earth science

Richard Joel Russell

Richard Joel Russell is a earth science 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 Richard Joel Russell rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Joel Russell (16 November 1895 – 17 September 1971) was an American professor of physical geography and geology at the Louisiana State University who contributed to pioneering studies of long-term climatology and geomorphology. Russell was born in Hayward, California to Nellie Potter Morril and lawyer Frederick James.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Joel Russell (16 November 1895 – 17 September 1971) was an American professor of physical geography and geology at the Louisiana State University who contributed to pioneering studies of long-term climatology and geomorphology. Russell was born in Hayward, California to Nellie Potter Morril and lawyer Frederick James. His early education was in Honololu where he went to the Punahou Kindergarten. The family moved back to California and studied at the Hayward High School before going to the University of California, Berkeley where he began to study forestry in 1915 after becoming interested on a hunting trip in Santa Lucia. At the age of seventeen he was into numerous pastimes and his first publication was on a new technique for processing color photographs. He was drafted into World War I service but discharged after it was found that a compound fracture had set badly making him physically unfit. He was then assigned to teach seamanship and gunnery. After the war he returned to university and began to study paleontology under John C. Merriam and graduated in 1920. He went on expeditions with Chester Stock into Nevada and Oregon in 1919-20 and took up a teaching fellowship, while also substituting for Professor Ruliff S. Holway in teaching geography. During his teaching career, he worked with his students to produce a summary of past climate called Climates of California which was to prove very influential. He studied petrography and structural geology for his doctorate under George D. Louderback in 1926. He then moved to Texas Technical College, Lubbock as an associate professor. He began to work on his climate research and produced Dry Climates of the United States (1931) which emphasized the use of median values rather than averages. In 1928 he joined Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and involved in setting up a geography course along with Henry V. Howe. In 1954 he established the Coastal Studies Institute and directed it until 1966. Russell was married twice, first to Mary Dorothy King in 1925 and after her death he married Josephine Burke in 1940. He had a son from the first marriage and four from the second.

Books Culture Worlds River Plains and Sea Coasts

References

External links Climate Change through the Ages in Climate and Man (1941)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Joel Russell

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Joel Russell claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, 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 Richard Joel Russell 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 Richard Joel Russell 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 Richard Joel Russell

In research: Richard Joel Russell appears in earth science 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 Richard Joel Russell 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: Richard Joel Russell is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1895 births, 1971 deaths, 20th-century American geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Joel Russell 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 Richard Joel Russell in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Joel Russell 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 Richard Joel Russell out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Joel Russell in simple terms?

Why does Richard Joel Russell matter?

Because it connects several earth science 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 Richard Joel Russell?

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 Richard Joel Russell.