanism available to make loess material we will wait in vain.
29. Arya Assadi-Langroudi. Packing. Loess as a packing. Loess as a collapsible soil (ground). Is loess the only geological system where packing is of any consequence? Is the packing parameter only to be studied with respect to loess? The loess connection at UEL moves from Hugh Nugent to AAL.
30. Roger Fagg. Timaru; John Hardcastle. Timaru is important in the history of the study of loess. At Timaru in 1889 John Hardcastle formulated the basic concepts of loess stratigraphy. At Timaru JH invented scientific palaeoclimatology. And he had a firm appreciation of the action of glaciers in the formation of loess material and loess deposits.
21. Nadira Mavlyanova. Uzbekistan to Nottingham. We pursue the 15 loess research targets set by G.A.Mavlyanov. NTU links up with the Seismological Institute in Tashkent. The great Tashkent earthquake destroyed an amazing number of loess buildings. Seismology Institute built at epicentre.
22. Ken O'Hara-Dhand. Standing in a quarry in Korshiv, in Ukraine. Admiring the loess, and noticing the sand-martins. The beginnings of the 'birds & loess' project. The properties of loess make it the ideal ground material for sand-martin nesting. Sand martins detect loess; sand martins indicate the presence of loess by living in it.
23. Zdzislaw Jary. ZJ was a student of Jerzy Cegla, and now carries a banner for Silesian loess. A series of essays in New Zealand Soil News, and adventures in Polish biobibliography. A shared appreciation of the S.Z.Rozycki book.
24. Slobodan Markovic. An extraordinary meeting in 1999, an adventure shared in Moscow, an acquaintance renewed in 2006. A dance around hydroconsolidation and loessification and fragipans and history- but always in the background the great cliffs of Stari Slankamen. A persistence with INQUA, a dawdling beside the Danube, a rumination at Ruma..
25. Sue McLaren. Birds again; ZJ proposed that bee-eaters were the birds to study; so bee-eaters in Europe, Africa, India and Australia were examined. The 'Heneberg Compromise' was invented and invoked. The bee-eater as environmental engineer was pursued worldwide. In Europe the relationship of bird to loess is explicit; in Australia the relationship is speculative- but where loess should be in Oz- there are bee eaters.
26. Mladen Jovanovic. History. We identify Karl Caesar von Leonhard 1824, Charles Lyell 1833, Heinrich Georg Bronn 1830, Samuel Hibbert 1832, Leonard Horner 1836 and recognise the beginnings of loess scholarship.
27. Tivadar Gaudenyi. The first publication of the word loess in English was possibly by Sam.Hibbert in his book on Eifel volcanos(sic). Hibbert published a map of part of the Eifel region; maybe the first mapping of loess?
28. Zorica Svircev. Cyan-bacteria; the role of bacteria in the formation of loess deposits. Loess on Mars and Titan and other distant places. We await definite recognition of loess on Mars; of course if there is no geological mechanism available to make loess material we will wait in vain.
29. Arya Assadi-Langroudi. Packing. Loess as a packing. Loess as a collapsible soil (ground). Is loess the only geological system where packing is of any consequence? Is the packing parameter only to be studied with respect to loess? The loess connection at UEL moves from Hugh Nugent to AAL.
30. Roger Fagg. Timaru; John Hardcastle. Timaru is important in the history of the study of loess. At Timaru in 1889 John Hardcastle formulated the basic concepts of loess stratigraphy. At Timaru JH invented scientific palaeoclimatology. And he had a firm appreciation of the action of glaciers in the formation of loess material and loess deposits.
Friday, 11 November 2016
Co-Authors (Largely Loessic) Part Two
Part two contains more co-authors, numbers 11-20 of those agreeable people sharing title pages; from biobibliography to the geomorphology of the Shire, and serious topics like hydroconsolidation and slope stability.
11. Jewel Davin. Bibliographer. Jewel was the librarian at the Lower Hutt headquarters of the DSIR Soil Bureau in New Zealand. A great library- a bibliographic bonus; but DSIR delivered another bibliographic treasure- they published a series of 'Bibliographic Reports' which, since they were in effect in house journals, could be adapted to special requirements. BR28 and BR30 are masterpieces (I make this claim); we did loess in NZ, and fragipans- very satisfying.
12. Jan Piotrowski. From Poland to Waterloo, Ontario. Jan came to do post-graduate work on drumlins, and did a brilliant map of the famous Woodstock drumlin field. He moved on to become a guru of glacial geology, to do great work for INQUA, and to flourish in Aarhus.
