In Memoriam: Troy L. Péwé, 1918-1999

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In Memoriam: Troy L. Péwé, 1918-1999Author(s): Hugh FrenchSource: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 32, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 212-215Published by: INSTAAR, University of ColoradoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1552454 .

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Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2000, pp. 212-215

Troy L. Pewe

1918-1999

In Memoriam

Troy Pewe in Tibet, China, mid 1980s.

Troy Pewe was a geologist and permafrost scientist of international stature. He had a distinguished career. He died in Tempe Arizona, age 81, from complications following surgery and illness.

His scientific contributions centered upon the loess, tundra and permafrost conditions of central Alaska, and the engineering and environmental geology of Alaska and Arizona. In addition, he undertook field work in Antarctica, Tibet, and Svalbard. Be- tween 1946 and 1965 he lived and worked in Alaska, at Fair- banks, where he was Staff Geologist for the Alaskan Geology Branch of the United States Geological Survey. From 1958-65, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Geology, Uni- versity of Alaska-Fairbanks. The second half of his career was spent at Tempe, Arizona, where he was Professor and Head of the Department of Geology, Arizona State University, from 1965-1976. Upon retirement from Arizona State University in 1988 he was appointed Emeritus Professor.

Troy Pew6 published more than 100 research papers and

major scientific reports, was the author of over 60 surficial geology and environmental geology maps for both central Alaska and the Phoenix region of Arizona, edited and compiled more than 10 monographs and books, prepared numerous promotional or summary articles on permafrost, provided leadership to the U.S. permafrost community for more than two decades, and was central to the establishment of the International Permafrost As- sociation. During a teaching career lasting more than 30 years, he successfully supervised more than 30 graduate students, a number of whom (N. W. Rutter, P. Sellman, R. Updike, J. V. Matthews, and R. D. Reger) went on to develop their own professional and scientific careers.

Troy Pew6 was born at home-actually, on the 2nd loess- covered terrace above the Mississippi River, at Rock Island, Il- linois-in 1918. This heritage dictated a 50-year career largely devoted to the permafrost and loess (wind-blown silt) (wind- blown dust) of central Alaska. He received his A.B. degree from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois in 1940 and his M.S. degree from the State University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 1942. He then worked as a civilian instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island, Il- linois, before starting doctoral studies at Stanford University under the supervision of Dr. S. Muller, the geologist who wrote the first English-language text on perennially frozen ground and who first coined the term "permafrost." In 1946, he began his career in Alaska as a geologist with the United States Geological Sur- vey and received his doctorate from Stanford University in 1952. His Ph.D. dissertation was concerned with the history of permafrost in the Fairbanks area.

When Pewe started working in Central Alaska in the mid 1940s he quickly recognized that the valley bottoms and lower hill-slopes were covered with a locally thick layer of silt, or dust, that had been blown from the silt bars of braided glacial streams in dust storms and deposited on the adjoining low hills. Called loess in other regions of the world, these silts are fertile and form the soils of central Alaska. Elsewhere, the so-called "bread baskets" of the world-such as in China, temperate mid-latitude United States, and central Europe-are developed upon similar materials. His interpretation was against the accepted concepts of the day, which ascribed a lacustrine or in-place origin to the sediment. However, Pewe's 1950 and 1955 papers (Pewe, 1950; 1955) were soon adopted and now form the basic concept of loess origin used in Alaska today (Pewe, 1975). Later, in the 1980s, Pewe was able to demonstrate that the loess deposits in Siberia and Tibet had been misidentified and were, in reality, wind-blown dust deposits (Pewe and Journaux, 1983; Pewe et al, 1995).

