Talk:Basin and range topography

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Dutton's caterpillars
There is an interesting discussion here regarding the supposed Dutton quote given in this article. While the source I link is a blog, and thus not itself RS, if it is correct, it should be possible to quote what Dutton actually said, directly from the source, rather than the mangled 'quotation' that seems to have since become accepted (assisted by Wikipedia, it would seem). Someone with access to Dutton's original (i.e. in an academic library) should be able to confirm it:

"The great belt of Cordilleras coming up through Mexico and crossing into United States territory is depicted as being composed of many short, abrupt ranges or ridges, looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length, about 150 miles north of the Mexican boundary, this army divides into two columns, one marching northwest, the other north-northeast The former branch becomes the system of mountain ridges spread over the southern and western portions of Arizona, the whole of Nevada and the western portion of Utah and extending into Oregon and Idaho."

It should also be made clear that Dutton is describing specific American geology - as it stands this article fails to make this clear, since the lede is describing this form of topography in general, not just the US example.

86.134.77.93 (talk) 22:17, 15 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Found the original publication online: USGS Annual Report 6, page 156 of the PDF. Anyone know how "crawling northward" ended up turning into "marching toward Mexico"?? That itself sounds like something worth looking into.
 * CrunchyRocks (talk) 05:25, 7 December 2021 (UTC)