13. Edward Derbyshire. The Centre for Loess Research & Documentation at Leicester University. Studies on slope stability in the thick loess at Lanzhou in China. The NATO conference on Collapsible Soils, organised by ED and held at Loughborough University. The LoessFest Conference at Heidelberg & Bonn, organised by ED, and Ludwig Zoeller and me; a wonderful event.
14. Tom Dijkstra. Tom joined the loess world to participate in the Loess Landslides project in Lanzhou. We wrote on packing and collapse, and he got his PhD from Utrecht University. We also produced plausible explanations for the collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho, which (rather foolishly) had been built of loess.
15. C.D.F.Rogers. When the soil mechanics laboratory at Leicester University suddenly closed the Lanzhou landslide project was in danger of collapse, but Chris Rogers at Loughborough University came to the rescue. A sudden rush of papers on particle packing, on hydroconsolidation, on silt (the seminal paper on silt)- and calculations of the mode particle shape of loess particles- which turned out to be Zingg 3m blades.
16. A.M. Assallay. Bashir Assallay suddenly arrived at Loughborough proposing to do a PhD on Loess in Libya. Good timing; model studies of hydroconsolidation, and some validation of the Bryant theory of fragipan formation. He showed that there was an optimum clay content for collapse; too little clay- no collapse; too much clay- no collapse; but just right- then classic hydroconsolidation.
17. Ian Jefferson. The contract with NATO to investigate loess ground in Bulgaria. The idea was to bury nuclear waste in thick loess; protected from above, and below, by clay-rich palaeosols. We worked with the Academy of Sciences in Sofia and designed an outline repository to sit beside the reactors at Kozloduy, beside the Danube. There was a halt at that point as the funds ran out, but we think it is being built now.
18. Susan Dibben. Modelling of loess ground structures (for collapse studies) went in two directions: we invented the formation of the test sample by simply depositing model loess in an oedometer test ring (a method used by Bashir), and also the idea of using simple Monte Carlo methods to build computer models. Susan did computer models and they were very convincing.
19. Sally Bijl. The Bucklebury Ferry Smial of the Tolkien Society. The amazing realisation that the hobbits lived in a loess landscape; the Brandywine River is a yellow river (from the Elvish Baranduin- golden). If you live in a hole in the ground the odds are that the ground is loess. This led on to an appreciation of the glacierized nature of the landscape to the north (the drumlins of Arnor) and the fact that the hated brick houses in the Shire had been built of loess bricks, made probably at Stock. They were, ironically enough, Stock bricks. UK brick collectors will appreciate this.
20. Hugh Nugent. Packing; it has turned out that that loess is the only sediment in which particle packing is really important, and that loess is the only truly collapsible ground. Loess collapses inwards when it collapse; many so-called collapsible grounds simply disperse when the 'collapse' event occurs; quick clays are like this. So we keep on looking at packing. HN has so far done the only 'looking down' packing studies; all other packing studies are 'looking sideways' studies.
.
11. Jewel Davin. Bibliographer. Jewel was the librarian at the Lower Hutt headquarters of the DSIR Soil Bureau in New Zealand. A great library- a bibliographic bonus; but DSIR delivered another bibliographic treasure- they published a series of 'Bibliographic Reports' which, since they were in effect in house journals, could be adapted to special requirements. BR28 and BR30 are masterpieces (I make this claim); we did loess in NZ, and fragipans- very satisfying.
12. Jan Piotrowski. From Poland to Waterloo, Ontario. Jan came to do post-graduate work on drumlins, and did a brilliant map of the famous Woodstock drumlin field. He moved on to become a guru of glacial geology, to do great work for INQUA, and to flourish in Aarhus.
13. Edward Derbyshire. The Centre for Loess Research & Documentation at Leicester University. Studies on slope stability in the thick loess at Lanzhou in China. The NATO conference on Collapsible Soils, organised by ED and held at Loughborough University. The LoessFest Conference at Heidelberg & Bonn, organised by ED, and Ludwig Zoeller and me; a wonderful event.
14. Tom Dijkstra. Tom joined the loess world to participate in the Loess Landslides project in Lanzhou. We wrote on packing and collapse, and he got his PhD from Utrecht University. We also produced plausible explanations for the collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho, which (rather foolishly) had been built of loess.
15. C.D.F.Rogers. When the soil mechanics laboratory at Leicester University suddenly closed the Lanzhou landslide project was in danger of collapse, but Chris Rogers at Loughborough University came to the rescue. A sudden rush of papers on particle packing, on hydroconsolidation, on silt (the seminal paper on silt)- and calculations of the mode particle shape of loess particles- which turned out to be Zingg 3m blades.
