I am totally astounded by what I read when I compare these two texts: Maria Graham's description of the coastal #uplift due to the 1822 #Valparaiso #earthquake, versus Charles Darwin's text on very similar phenomena related to the 1835 #Concepción earthquake.
Read carefully, paying attention to the expressions used. It's like if #Darwin borrowed Maria Graham's words, but also her interpretation about the accumulation of earthquakes raising the coast on the long term. 🤔
Any comment ?
Both 1822 and 1835 earthquakes happened in Central #Chile on the #subduction #megathrust between Nazca and South America #tectonic_plates. Darwin's description, based on Fitz Roy (Beagle's captain) observations, is considered as seminal.
Thanks @haq for pointing me to the work by Maria Graham.
@RobinLacassin I haven't read the originals in context, but Maria Graham's 1822 work was published in Transactions of the Geological Society in 1824, which Darwin presumably read. Graham's work was used by Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology, published in 1830. Graham's work was subsequently questioned by George Bellas Greenough in 1834, who attacked the report because it wasn't confirmed by a naval officer in the area. Charles Darwin was confirming and supporting Graham's work, even if he didn't say so (he wouldn't have mentioned her name without her permission and, yes, that did mean that women's work was usually reused by men without credit). More on Maria Graham here:
@haq Thanks so much for these comments.
When you say "he wouldn't have mentioned her name without her permission", was that common usage at the time? I mean, not simply referring to the publication as we do now.
@RobinLacassin This is complicated. Male-dominated English society (and most similar societies) had decided that it was shameful for a woman to be a public figure, and doubly shameful to be a public intellectual, so women's work was refused publication or published by male family members or published then "politely" ignored and uncredited if reused. We can assume Darwin was trying to be "polite" to Maria Graham by shielding her from public attention, or we can assumed he was stealing her work, or both - probably at least a little bit of both. Some women ignored this and suffered as public intellectuals, nicknamed "bluestockings", and some women lived through their male relatives but received small public rewards (e.g. Anne Phillips discovered Miss Phillips' Conglomerate, which is still named after her, but with her permission her brother John Phillips took credit for most of her discoveries).
Maria Graham's excerpt is from: Maria Graham, 1824, An Account of Some Effects of the Late Earthquakes in Chili, Transactions of the Geological Society, 2nd series, 24, 413-415.
Darwin's excerpt is from the famous voyage of the Beagle book: Darwin, C. R. 1845. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N. 2d edition. London: John Murray.
I cannot find any mention of Maria Graham account on the 1822 earthquake in Darwin's book.