Prof. Marnie McInnes Contributes Essay to The Atlantic

July 10, 2017

"In the mid-19th century, the Swiss-born geologist Louis Agassiz visited Maine on a vacation from Harvard University," writes Marnie McInnes, professor of English and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at DePauw University, for The Atlantic. "The glacier-scoured bedrock formations on Mount Desert Island gave him plenty of evidence to support his theory of the Ice Age: that enormous glaciers, rather than a flood, had once covered much of Europe and North America. A few years after his visit, in 1867, Agassiz published two essays on 'Glacial Phenomena in Maine' in The Atlantic. He used a French term to name what he saw, calling the glacially shaped formations roches moutonnées. The meaning of this term has caused confusion in geology ever since."

In an essay titled "Why Geologists Think Glacial Mountains Look Like Sheep," Dr. McInnes notes, "As a geological term, roche moutonnée has been used for more than two centuries in a widespread, if not consistent way."

You'll find the piece at the publication's website.

A member of the DePauw faculty since 1981, Marion K. "Marnie" McInness Marnie received her B.A. from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in English literature from Yale. She was a 2014-15 recipient of the Exemplary Teaching Award.  Read more here.

Source: The Atlantic

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