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Anita G. Harris

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This article is about the American scientist born in 1937; for the British actress and singer with a similar name, born in 1942, see Anita Harris. American geologist
Anita G. Harris
BornAnita Gloria Fishman
July 10, 1937
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 12, 2014 (age 77)
Florida, U.S.
Other namesAnita G. Epstein
Occupation(s)Geologist, paleontologist, mapmaker
EmployerUnited States Geological Survey
Notable workConodont Alteration Index

Anita Gloria Fishman Harris Epstein (July 10, 1937 – July 12, 2014) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and mapmaker. She devised the Conodont Alteration Index, a method of determining the heat exposure of buried rock, by analyzing conodont fossils. Her work, which had applications for the oil industry, was detailed in John McPhee's In Suspect Terrain (1983).

Early life and education

Anita Fishman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Harry Fishman (also known as Herschel Litwak or Harry Block) and Harriet Kirschberg Fishman. Her father and her maternal grandparents were all born in Russia; her father owned a trucking company and her mother was a legal secretary. She graduated from Brooklyn College, and earned a master's degree at Indiana University. She completed doctoral studies at Ohio State University in 1969, with a dissertation titled "Stratigraphy of Uppermost Silurian and Lowermost Devonian Rocks and the Conodont Fauna of the Coeymans Formation and its Correlatives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Southeasternmost New York" (1970).

Career

Harris worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as a mapmaker and map editor, and later as a research scientist. She invented the Conodont Alteration Index, a means of determining heat exposure in buried rock, with applications in the oil industry. "Rocks are the record of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them," she explained to John McPhee, for his book In Suspect Terrain (1983). She was also featured on an episode of the children's science program, 3-2-1 Contact. She received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior, and was the first woman to win the Pander Society Medal. During two sabbaticals from the USGS, she taught at Case Western Reserve University and Duke University as a visiting professor. She official retired from the USGS in 1999, but continued working on USGS projects, including four summers in Denver.

Publications and technical reports

Harris published dozens of scholarly papers and technical reports, in journals including Geological Survey Research, SEPM Special Publications, AAPG Bulletin, Geological Society of America Bulletin, Journal of South American Earth Sciences, and Economic Geology.

  • "The Shawangunk Formation (Upper Ordovician(?) to Middle Silurian) in eastern Pennsylvania" (1972, with J. B. Epstein)
  • "Early Ordovician North Atlantic province conodonts in eastern Pennsylvania" (1972, with J. B. Epstein and Stig M. Bergström)
  • "Significance of Lower Ordovician exotic blocks in the Hamburg klippe, eastern Pennsylvania" (1972, with J. B. Epstein and Stig M. Bergström)
  • "Conodont color alteration: An index to organic metamorphism" (1977, with J. B. Epstein and L. D. Harris)
  • "Oil and gas data from Paleozoic rocks in the Appalachian Basin: maps for assessing hydrocarbon potential and thermal maturity (conodont color-alteration isograds and overburden isopachs)" (1978, with J. B. Epstein and L. D. Harris)
  • "Conodont color alteration, an organo-mineral metamorphic index, and its application to Appalachian Basin Geology" (1979)
  • "Evaluation of Southern Eastern Overthrust Belt Beneath Blue Ridge-Piedmont Thrust" (1981, with L D. Harris, Wallace De Witt Jr., and Kenneth C. Bayer)
  • "Conodont-Based Thermal Maturation of Paleozoic Rocks in Arizona" (1984, with Bruce Wardlaw)
  • "Conodont color and textural alteration: An index to regional metamorphism, contact metamorphism, and hydrothermal alteration" (1987, with Vivian A. Rejebian and J. Stephen Huebner)
  • "Mechanical and chemical techniques for separating microfossils from rock, sediment and residue matrix" (1989, with Walter Sweet)
  • "Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan: Correlations and implications" (1992, with Kevin R. Pogue, Bruce R. Wardlaw, and Ahmad Hussain)
  • "Depositional Framework and Regional Correlation of Pre-Carboniferous Metacarbonate Rocks of the Snowden Mountain Area, Central Brooks Range, Northern Alaska" (1994, with Julie A. Dumoulin)
  • "Correlation of Ordovician rocks of northern Alaska" (1995, with Julie A. Dumoulin, John E. Repetski, and Claire Carter)
  • "Reinterpretation of the stratigraphy and structure of the Rancho Las Norias area, central Sonora, Mexico" (2003, with William R. Page, Forrest G. Poole, and John E. Repetski)
  • "Depositional Settings, Correlation, and Age of Carboniferous Rocks in the Western Brooks Range, Alaska" (2004, with Julie A. Dumoulin, Charles D. Blome, and Lorne E. Young)
  • "Thermal Maturity Patterns (CAI and %Ro) in Upper Ordovician and Devonian Rocks of the Appalachian Basin: A Major Revision of USGS Map I–917–E Using New Subsurface Collections" (2008, with J. E. Repetski, R. T. Ryder, D. J. Weary and Michael H. Trippi)
  • "Carbonate rocks of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Their correlation and paleogeographic significance" (2014, with Julie A. Dumoulin and John E. Repetski)

