jps246's Full Review: Robert Titus - The Catskills in the Ice Age
Have you ever wondered what happened during the ice age? Robert Titus, in his book The Catskills in the Ice Age, provides an easily followed narrative of the glacial history of the Catskills, from the first tentative advances of ice in the mountains, to their eventual burial by the thick ice.
Where are the Catskills you may ask? They are New York State’s “other” major mountain range outside of the Adirondacks. The Catskills are located north of New York City (about 160 miles) and south of Albany (about 50 miles) and to the west of the Hudson River. They make up a geologic unit that travels westerly and southwesterly into western NY and PA respectively. The Catskills reach heights of close to 4,000 feet in their northeastern corner, but heights rapidly decrease as you go south and westward, except for Slide Mountain, about 30 miles southwest of northern ranges, which at over 4,000 feet is the highest mountain in the Catskills.
At 120 pages, The Catskills in the Ice Age is a basic primer for the non-geologist on the glacial history of the Catskills. It is written with the average reader in mind and lacks much of the jargon and technical writing the follows in other geology texts. If geologic terms are used, they are italicized and defined at that point. This makes for a very easy and pleasant read for the non-geologist. However, for those of us with a geologic background, this “simplification” of the geologic history can become annoying because we keep expecting and wanting more out of the story.
Robert Titus has positioned himself as “The Catskill Geologist,” mostly because few other geologists have published papers and researched the area (not to imply that there is not research occurring) and he has trained and studied as a paleontologist. Much of what is presented as “fact” in The Catskills in the Ice Age is up for interpretation and discussion in the greater geologic community beyond Mr. Titus, however if you were to read the book, this fact is left out.
Titus makes the case that valley glaciers existed prior to and after the main glaciation event (when the ice sheet completely covered the Catskills), however the physical evidence for these valley glaciers is meager at best (in my reading of other research, most other glacial geologists believe there is a single valley that may have held a remnant of the main glacier and that acted for a time, as a valley glacier) and the bedrock geology of the Catskills could argue against glacial origins for many of the valleys and “hollows” in the mountains. The Catskills are made up of alternating layers of sandstones and shales, much like the Colorado Plateau in the Grand Canyon area (though the rocks are not of the same age). In areas with such bedrock geology, groundwater-sapping can play a role in the development of drainage patterns and valley structure.
Sapping occurs when water traveling through the more porous sandstone reaches the shale, which is impermeable (water cannot travel through the shale) and then travels horizontally until it is discharged at a cliff face or slope. This constant groundwater discharge from below the sandstone layer but above the shale layers weakens and quickly weathers the shale layer (which is a weak rock unit to start with). As the shale weathers out, the sandstone is left hanging over the worn out shale layer. The sandstone then collapses and the rock face moves back. Many of the canyons and valleys in the western US in the Colorado Plateau area have been modified in this way and interestingly for the Catskills, they share similar traits to Catskill valleys. The difference being that the southwestern US groundwater-sapping valleys have never been exposed to glaciers, while the Catskills have.
Alright, I’m not trying to debunk Titus here, but debate is healthy is any scientific discipline and I just want readers to know there are other explanations for the features and landscape that Titus has given in The Catskills in the Ice Age.
Titus’s writing style is to tell a story. Thus the ice age history flows in a chronological format throughout the book and its chapters. Starting with earlier glaciations and ending with the resulting glacial topography after the glacier’s retreat, The Catskills in the Ice Age provides a comprehensive (if somewhat one sided) view of the geologic history of the area.
There are 27 chapters in the book and most are only a few pages long. Each chapter generally deals with a single event or place in the Catskills. Most chapters start out with a “picture it, 135,000 B.C.,” story where he describes what the area would have looked like should you have been able to stand there back then (it makes me feel like I’m listening to Sophia on the Golden Girls).
The Catskills in the Ice Age is a book that will not disappoint readers who are just being introduced to Catskill geology and the history of the Catskills throughout the last ice age. However, readers with a geology background may have some trouble enjoying this book – the viewpoints and theories are often one-sided and his assumptions are made with little background information.
So while I recommend this book, I would point out that in science more times than not, facts are not as clear-cut as some would make them out to be. Readers should remember that Titus is talking about theory and that there may be other explanations for the same results. If you do that, then The Catskills in the Ice Age will be an enjoyable read.
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