In 1947, through the courtesy of the United States Smelting and Refining Company, Pewe was able to examine the results of thousands of boreholes drilled to bedrock for gold information in the Fairbanks vicinity. It was determined that the thickest hill-

212 / ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC, AND ALPINE RESEARCH



top loess deposits were at Gold Hill, a low bedrock hill adjacent to the ancestral Tanana River. From 1951-1957 the placer gold beneath the loess was mined and the overlying loess, more than 60 m thick in places, was washed away ("hydraulicking"), thereby creating large exposures of perennially frozen silt. Over this period, Pewe undertook detailed and systematic stratigraphic observations in these exposures, collecting wood and volcanic ash samples and describing the ground ice and other permafrost phenomena. Later, Pewe and his research collaborators were able to show that the loess contained a stratigraphic record going back 3 million years. During this period, permafrost repeatedly formed and then thawed in response to global climate changes (e.g., see Pewe et al., 1997; Preece et al., 1999). In the 1990s, the State of Alaska advanced funds to the University of Alaska to purchase 25.5 acres of the Gold Hill site in order to preserve the site as one of outstanding scientific interest. Just one month before his death, on 18 September 1999, the site was formally dedicated as the Troy L. Pewe Climatic Change Permafrost Re- serve.

In addition to these long-continued academic investigations of perennially frozen ground and loess, P6we undertook frozen ground geological studies in the Fairbanks regions of a very practical nature. These included the relationship between frozen

ground and construction practices, to groundwater discovery, and to agriculture (e.g., Pewe, 1954). The standard permafrost maps of the Fairbanks area were prepared by Pewe and published at intervals between 1948 and 1975, culminating in the

publication of USGS Professional Paper 835 (Pewe, 1975) and the 16 USGS Map sheets MF 668A/D-671A/D in association with J. W. Bell in 1975. Earlier, an opportunity to prepare a

synthesis of many of his observations in Alaska had been provided by the VII INQUA Congress guidebook (Pewe, 1965). This guidebook subsequently became the basis for much popular understanding of the geology and permafrost conditions of central Alaska.

Upon moving to Arizona in 1965, Pewe proceeded to study the wind-blown sand of the Arizona desert. At one time (1972- 73), this included a systematic collection of dust samples from

special collectors mounted on the roof of his own house in Tem-

pe. These studies led to the publication of GSA Special Paper 186 (Pewe, ed., 1981). At the same time as teaching generations of students at Arizona State University, he began engineering geology studies in the immediate surroundings of the rapidly growing Phoenix-Tempe-Scottsdale areas. For decades, P6we warned of the hazards of urban expansion in areas of the Valley where groundwater withdrawal was causing shrinkage subsi- dence and ground fissures. He once said that people should al-

ways consult a geologist before buying property in the area and, as recently as 1998, he was quoted prominently in local news-

papers as saying that an area near 76th Street and Apache Trail in Mesa was "a geological time bomb." In 1986 a series of environmental geology maps prepared by Pewe and associates were published by the Tucson (Arizona) Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology. Further afield, he conducted glacial studies in the San Francisco Peaks region (e.g., P6w6 and Updike, 1976), conducted regular raft excursions for ASU students and others down the Grand Canyon, prepared a detailed Grand Can-

yon Field Guide (Pewe, 1969) and became an authority on John

Wesley Powell, the one-armed explorer-geologist who first nav-

igated the Canyon, and upon the geology of Arizona in general. P6we was instrumental in getting petrified wood established as Arizona's state fossil, and in the opening of a Museum of Ge-

ology at ASU. During this same period, Pewe continued his research in Alaska, publishing a monograph on the environmen-

tal and geological hazards of the Fairbanks region (P6we, 1982), just in time to demonstrate these hazards to participants at the Fourth International Conference on Permafrost, held in Fair- banks the following year.

Specific mention should be made of P6we's early involve- ment with Antarctica. In 1957-58, as Chief Glacial Geologist for the USGS, he was one of the first professional Quaternary geologist to spend several months in the McMurdo Sound region. His mandate was to establish the glacial history of the region and to undertake additional permafrost investigations. His reports on multiple glaciation (Pewe, 1961) and sand-wedge polygons (P6we, 1959) are now regarded as seminal contributions. Undoubtedly, this unique field experience increased his understanding of the glacial and permafrost conditions in Alaska that were to occupy him during the rest of his career. He always intended to return to Antarctica but his Alaskan and Arizona interests were too all-consuming.