Personal life

Anita Fishman married fellow geologist Jack Burton Epstein in 1958. They had a daughter, Laura, and divorced in 1976. Anita Epstein married her USGS colleague Leonard Dorreen Harris by 1978. He died in 1982. She had Alzheimer's disease in her last years, and died in 2014, at the age of 77. She was posthumously recognized with the 2015 Harrison Schmitt Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

References

  1. ^ McPhee, John A. (1983). In suspect terrain. Internet Archive. New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-17650-1.
  2. Parents' names, occupations, and birthplaces from the 1930 and 1940 United States Federal Censuses, via Ancestry.
  3. ^ Fey, David (Spring 2015). "Anita G. Harris (obituary)" (PDF). The Geological Division Retirees Newsletter (70): 13–14.
  4. Epstein, Anita Gloria Fishman. "Stratigraphy of Uppermost Silurian and Lowermost Devonian Rocks and the Conodont Fauna of the Coeymans Formation and its Correlatives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Southeasternmost New York" (Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1970); via ProQuest.
  5. Page, William R.; Lundstrom, Scott C.; Harris, Anita G.; Langenheim, Victoria E.; Workman, Jeremiah B.; Mahan, Shannon; Paces, James B.; Dixon, Gary L.; Rowley, Peter D.; Burchfiel, B. C.; Bell, John W.; Smith, Eugene I. (2005). "Geologic and geophysical maps of the Las Vegas 30' x 60' quadrangle, Clark and Nye counties, Nevada, and Inyo County, California". Scientific Investigations Map. doi:10.3133/sim2814. ISSN 2329-132X.
  6. First Eastern Gas Shales Symposium: Proceedings : October 17-19, 1977, Lakeview Inn and Country Club, Morgantown, West Virginia. U.S. Department of Energy, Technical Information Center. 1978. p. 756.
  7. Tiede, Tom (1977-10-30). "Geologist Finds Oil Clues in Fossils". The Daily Times. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-06-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Sward, Robert (1983-09-03). "Indiana Diamonds came from Canada". The Toronto Star. p. 80. Retrieved 2024-06-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. McPhee, John (2000-06-15). Annals of the Former World. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-70846-7.
  10. ^ "Anita Harris" Museum of the Earth, Paleontological Research Institution.
  11. ^ Epstein, Jack B., Anita G. Epstein, and S. M. Bergström. "Significance of Lower Ordovician exotic blocks in the Hamburg klippe, eastern Pennsylvania." Geological Survey Research (1972): D29-D36.
  12. ^ Harris, Anita G. "Conodont color alteration, an organo-mineral metamorphic index, and its application to Appalachian basin geology" SEPM Special Publication 26(1979): 3-16.
  13. ^ Harris, Leonard D.; Harris, Anita G.; DeWitt, Wallace Jr.; Bayer, Kenneth C. (1981). "Evaluation of Southern Eastern Overthrust Belt Beneath Blue Ridge-Piedmont Thrust". AAPG Bulletin. 65. doi:10.1306/03B599EF-16D1-11D7-8645000102C1865D. ISSN 0149-1423.
  14. ^ Wardlaw, Bruce R., and Anita G. Harris. "Conodont-based thermal maturation of Paleozoic rocks in Arizona." AAPG bulletin 68, no. 9 (1984): 1101-1106.
  15. ^ Rejebian, Vivian A., Anita G. Harris, and J. Stephen Huebner. "Conodont color and textural alteration: An index to regional metamorphism, contact metamorphism, and hydrothermal alteration." Geological Society of America Bulletin 99, no. 4 (1987): 471-479.
  16. ^ Pogue, Kevin R., Bruce R. Wardlaw, Anita G. Harris, and Ahmad Hussain. "Paleozoic and Mesozoic stratigraphy of the Peshawar basin, Pakistan: Correlations and implications." Geological Society of America Bulletin 104, no. 8 (1992): 915-927.
