Levi F. Noble

Levi Fatzinger Noble
Born November 11, 1882
Auburn, New York
Died August 4, 1965 (aged 82)
Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
Fields geology
Institutions United States Geological Survey
Alma mater Yale University

Levi Fatzinger Noble (November 11, 1882 – August 4, 1965)[1] was an American geologist. He was born in 1882 into a prominent and wealthy family of Auburn, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1904 and his doctorate in 1909, both from Yale University.[2]

In 1910, Noble married Dorothy Evans of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a wedding gift, Dorothy’s parents gave them a fruit ranch near Valyermo, California, at the foot of the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains and athwart the San Andreas Fault zone. The ranch was their principal residence for the rest of their lives. Dorothy served as the Valyermo postmaster from 1914 to 1930.

His entire career was spent as a member of the United States Geological Survey. Upon retirement, he received the Interior Department's gold medal for distinguished service. In his field investigations, which began in 1917 and continued off and on for 45 years, he observed and accurately recorded most of the major geologic features of Death Valley.[3]

He also is remembered for his studies of Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks of the Grand Canyon and as the first to prepare a detailed geologic map of a large part of Grand Canyon National Park. In addition, he engaged in a long-term investigation of a fifty-mile segment of the San Andreas fault. He was the first to cite evidence for many miles of horizontal displacement along this major structural feature of western North America.[4]

Publications

References

  1. The Hollister Family of America: Lieutenant John Hollister of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and his descendants by Lafayette Wallace Case (1886) p. 637
  2. Bradley, W.H. (1968). "Memorial to Levi Fatzinger Noble, 1882-1965". Proceedings of the Geological Society of America: 337-340.
  3. Bradley, W.H. (1966). "Memorial to Levi Fatzinger Noble (1882-1965)". Geological Society of America Bulletin 77 (3): P49-P52. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1966)77[p49:mtlfn]2.0.co;2.
  4. Wright, Lauren A.; Troxel, Bennie W. (2002). Levi Noble: Geologist (PDF) (Open-File Report 02-422 ed.). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 10 October 2014.