Although loess was central to Pewe's scientific interests throughout his career, the problems posed by permafrost were also an underlying interest. These were first summarized in an oft-quoted review paper, referring specifically to Alaska, on the effects of permafrost upon life in the North (Pewe, 1958). An- other widely referenced paper concerned the effects of frost heave upon bridge pilings (Pewe and Paige, 1963). Pewe was one of the first to attempt to identify the climatic controls over the occurrence of permafrost and, in particular, the significance of active, inactive, and relict (Pleistocene) ice wedges (Pewe, 1966; Pewe and Brown, 1966; P6we et al, 1969). Subsequently, these became important papers quoted by Pleistocene periglacial geomorphologists during the late 1960s and the 1970s. The title of an edited volume of the time (Pewe, 1969) explicitly recog- nizes the usefulness of the link between past and present periglacial conditions.

Additional benchmarks papers by Pewe in the field of periglacial geomorphology include his discussion of alpine permafrost in the contiguous United States (P6we, 1983a) and his detailed synthesis of the extent of the so-called Pleistocene 'periglacial realm' in North America (Pewe, 1983b). The latter re- mains a standard summary of the Late Pleistocene periglacial environment of the United States. For many years, he maintained an interest in the problem of altiplanation or cryoplanation terraces, recognizing their existence as inactive forms in central Alaska (e.g., Pewe, 1970; Reger and Pewe, 1976). He always maintained that active forms were to be found in the ice-free high polar latitudes, and that they were valuable indicators of alpine permafrost conditions. Partly for these reasons, and in order to complement his early Antarctic experiences, he undertook geological and periglacial studies in Spitsbergen in 1979, and in Tibet in conjunction with his investigations of loess. On Spitsbergen, he concluded that features previously interpreted as altiplanation terraces were, in fact, raised beach phenomena (Pewe et al., 1982). Nevertheless, he continued to promote the idea that cryoplanation was an active landscape-modifying pro- cess in the ice-free high latitudes of the world.

Many people will remember Troy Pewe as an outstanding organizer, promoter, and administrator of whatever interested him. At Fairbanks, he was instrumental in forging the Depart- ment of Geology out of the School of Mines. At Arizona State University, he built up the Department of Geology, from a small four-person department when he arrived, to one of the strongest in the university located in a modern new building. He was a tireless promoter of permafrost, both nationally and internation- ally, and wrote numerous encyclopedia entries (e.g., Pewe, 1974a) and several review chapters on permafrost and polar de-

IN MEMORIAM / 213



serts (e.g., Pewe, 1974b; 1991). He was a member of the U.S. Polar Research Board, 1974-1980, and founding Chairman of the U.S. Committee on Permafrost 1975-1981. Undoubtedly, however, his major achievement in permafrost administration and leadership must be his Chairmanship of the U.S. Planning Committees for the Second (1973), Third (1978), and Fourth (1983) International Conferences on Permafrost. The last, held in Fairbanks, Alaska (Pewe and Brown, 1983, 1984), was attended by over 1200 persons. At the 1983 conference, in addition to local field tours to demonstrate permafrost conditions, Pewe led a major field excursion along the Richardson and Glenn Highways between Fairbanks and Alaska (Pewe and Re- ger, 1983). It was at this important conference that the details behind the founding of the International Permafrost Association were finalized between representatives of Canada, the United States, the USSR and China. Troy Pewe was intimately involved in these delicate negotiations, some of which he had initiated over the previous decade. He was appointed the first Vice-Pres- ident of the newly formed association and worked closely with Academician P.I. Melnikov of the USSR, the First President, and Professor J. R. Mackay of Canada, the Secretary-General. In the years that followed, Pewe worked hard to integrate the Chinese permafrost community into the International Permafrost Asso- ciation structure (e.g., Pewe, 1986) and also expanded the permafrost community to welcome Norwegian, Swiss, and other national interests. In 1988, at the Fifth International Conference on Permafrost, held in Trondheim, Norway, Pewe was elected President. In 1993, when the Sixth conference was held in Bei- jing, China, and Professor Cheng Guodong was elected president, the International Permafrost Association had expanded to include 16 Adhering National Bodies and was formally affiliated to the International Union of Geological Sciences. Thus, Pewe's critical role in the formation and subsequent success of the In- ternational Permafrost Association cannot be overestimated.