16. A.M. Assallay. Bashir Assallay suddenly arrived at Loughborough proposing to do a PhD on Loess in Libya. Good timing; model studies of hydroconsolidation, and some validation of the Bryant theory of fragipan formation. He showed that there was an optimum clay content for collapse; too little clay- no collapse; too much clay- no collapse; but just right- then classic hydroconsolidation.
17. Ian Jefferson. The contract with NATO to investigate loess ground in Bulgaria. The idea was to bury nuclear waste in thick loess; protected from above, and below, by clay-rich palaeosols. We worked with the Academy of Sciences in Sofia and designed an outline repository to sit beside the reactors at Kozloduy, beside the Danube. There was a halt at that point as the funds ran out, but we think it is being built now.
18. Susan Dibben. Modelling of loess ground structures (for collapse studies) went in two directions: we invented the formation of the test sample by simply depositing model loess in an oedometer test ring (a method used by Bashir), and also the idea of using simple Monte Carlo methods to build computer models. Susan did computer models and they were very convincing.
19. Sally Bijl. The Bucklebury Ferry Smial of the Tolkien Society. The amazing realisation that the hobbits lived in a loess landscape; the Brandywine River is a yellow river (from the Elvish Baranduin- golden). If you live in a hole in the ground the odds are that the ground is loess. This led on to an appreciation of the glacierized nature of the landscape to the north (the drumlins of Arnor) and the fact that the hated brick houses in the Shire had been built of loess bricks, made probably at Stock. They were, ironically enough, Stock bricks. UK brick collectors will appreciate this.
20. Hugh Nugent. Packing; it has turned out that that loess is the only sediment in which particle packing is really important, and that loess is the only truly collapsible ground. Loess collapses inwards when it collapse; many so-called collapsible grounds simply disperse when the 'collapse' event occurs; quick clays are like this. So we keep on looking at packing. HN has so far done the only 'looking down' packing studies; all other packing studies are 'looking sideways' studies.
.
Thursday, 10 November 2016
Co-Authors (Largely Loessic) Part One
When I started writing papers in the 1960s I had an ambition to have 100 co-authors. This target has been hit (exceeded); this is a study of some of the co-authors- possibly the most notable.
1. Valerie Smalley. Properly the first co-author; the most important person in my life. A rather reluctant co-author- but we did an interesting note in Nature on the tensile strength of granular materials; and a useful review on loess for a Sedimentology book by Messrs.Brookfield & Ahlbrandt.
2. Claudio Vita-Finzi. I went to UCL and met Claudio; almost immediately he proposed a joint paper- we wrote on Desert Loess (for J.Sed.Pet.), and then on Systems Theory for GSAB. Desert loess did well and provoked some responses.
3. David Unwin. Talented people were jostling around at UCL. Dave Unwin wanted to publish a paper in J.Glaciology so we wrote on drumlin formation. This also proved popular and it turned out that we had been more creative than we realised.
4. R.U.Cooke. Another UCL star; Ron Cooke was a fairly junior person back then (we all predicted great things). He wanted to have a piece in Nature so we wrote on salt weathering in deserts. A few simple calculations of thermal expansion, but very popular & long-lasting.
5. J.G.Cabrera. From Bolivia to Leeds; with Joe Cabrera a long term cooperation (1968-1978). I can make some careful claims: we published the first SEM picture of the structure of a clay soil in Nature (we might claim this as the first clay SEM)- no doubt about the first SEM picture of loess material in GSAB. Joe was there at the beginning of the first dive into thermogravimetry and helped set up the first thermobalances. He was interested in the Red Soils (the laterites) and these make good subjects for TG examination. We published the basic paper for the 'inactive particle' theory of quick clay behaviour.
6. R.L.S.Taylor. Dick Taylor was the great leader and activator of the South London Astronomical Society. We wrote several papers for Science Journal. SJ was set up as a sort of British version of Scientific American, and it appeared to be doing quite well (making a modest profit) when it was suddenly closed down by the publishers; a shame, an opportunity missed.
7. Jerzy Cegla. We had great plans but we only published one paper together; the first SEM studies of the Polish loess. Jerzy established the link to Wroclaw but was killed in a tragic accident and a great geo-scientist was lost.
8. David Krinsley. At Queens College (CUNY) and Churchill College (Cambridge) and various other places. The great pioneer of the SEM study of sand grain surfaces, and a very keen co-author. Sponsored me for my membership of the New York Academy of Sciences- which led indirectly to the whole Loess History project. We published a popular paper on Sand in American Scientist; and we pointed out that loess particles are Zingg 3 blades in Science. Dave was keen to publish in Science, and it did prove a very popular paper.
