Pruned: Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River

Harold N. Fisk's 1944 monumental tome on nature at its most mundane and sublime is, amazingly, available online and free. Landscape architects in every specialty have much to glean from it, not the least of which are water engineering techniques, ecological and geological processes, graphic representation, and the ideological and philosophical implications of reconstructing the Mississippi River.

The maps, scanned at high resolution and full scale, are some of the most beautiful I've seen.

The following files are hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

1. Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River - Fisk, 1944 Report (197MB)
2. Oversized Plates - Fisk, 1944 Report (686MB)
3. Oversized Plates Rectified - Fisk, 1944 Report (369MB)

(Image: Fisk, 1944. Map of ancient courses of the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau, MO - Donaldsonville, LA. Plate 22-10.)

Link:
Lower Mississippi Valley: Engineering Geology Mapping Program

Future Tense:
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Labels: cartography

11 Comment(s)

adam said...: ( October 23, 2005 6:17:00 PM CDT ); woow - this map is incredibly beautiful. Wonderfull when technical drawings like this gets almost abstract qualities.

and btw - discovered your blog a few days ago and must say that so far it's the nicest architectural blog I've come across. So I think I'll put a nice little link to it on my own.

Keep up the very nice work

Adam
since1968 said...: ( January 5, 2006 11:22:00 PM CST ); The links are all broken as of 01/06/06. The detail you posted looks beautiful.
Alexander Trevi said...: ( January 6, 2006 12:24:00 AM CST ); Apparently, the LVM site has crashed as reported in the comments in this post.

If it doesn't come online in the coming week, and you'd like to download the high-res files, I'll upload them to Flickr. Or make some sort of arrangement.
since1968 said...: ( January 6, 2006 7:02:00 AM CST ); Thanks Alexander.
Anonymous said...: ( January 9, 2006 4:39:00 PM CST ); Love this! But the army corps of engineers site is still down. Any chance you can upload the original images somewhere?
Alexander Trevi said...: ( January 11, 2006 12:25:00 AM CST ); I've uploaded the entire set to Flickr. But in order to meet Flickr's 10MB max file size for uploading, I had to reduce each map to 20%. (Or was it 18%.) With some amateurish image manipulation to make them somewhat legible in their reduced size.

Does anyone know where or how to distribute the original maps? The PDFs are around 20MB each, with the extracted JPEG files slightly larger.
Alexander Trevi said...: ( January 11, 2006 12:45:00 AM CST ); And the combined image above is 120MB.
Stewf said...: ( June 30, 2006 12:05:00 PM CDT ); The files are back up at the LVM site. See the "Documents" section on the left of this page.

It would be wise to mirror this, though. Maybe this, Alexander? http://box.net/
johanna said...: ( May 29, 2007 9:18:00 AM CDT ); funny
this map has been an inspiration for me during my work, and i have showed it to everyone i know and now i find it here.
it is so fantastic it has even got its own space at my kitchen wall

strange
vancroupe said...: ( August 21, 2008 10:25:00 AM CDT ); Found this site and posting randomly, and was immediately taken with both. I subsequently used The Fisk Report as a basis for a poem - shifting the geological jargon out of its contextual framework to portray a more human character - and have used some of these beautiful plates in (private) artworks. Thank you for shining a spotlight on this gem.
james pandreson said...: ( August 27, 2008 10:21:00 AM CDT ); A short section on interpreted lineaments, which he referred to individually as fault zones and collectively as a regional fracture pattern. It appears that Fisk and his team were working with small-scale black-and-white aerial photography, and traced drainage lineaments.
-------------------------
pandreson
Mississippi Alcohol Addiction Treatment

	\| Back to Homepage
Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River Friday, June 24, 2005 \| Permalink Harold N. Fisk's 1944 monumental tome on nature at its most mundane and sublime is, amazingly, available online and free. Landscape architects in every specialty have much to glean from it, not the least of which are water engineering techniques, ecological and geological processes, graphic representation, and the ideological and philosophical implications of reconstructing the Mississippi River. The maps, scanned at high resolution and full scale, are some of the most beautiful I've seen. The following files are hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 1. Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River - Fisk, 1944 Report (197MB) 2. Oversized Plates - Fisk, 1944 Report (686MB) 3. Oversized Plates Rectified - Fisk, 1944 Report (369MB) (Image: Fisk, 1944. Map of ancient courses of the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau, MO - Donaldsonville, LA. Plate 22-10.) Link: Lower Mississippi Valley: Engineering Geology Mapping Program Future Tense: Part II Part III Part IV Part V Labels: cartography 11 Comment(s) adam said... ( October 23, 2005 6:17:00 PM CDT ) woow - this map is incredibly beautiful. Wonderfull when technical drawings like this gets almost abstract qualities. and btw - discovered your blog a few days ago and must say that so far it's the nicest architectural blog I've come across. So I think I'll put a nice little link to it on my own. Keep up the very nice work Adam since1968 said... ( January 5, 2006 11:22:00 PM CST ) The links are all broken as of 01/06/06. The detail you posted looks beautiful. Alexander Trevi said... ( January 6, 2006 12:24:00 AM CST ) Apparently, the LVM site has crashed as reported in the comments in this post. If it doesn't come online in the coming week, and you'd like to download the high-res files, I'll upload them to Flickr. Or make some sort of arrangement. since1968 said... ( January 6, 2006 7:02:00 AM CST ) Thanks Alexander. Anonymous said... ( January 9, 2006 4:39:00 PM CST ) Love this! But the army corps of engineers site is still down. Any chance you can upload the original images somewhere? Alexander Trevi said... ( January 11, 2006 12:25:00 AM CST ) I've uploaded the entire set to Flickr. But in order to meet Flickr's 10MB max file size for uploading, I had to reduce each map to 20%. (Or was it 18%.) With some amateurish image manipulation to make them somewhat legible in their reduced size. Does anyone know where or how to distribute the original maps? The PDFs are around 20MB each, with the extracted JPEG files slightly larger. Alexander Trevi said... ( January 11, 2006 12:45:00 AM CST ) And the combined image above is 120MB. Stewf said... ( June 30, 2006 12:05:00 PM CDT ) The files are back up at the LVM site. See the "Documents" section on the left of this page. It would be wise to mirror this, though. Maybe this, Alexander? http://box.net/ johanna said... ( May 29, 2007 9:18:00 AM CDT ) funny this map has been an inspiration for me during my work, and i have showed it to everyone i know and now i find it here. it is so fantastic it has even got its own space at my kitchen wall strange vancroupe said... ( August 21, 2008 10:25:00 AM CDT ) Found this site and posting randomly, and was immediately taken with both. I subsequently used The Fisk Report as a basis for a poem - shifting the geological jargon out of its contextual framework to portray a more human character - and have used some of these beautiful plates in (private) artworks. Thank you for shining a spotlight on this gem. james pandreson said... ( August 27, 2008 10:21:00 AM CDT ) A short section on interpreted lineaments, which he referred to individually as fault zones and collectively as a regional fracture pattern. It appears that Fisk and his team were working with small-scale black-and-white aerial photography, and traced drainage lineaments. ------------------------- pandreson Mississippi Alcohol Addiction Treatment Post a Comment

Post a Comment