  17. ^ Page, William R., Anita G. Harris, Forrest G. Poole, and John E. Repetski. "Reinterpretation of the stratigraphy and structure of the Rancho Las Norias area, central Sonora, Mexico." Journal of South American Earth Sciences 16, no. 6 (2003): 523-540.
  18. ^ Dumoulin, Julie A., Anita G. Harris, Charles D. Blome, and Lorne E. Young. "Depositional settings, correlation, and age of Carboniferous rocks in the western Brooks Range, Alaska" Economic Geology 99, no. 7 (2004): 1355-1384.
  19. Epstein, Jack Burton; Epstein, Anita G. (1972). The Shawangunk Formation (Upper Ordovician(?) to Middle Silurian) in eastern Pennsylvania (Report). U.S Government Printing Office.
  20. Bergström, Stig M., Anita G. Epstein, and Jack B. Epstein. "Early Ordovician North Atlantic province conodonts in eastern Pennsylvania." Geological Survey Professional Paper 800 (1972): 37.
  21. Epstein, Anita G.; Epstein, Jack Burton; Harris, Leonard Dorreen (1977). Conodont color alteration: An index to organic metamorphism (Report). United States Government Printing Office. doi:10.3133/pp995.
  22. Harris, A. G.; Harris, L. D.; Epstein, J. B. (1978-01-01). Oil and gas data from Paleozoic rocks in the Appalachian Basin: maps for assessing hydrocarbon potential and thermal maturity (conodont color-alteration isograds and overburden isopachs) (Report). Geological Survey, Washington, DC (USA). OSTI 6079253.
  23. Harris, Anita G.; Sweet, Walter C. (January 1989). "Mechanical and chemical techniques for separating microfossils from rock, sediment and residue matrix". The Paleontological Society Special Publications. 4: 70–86. doi:10.1017/S2475262200005013. ISSN 2475-2622.
  24. Dumoulin, Julie A.; Harris, Anita G. (1994). Depositional Framework and Regional Correlation of Pre-Carboniferous Metacarbonate Rocks of the Snowden Mountain Area, Central Brooks Range, Northern Alaska. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
  25. Harris, Anita G., Julie A. Dumoulin, John E. Repetski, and Claire Carter. "Correlation of Ordovician rocks of northern Alaska" Ordovician Odyssey: Short Papers for the Seventh International Symposium on the Ordovician System (1995): 21-26.
  26. Repetski, John E., Robert T. Ryder, David J. Weary, Anita G. Harris, and Michael H. Trippi. "Thermal maturity patterns (CAI and% Ro) in Upper Ordovician and Devonian rocks of the Appalachian basin: A major revision of USGS Map I-917-E using new subsurface collections." US Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3006 (2008): 26.
  27. Dumoulin, Julie A.; Harris, Anita G.; Repetski, John E. (2014), "Carbonate rocks of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Their correlation and paleogeographic significance", Reconstruction of a Late Proterozoic to Devonian Continental Margin Sequence, Northern Alaska, Its Paleogeographic Significance, and Contained Base-Metal Sulfide Deposits, Geological Society of America, doi:10.1130/2014.2506(03), ISBN 978-0-8137-2506-2, retrieved 2024-06-14
  28. Orndorff, Randall C., David J. Weary, and Peter T. Lyttle. "Memorial to Jack B. Epstein" Geological Society of America Memorials 49(October 2020): 51-53.
  29. Epstein, Jack (November 2015). "Abstract: Anita Harris and a Black Conodont: A Personal Remembrance and Tribute". GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (1-4 November 2015). Retrieved 2024-06-14.
  30. Saucier, Heather (2015-05-01). "Anita Harris: Color Her World, With Love". AAPG Explorer. Retrieved 2024-06-14.
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