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Copyright by Patricia Ann Bobeck 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Patricia Ann Bobeck Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: JEAN-BAPTISTE PARAMELLE: METHOD, RESULTS, AND CONTRIBUTION TO HYDROGEOLOGY Committee: John M. Sharp, Jr., Supervisor Marc Hesse Charles Kerans Kenneth Taylor Michel Bakalowicz JEAN-BAPTISTE PARAMELLE: METHOD, RESULTS, AND CONTRIBUTION TO HYDROGEOLOGY by Patricia Ann Bobeck, B.A., A.M., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2017 Acknowledgements I owe more appreciation than I can list here. First, I thank Dr. Jack Sharp for welcoming me back to graduate studies and for his enthusiastic support for this project and French hydrogeology. Jack generously provided important feedback throughout the years of course work and encouragement and sound guidance during the dissertation process. He has offered abundant suggestions and insight for research directions and cheerful encouragement over the years of this project. Jack also provided generous financial support for coursework, fieldwork, and conference attendance. I thank Kenneth Taylor of the University of Oklahoma for his attentive readings of the translation and for suggestions for improving the text. Ken also suggested topics to research and address in the translator’s notes that accompany the translation and made significant contributions to the appendices. Ken also shared from his wealth of knowledge information on French scientists and naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries and their contributions to the development of the scientific method. His contributions added greatly to my understanding of intellectual and scientific world Paramelle inhabited. Ken also put me in touch with Jean Margat of the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) in Orléans, France. Mr. Margat provided a folder of historical hydrogeological documents and interesting insight on the history of hydrogeology in France. Michel Bakalowicz of the University of Montpellier, France, has been an enthusiastic supporter of this project since our first meeting in 2013 when we talked at length about Paramelle, the historical background of his work, E.A. Martel, and the history of dowsing. Michel suggested contacts in the Dept. of Lot (André Tarrisse and Cyril Delporte) who showed me the limestone plateaus where Paramelle walked almost two iv centuries ago looking for water. Michel also introduced me to his colleague Sévérin Pistre, professor of hydrogeology at the University of Montpellier. Michel also conducted extensive research on authors who have cited Paramelle in their work and provided this information for use in the dissertation. Michel has helped me immensely by alluding to socio-cultural background that I did not have, for example, an understanding of the gulf between Paramelle, the provincial priest, and the members of academies and elite engineering corps such as Henry Darcy. Michel helped me understand obscure passages of Paramelle’s book and reviewed my figures illustrating Paramelle’s concepts. Andre Tarrisse, former hydrogeologist of the Department of Lot, and Cyril Delporte, current hydrogeologist of the Department of Lot, introduced me to the northern part of the department where we visited the parishes Paramelle served when he was beginning his water search. André began working in the department of Lot in the 1970s when Paramelle’s methods were still used to find groundwater. He invited me on numerous excursions to see the locations Paramelle describes in his book. André also found descendants of Paramelle and facilitated a meeting with them. André spent several days in the field in Lot with Jack Sharp and me. In addition, André introduced me to Jean Taisne, the speleologist who transcribed Paramelle’s 1827 handwritten memoir for publication by the Spéléo-Club of Paris. Mr. Taisne is the author of several articles on Paramelle. André introduced me to other Paramelle enthusiasts in France. The first of these was Daniel Clément and his wife Agnes, who invited me to the paradise of Moloy to explore the water supply system made possible by Paramelle’s discovery of water in 1849. Through Daniel, I met Gérald Naigeon of Gevrey-Chambertin who gave me a tour of the Source Lavaux, a water system built to exploit another of Paramelle’s discoveries; this one is still providing water to residents of Gevrey. v J.P. Nicot and Gregory Frébourg, French geologists at the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, read the translation and helped with numerous words and expressions not found in dictionaries or online. Archivists in the Archives départementales of 39 departments made it possible for me to look through stacks of records relating to Paramelle’s visits to their departments. They were extremely generous with their time and expertise and they made it possible to document Paramelle’s travel and work. The archives contain lists of individuals who were willing to pay for Paramelle’s services, notices of Paramelle’s visits, and newspaper articles recounting his successes and the competition between departments for his services. The archivists cheerfully explained the French archives system and offered suggestions on finding additional information. And they cheerfully put up with my less-than-perfect French, perhaps because they were mildly amused that I had traveled from Texas to research a 19th century country priest. Many of the archivists remained in contact with me after finding additional materials after my visit. Two archivists stand out for their helpfulness. Anne-Laurence Hostin, archivist in Privas, Ardèche, a computer whiz, found a database of about 90 regional newspaper articles on Paramelle. It was by far the largest cache of newspaper articles I found. Annie Massot, archivist in Digne-les-Bains, Basses- Alpes, invited me on a 4-hour geologic field trip around Digne-les-Bains after we finished our work at the Archives on a Friday afternoon. The Jackson School of Geosciences of University of Texas provided material support from two funds, the Ronald K. DeFord and the W. R. Muehlberger scholarships to defray field costs. Gifts from these two funds were especially dear to me since I had known both of these men in the 1970s and 1980s during my undergraduate and master’s degree years at UT. vi Mark Helper, ever helpful and cheerful, introduced me to the geologic use of ArcGIS in 2012 and generously offered valuable ArcGIS help on this dissertation project on multiple occasions. Vincent Clause also generously gave his time to help me organize the ArcGIS portion of this research. Dennis Trombatore, librarian of the Walter Geology Library, made this dissertation possible by housing an incredible wealth of resources right here on campus and sharing his vast knowledge of library arts to help me track down obscure titles, and by ordering geologic maps. The Walter Library is truly a treasure. Edwin Robert, Latin-English translator, contributed English translations of Paramelle’s citations of the ancients. On the personal side, I am most grateful to my son Dennis who helped me in more ways than I can count during the years of this PhD process. vii JEAN-BAPTISTE PARAMELLE: METHOD, RESULTS, AND CONTRIBUTION TO HYDROGEOLOGY Patricia Ann Bobeck, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: John M. Sharp, Jr. This study consists of three parts: a translation of Paramelle’s 1856 The Art of Finding Springs; a synthesis of Paramelle’s method, as set out in the book; and an application of his observational method to two karst areas of Texas. Paramelle’s book is a compilation of the observations and experiences gained during 40 years of exploring for water in 40 of France’s departments. Paramelle’s observational method was a scientific advance over water finding methods used in the early 19th century. The breadth and details of Paramelle’s observations are summarized in the second part. Paramelle found shallow water in karst areas by locating the thalweg, the location of focused groundwater flow, and he maintained that beneath every surface thalweg was an underground thalweg. Shallow water could be found in small valleys where the thalweg was easily visible on the surface. Water is abundant where a thalweg joins a stream. He calculated the amount of groundwater present by the size of the recharge area, an area of permeable rock overlying an impermeable layer. He observed the swallet-resurgence connection, the disappearance of a stream into the streambed and its reappearance downstream. Paramelle noted that aligned sinkholes overlay underground conduits and caverns. In part three, Paramelle’s observations are applied to two karst areas of Texas, New Braunfels and the Stockton viii Plateau. In the New Braunfels area, wells located within 200 m of subsidence areas (coalesced sinkholes) have higher yields than wells located farther from these features. On the Stockton Plateau, the presence of springs in recesses confirms Paramelle’s observations that shallow water is present in small valleys, at permeability contrasts, and downgradient of recharge areas of sufficient size. Paramelle’s scientific observation of rock units and water occurrence provided water for many towns and farms in the 19th century and greatly promoted the use and popularity of groundwater in France. His success in using the observational method is a reminder of the importance