9. Stephen Bentley. The apotheosis of the TG work. Steve applied the thermobalances to the Canadian quick clays- essentially seeking to characterise and measure the clay mineral content. Success with the St.Jean Vianney clay, and an indication of a very low clay mineral content.
Also some neat studies on potassium hydrogen phthalate to establish it as a useful thermal standard.
10. J.A.Leach. Andrew Leach- is the co-author on the 1978 paper on the Danube loess. Can we claim the beginning of serious studies of loess across the whole Danube basin?- why not. A seminal paper which had a lasting influence. The beginnings of the march to the East- eventually we would be encamped in Vojvodina, enjoying the best of the Danubian loess.
see Part Two for Co-Authors 11-20
1. Valerie Smalley. Properly the first co-author; the most important person in my life. A rather reluctant co-author- but we did an interesting note in Nature on the tensile strength of granular materials; and a useful review on loess for a Sedimentology book by Messrs.Brookfield & Ahlbrandt.
2. Claudio Vita-Finzi. I went to UCL and met Claudio; almost immediately he proposed a joint paper- we wrote on Desert Loess (for J.Sed.Pet.), and then on Systems Theory for GSAB. Desert loess did well and provoked some responses.
 |
| Claudio Vita-Finzi |
3. David Unwin. Talented people were jostling around at UCL. Dave Unwin wanted to publish a paper in J.Glaciology so we wrote on drumlin formation. This also proved popular and it turned out that we had been more creative than we realised.
4. R.U.Cooke. Another UCL star; Ron Cooke was a fairly junior person back then (we all predicted great things). He wanted to have a piece in Nature so we wrote on salt weathering in deserts. A few simple calculations of thermal expansion, but very popular & long-lasting.
5. J.G.Cabrera. From Bolivia to Leeds; with Joe Cabrera a long term cooperation (1968-1978). I can make some careful claims: we published the first SEM picture of the structure of a clay soil in Nature (we might claim this as the first clay SEM)- no doubt about the first SEM picture of loess material in GSAB. Joe was there at the beginning of the first dive into thermogravimetry and helped set up the first thermobalances. He was interested in the Red Soils (the laterites) and these make good subjects for TG examination. We published the basic paper for the 'inactive particle' theory of quick clay behaviour.
6. R.L.S.Taylor. Dick Taylor was the great leader and activator of the South London Astronomical Society. We wrote several papers for Science Journal. SJ was set up as a sort of British version of Scientific American, and it appeared to be doing quite well (making a modest profit) when it was suddenly closed down by the publishers; a shame, an opportunity missed.
7. Jerzy Cegla. We had great plans but we only published one paper together; the first SEM studies of the Polish loess. Jerzy established the link to Wroclaw but was killed in a tragic accident and a great geo-scientist was lost.
 |
| Jerzy Cegla |
8. David Krinsley. At Queens College (CUNY) and Churchill College (Cambridge) and various other places. The great pioneer of the SEM study of sand grain surfaces, and a very keen co-author. Sponsored me for my membership of the New York Academy of Sciences- which led indirectly to the whole Loess History project. We published a popular paper on Sand in American Scientist; and we pointed out that loess particles are Zingg 3 blades in Science. Dave was keen to publish in Science, and it did prove a very popular paper.
9. Stephen Bentley. The apotheosis of the TG work. Steve applied the thermobalances to the Canadian quick clays- essentially seeking to characterise and measure the clay mineral content. Success with the St.Jean Vianney clay, and an indication of a very low clay mineral content.
Also some neat studies on potassium hydrogen phthalate to establish it as a useful thermal standard.
10. J.A.Leach. Andrew Leach- is the co-author on the 1978 paper on the Danube loess. Can we claim the beginning of serious studies of loess across the whole Danube basin?- why not. A seminal paper which had a lasting influence. The beginnings of the march to the East- eventually we would be encamped in Vojvodina, enjoying the best of the Danubian loess.
see Part Two for Co-Authors 11-20
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Reprint Request Postcards
Back when the World was young scholars used to send and receive reprint requests 'please send me your interesting paper on ...' It was pleasing to get a request- somebody had read and appreciated your work. With the arrival of email and the internet all that has passed; no more do we see those specially designed cards.. I wonder if there is any reason to keep a pile of old cards? do these have philatelic interest? might they end up in some museum of scientific communication?
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