Besides the International Permafrost Association, Pewe was active in a number of other professional positions throughout his career. While in Alaska, he vigorously promoted the Alaska Sci- ence Conferences and was the President of the Alaska Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1956-57. Just one month before his death, in September 1999, Pewe attended the 50th Alaskan Science Conference in Denali National Park and gave an illustrated evening lecture entitled "Faces and Places: 50 years of Alaskan science," in which he demonstrated his intimate knowledge, and love, of all things Alaskan. He served on the Board of Directors of the Arctic In- stitute of North America between 1969-1974, was a member of the IGU Periglacial Commissions between 1967-1972 and 1980-1988, was president of the American Quaternary Associ- ation (AMQUA) between 1984-1986, and was President of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science in 1982-83. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences Degree from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 1991 and presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Iowa in 1994. He was made the second International Fellow (Honorary) of the Chinese Society of Glaciology and Geocryology in 1985 and was a recipient of the "100 Years International Geophysics of USSR" Medal in 1985. In 1999, the culmination of his career saw him named as the recipient of the Distinguished Career Award of the Geological Society of America. Sadly, he died just a few days before the ceremony but typically, he was hoping to attend the Denver meetings, right up until the last few days.

To those who knew him personally, Troy P6we was a warm and caring individual. He enjoyed life to its full, always willing to see the humor, irony, or pragmatism in events. On his travels,

he was never without a supply of his "permafrost cocktail," a wicked vodka-based concoction, contained within a plastic liter sample bottle to prevent breakage. His diplomatic skills, in deal- ing with all the uncertainties and peculiarities of the Soviet and Chinese political systems, were magnificent and highly toned.

It was at Augustana College, Illinois, in 1942, that Troy Pewe was introduced to a young co-ed student, Mary Jean Hill. She became his wife in 1944. They experienced a totally happy and satisfying 55-year marriage. Troy Pewe is survived by Mary Jean Pewe, their three children, David, Rick, and Lisa (Clay), and by several grandchildren.

John Wesley Powell would have been proud of this man.

HUGH FRENCH Earth Sciences University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario KIN 6N5 Canada

Selected Bibliography Pewe, T. L., 1950: Origin of the upland silt in the Fairbanks

area, Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 61: 1493.

Pewe, T. L., 1954: Effect of permafrost on cultivated fields in the Fairbanks area, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 989-F: 315-351.

Pewe, T L., 1955: Origin of the upland silt in the Fairbanks area, Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 66: 699- 724.

Pewe, T. L., 1957: Permafrost and its effect on life in the North. In: Arctic Biology, 18th Biology Colloquium, Oregon State College, Corvallis, 12-25.

Pewe, T L., 1959: Sand wedge polygons (tesselations) in the McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica. American Journal of Sci- ence, 257: 545-552.

Pewe, T. L., 1960: Multiple glaciation in the McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica, a progress report. Journal of Geology, 68: 498-514.

Pewe, T L. and Paige, R. A., 1963: Frost heaving of piles with an example from Fairbanks, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 1111-1: 333-407.

Pewe, T. L. Ferrians, O., Nichols, 0. R., and Karlstom, T. N. V., 1965: Guidebook, Field Conference F., Alaska, VII INQUA Congress. 141 pp.

Pewe, T L., 1966: Ice wedges in Alaska-classification, distribution and climatic significance. In: Proceedings, Internation- al Permafrost Conference. National Academy of Sciences- National Research Council, Publication 1287: 76-81.

Pewe, T L., 1969: Colorado River Guidebook. 2nd ed. Tempe, Arizona. 68 pp. (3rd ed., 1973, 2nd printing with additions 1983.)

Pewe, T L., Church, R. E., and Andresen, M. J., 1969: Origin and paleoclimatic significance of large scale polygons in the Donnelly Dome area, Alaska. Geological Society of America Special Paper 103. 87 pp.

