Donnel F. Hewett

Donnel Foster Hewett (June 24, 1881, Irwin, Pennsylvania – February 5, 1971) was an American geologist and mineralogist, known for his leading role in the 1905 discovery of the Minas Ragra vanadium ore deposit in Peru. This ore deposit was the world's principal source of vanadium for more than 30 years. Hewett, with Earl V. Shannon, described and named orientite, a mineral rich in manganese.

Biography D. Foster Hewett (known to friends and acquaintances as Foster Hewett) During the years from 1885 to 1893, George Hewett was in charge of operating mines in Colorado and Wyoming and generally visited his son once a year in Washington, D.C. In Colorado in the summers of 1888 and 1892, D. Foster Hewett visited his father, who encouraged him to study mineralogy. From 1903 to 1909 Hewett investigated, mapped, and reported on mineral resources involving many commercially important minerals in the US, Mexico, Canada, and Peru. Most notably, he was primarily responsible for discovering the Minas Ragra vanadium ore deposit, thus revolutionizing the production of vanadium steel. In autumn 1921 Hewett began an extensive mapping program for the geology and ore deposition of the southern Great Basin — the program, with various periods of interruption, occupied him until he was no longer fit for strenuous fieldwork. His Great Basin research started in Nevada's Goodsprings mining district. In 1924 Hewett announced his discovery of the close association of dolomitization with deposition of lead and zinc ores. This discovery soon became used as a guide by geologist all over the world to identify such ore deposits of lead and zinc. He subsequently demonstrated that some classic ore deposits in Europe were encased in hydrothermal dolomite like the Goodsprings ores, but some lead and zinc deposit, such as those associated with the mines of Laurium, have no dolomite mantles. After completing his study in the Goodsprings area, he did geological mapping of the much larger area of the Ivanpah Quadrangle , which covers about 3,900 square miles (10,100 square kilometers) in the northeastern part of the Mojave Desert of southeastern California and southern Nevada. There he demonstrated remarkable continuity between underlying Precambrian rocks and overlying Paleozoic rocks.

Awards and honors Hewett, a long-time member of the Geological Society of America (GSA), served on the GSA Council from 1931 to 1933 and as GSA vice-president in 1935 and again in 1945. He served as president of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) in 1936. and in 1950 a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1942 he was awarded an honorary D.Sc. by Lehigh University. He received in 1951 the U.S. Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Medal, in 1951 the SEG's Penrose Gold Medal, and in 1964 the GSA's Penrose Medal.

The vanadium minerals and metahewettite are named in his honor.

Selected publications Articles

Books