astronomy

John Peter Buwalda

John Peter Buwalda is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Peter Buwalda rather than just read about it. In short: John Peter Buwalda (December 16, 1886 – August 19, 1954) was an American geologist. For over 20 years, he was head of the geological sciences division at the California Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

John Peter Buwalda belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Peter Buwalda to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Peter Buwalda from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Peter Buwalda (December 16, 1886 – August 19, 1954) was an American geologist. For over 20 years, he was head of the geological sciences division at the California Institute of Technology. During 1951–52, he was president of the Seismological Society of America.

Biography He was born in Zeeland, Michigan, the son of Peter John Buwalda and Eva née Takoma. His parents were Frisian immigrants from Witmarsum, Netherlands. The town of Zeeland was originally settled by Dutch immigrants, including the Buwalda family. His family moved to Yakima, Washington in 1897, where Buwalda attended grammar school and graduated from high school in 1905. He matriculated to University of Washington, where he undertook a broad program of academic study, and Charles E. Weaver introduced him to the field of geology. However, Buwalda did not complete a degree program at that institution. Following the death of a brother, and with a desire for broader experience, after two years of study he took time off. He worked at a newspaper, the Coeur d'Alene mines of Idaho, and as a surveyor for the Northern Pacific Railway in the Cascade Range. In 1909, Buwalda enrolled at the geology department of the University of California, Berkeley. There he was mentored in paleontology by John C. Merriam and in geology by Andrew C. Lawson. Buwalda was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and received his B.S. with honors in 1912. He performed graduate studies at the same institution, mapping Miocene units in the Tehachapi Range. In 1915, he was awarded a Ph.D. with a dissertation titled, New Mammalian Faunas from Miocene Sediments Near Tehachapi Pass in the Southern Sierre Nevada. Buwalda joined the California Academy of Sciences in 1915 (and was elected a fellow in 1921).

Career Buwalda stayed at Berkeley for two more years in the only job then available: teaching meteorology in the department of geography. During this time, he tought physiography, from which he gained a life-long interest in geomorphology. In 1917, he married Berkeley law school graduate Imra Wann, and joined the geology faculty at Yale University as an assistant professor the same year. The couple would have four children: Peter John, May Joan, William John, and Robert John. After the US entered World War 1, Buwalda worked for the United States Geological Survey assessing strategic materials. After four years at Yale, he returned to the University of California in 1921 as associate professor and Dean of Summer Sessions. In 1925, the Carnegie Corporation voted to grant the California Institute of Technology $25,000 to start a program in geology. Buwalda was invited to head up the school's graduate program in geology, to which he accepted. As chairman of the Division of Geological Sciences, he assembled the program staff, while implementing study and research programs in geology, paleontology, and geophysics. As part of his curriculum, he required undergraduates to take two summer field camps, as well as a year-long field course. Buwalda supervised the addition of two laboratories to the campus, Charles Arms and Seeley W. Mudd, which were dedicated in 1939. As a result of his efforts, during the decade from 1929 to 1939, Caltech ranked sixth in the US in the number of doctorates awarded in the geological sciences. During World War 2, many of the department staff were away and so Buwalda had to carry much of teaching burden on his own. In addition he was severely ill for a time. In 1947, Buwalda requested to resign his post as chair so that he could spend more time on research. He would continue his teaching duties up until the time of his death. Besides education, Buwalda led a prominent career as a consultant. From 1928 until 1954, he served on the Yosemite National Park board of advisors. In 1931, he was president of the Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of America, after serving as treasurer during 1923–1927. For the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, he performed geological surveys of dams and tunnels for the Colorado River Aqueduct. In San Francisco, he advised on the seismic safety of the East Bay Bridge for the State Highway Division. He spent 30 years working to sway the public in California of the need for earthquake-resistant structures. During 1951–52, he was named president of the Seismological Society of America, succeeding Frank Neumann in the office. Following the 1952 Kern County earthquake, he spent the summer of that year examining the underlying structures and mapping the surface rupture features. He died in 1954 while on a field trip with his son Robert to Frazier Mountain park in California.

Publications He contributed to the following publications:

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Peter Buwalda

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Peter Buwalda claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Peter Buwalda before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Peter Buwalda ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Peter Buwalda

In research: John Peter Buwalda appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Peter Buwalda in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Peter Buwalda is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1886 births, 1954 deaths, American geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Peter Buwalda outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Peter Buwalda in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Peter Buwalda means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Peter Buwalda out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Peter Buwalda in simple terms?

John Peter Buwalda (December 16, 1886 – August 19, 1954) was an American geologist. For over 20 years, he was head of the geological sciences division at the California Institute of Technology.

Why does John Peter Buwalda matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Peter Buwalda?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Peter Buwalda.