Pewe, T. L. (ed)., 1969: The Periglacial Environment: Past and Present. Montreal: McGill University Press. 437 pp.

Pewe, T. L., 1970: Altiplanation terraces of early Quaternary age near Fairbanks, Alaska. Acta Geographica Lodziensia, 24: 357-363.

Brown, R. J. E. and Pewe, T L., 1973: Distribution of permafrost in North America and its relationship to the environment: a review, 1963-73. In: Permafrost: North American Contribu- tion to the Second International Conference on Permafrost. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Science-National Re- search Council of Canada, 71-100.

Pewe, T. L., 1974a: Permafrost. Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. Chicago, 89-96.

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Pewe, T L., 1974b: Geomorphic processes in polar deserts. In Smiley, T. L. and Zumberge, J. H. (eds.), Polar Deserts and Modem Man. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 33-52.

Pewe, T. L., 1975: Quaternary stratigraphic nomenclature in unglaciated central Alaska. U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 862. 32 pp.

Pewe, T. L. and Updike, R. G., 1976: San Francisco Peaks: A Guidebook to the Geology. Museum of Northern Arizona. 80 PP.

Reger, R. D. and P6we, T. L. 1976: Cryoplanation terraces: indicators of a permafrost environment. Quaternary Research, 6: 99-109.

Pewe, T. L. 1981: Desert dust: origin, characteristics, and effect on man. Geological Society of America, Paper, 186. 303 pp.

Pewe, T. L., 1982: Geologic hazards of the Fairbanks area, Alas- ka. Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Special Report, No 4. 101 pp.

P6we, T. L., Rowan, D. E., Pewe, R. H., and Stuckenrath, R,. 1982: Glacial and periglacial geology of northwest Blomes- letta Peninsula, Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Norsk Polarinstittut Skrifter No 117. 32 pp.

Pewe, T. L., 1983a: Alpine permafrost in the contiguous United States. Arctic and Alpine Research, 15: 145-156.

Pewe, T. L., 1983b: The periglacial environment of the United States in Late Wisconsin time. In Wright, H. E., Jr., Late Qua- ternary Environments of the United States, Vol. 1. The Late Pleistocene, Porter, S. C. (ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 157-189.

Pewe, T. L. and Joumaux, A., 1983: Origin and characteristics of loess-like silt in unglaciated central Yakutia, Siberia, USSR. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1262. 46 pp.

Pewe, T. L. and Reger, R. D., 1983: Permafrost and Quaternary Geology of the Richardson and Glenn Highways between Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska. Guidebook No 1, Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. 263 pp.

Pewe, T. L. and Brown, J. (Compilers), 1983: Permafrost: Fourth International Conference Proceedings. Vol. 1. Wash- ington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 1524 pp.

Pewe, T L. and Brown, J. (Compilers), 1984: Permafrost: Fourth International Conference Final Proceedings. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 413 pp.

Pewe, T. L., 1986: China expands research in frozen ground: A report of the Third Chinese Conference on permafrost. Zeit- schrift fir Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie, 22: 89-95.

Pewe, T. L., 1991: Permafrost. In Kiersch, G. A. (ed.), The Her- itage of Engineering Geology: the First Hundred Years. Geo- logical Society of America, Centennial Special Volume 3. Boulder, Colo: The Geological Society of America, 277-298.

Pewe, T. L., Liu, Tungsheng, Slatt, R., and Li, Bingyuan, 1995: Origin and character of loess-like silt in the southern Quin- ghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau, China. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1549. 55 pp

Pewe, T. L., Berger, G. W., Westgate, J. A., Brown, P. M., and Leavitt, S. W., 1997: Eva Interglaciation Forest Bed, Ungla- ciated East-central Alaska: Global Warming 125,000 years ago. Geological Society of America, Special Paper, 319. 54 PP.

Preece, S. J., Westgate, J. A., Stemper, B. A., and P6we, T. L., 1999: Tephrochronology of late Cenozoic loess at Fairbanks, central Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 111: 71-90.

IN MEMORIAM / 215



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In Memoriam: Troy L. Péwé, 1918-1999