Don L. Anderson

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Don Lynn Anderson (March 5, 1933 – December 2, 2014) was an American

Born in Frederick, Maryland, in 1933,^[5] Anderson moved to Baltimore when he was six. He graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute^[6] then attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he earned a Bachelor of Science in geology and geophysics in 1955. He then worked in the oil industry in California, Montana and Wyoming, and served in the Air Force in Massachusetts and Thule, Greenland before moving to California, where he received a Ph.D. in geophysics and mathematics at Caltech in 1962. He spent most of his subsequent academic career at Caltech's Seismological Laboratory, becoming its second longest serving director from 1967 to 1989. He was married to Nancy Ruth Anderson, had two children, Lynn Anderson Rodriguez and Lee Weston Anderson, and four granddaughters.

Anderson began his scientific career while serving in the

During his more than 50-year career, Anderson published papers on the composition and origin of the

Although his work was based on seismology, classical physics and thermodynamics as well as his knowledge of the Earth's interior, Anderson's theories are considered to be controversial because they depart from the prevailing ideas developed by the geochemical community and which are widely cited in influential publications such as Nature and Science. An active website, mantleplumes.org, is devoted to the challenge by Anderson and his colleagues to standard, or text-book explanations of volcanoes and Earth dynamics. Anderson's multidisciplinary approach, combined with his expertise in geophysics, geochemistry, solid-state physics, and thermodynamics, enabled him to explain the evolution and structure of the Earth in ways that challenge accepted ideas of his time. Colleague Seth Stein^[who?] of Northwestern University said of Anderson's New Theory of the Earth: “An old adage says that there are no true students of the Earth because we dig our small holes and sit in them. This book is a striking counter example that synthesizes a broad range of topics dealing with the planet’s structure, evolution, and dynamics. Even readers who disagree with some of the arguments will find them insightful and stimulating.”^{[citation needed]}

Anderson died in Cambria, California, on December 2, 2014, from cancer, at the age of 81.^[5]

Technical details

• Showed that anisotropy and anelasticity were important in the propagation of seismic waves in the Earth.
• Introduced frequency dependent and polarization effects into modern seismology. This made it possible to resolve discrepancies between various types of seismic data (body waves, normal models; Rayleigh-Love wave discrepancy) and to combine all types of data into a single inversion.
• Developed theory for frequency dependence of both wavespeeds and anelasticity (Q) and applied this to the mantle and core (Absorption Band Model).
• Developed methods for inverting surface waves for anisotropic structures (Universal Dispersion Curves).
• Showed (with Minster) how microphysics could explain how short period phenomena could be related to long term rheology.
• With Nataf, Nakanishi, Tanimoto, Montagner, Regan developed first 3D structures of the anisotropic mantle.

Awards and honors

• James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union (1966)^[8]
• Apollo Achievement Award of the
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  1969
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1972)^[9]
• Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1977) (Viking Mission Scientists) ^[10]
• NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1977)
• Member of the
  National Academy of Sciences
  (1982)
• Honorary Foreign Fellow of the European Union of Geosciences (1985)^[11]
• Emil Wiechert Medal of the German Geophysical Society (1986)^[12]
• Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America (1987)^[13]
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1988)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1988)^[14]
• Member of the American Philosophical Society (1990) ^[15]
• William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union (1991)^[16]
• Guggenheim Fellow (1998)^[17]
• Royal Swedish Academy of Science (1998 with Dziewonski)^[4]
• National Medal of Science (1998)^[18]
• Honorary doctorates from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and University of Paris (Sorbonne)

Important publications

• A. M. Dziewonski; D. L. Anderson. (1981). Preliminary reference Earth model; Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 25, S.297–356.
• D. L. Anderson. (2007). New Theory of the Earth; Cambridge University Press, New York.
• D. L. Anderson. (1989). Theory of the Earth; Blackwell Scientific Publications.
• Don L. Anderson and James H. Natland. (2014) Mantle updrafts and mechanisms of oceanic volcanism; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [1] vol. 111 no. 41.
  doi:10.1073/pnas.1410229111
  .
• D. L. Anderson. (2013). The persistent mantle plume myth - Do plumes exist?; Australian Journal of Earth Sciences: and James H. Natland.
  doi:10.1080/08120099.2013.835283
• Anderson, Don L. (2011). Hawaii, Boundary Layers and Ambient Mantle - Geophysical Constraints, J. Petrol., 52, 1547–1577;
  doi:10.1093/petrology/egq068
  .
• G. R. Foulger, D. L. Anderson. (2005). A cool model for the Iceland hotspot; Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 141.
• Anderson, D. L. (2005). Self-gravity, self-consistency, and self-organization in geodynamics and geochemistry, in Earth's Deep Mantle: Structure, Composition, and Evolution, Eds. R.D. van der Hilst, J. Bass, J. Matas & J. Trampert, AGU Geophysical Monograph Series 160, 165–186.
• Anderson, D. L. (2005). Scoring hotspots: The plume and plate paradigms, in Foulger, G.R., Natland, J.H., Presnall, D.C., and Anderson, D.L., eds., Plates, plumes, and paradigms: Geological Society of America Special Paper 388, p. 31–54.
• Anderson, Don L. and Natland, J. H. (2005). A brief history of the plume hypothesis and its competitors: Concept and controversy, in Foulger, G.R., Natland, J.H., Presnall, D.C., and Anderson, D.L., eds., Plates, Plumes, & Paradigms, : GSA Special Paper 388, p. 119-145.
• Meibom, A. and Anderson, D. L. (2003). The Statistical Upper Mantle Assemblage, Earth Planet Science Letters, 217, pp. 123–139.
• Wen, L., and Anderson, Don L. (1997). Layered mantle convection: A model for geoid and topography, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 146, p. 367-377.
• Anderson, Don L. (1995). Lithosphere, asthenosphere and perisphere, Reviews of Geophysics, v. 33, p. 125-149.
• Anderson, Don L.; Zhang, Y.-S.; Tanimoto, T. (1992). Plume heads, continental lithosphere, flood basalts and tomography, in: Magmatism and the Causes of Continental Break-up, B. C. Storey, T. Alabaster and R. J. Pankhurst, eds., Geological Society Special Publication, No. 68.
• Anderson, Don L.; Tanimoto, T.; and Zhang, Y.-S. (1992). Plate tectonics and hotspots: The third dimension, Science, v. 256, p. 1645-1650.
• Scrivner, C. and Anderson, Don L. (1992). The effect of post Pangea subduction on global mantle tomography and convection, Geophys. Res. Lett., vol. 19, no. 10, p. 1053-1056.
• Anderson, Don L. (1989). Where on Earth is the Crust?, Physics Today, March, p. 38-46.
• Anderson, Don L. (1987). A Seismic Equation of State II. Shear Properties and Thermodynamics of the Lower Mantle, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors, v. 45, p. 307-323.
• Anderson, Don L. (1985). Hotspot magmas can form by fractionation and contamination of MORB, Nature, v. 318, p. 145-149.
• Tanimoto, T., and Anderson, Don L. (1985). Lateral heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy of the upper mantle: Love and Rayleigh waves 100-250 sec, Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 90, p. 1842-1858.
• Anderson, Don L. (1986). Earth sciences & public policy, Geotimes, v. 31, no. 10, p. 5.
• Nataf, H.-C.; Nakanishi, I.; and Anderson, Don L. (1986). Measurements of Mantle Wave Velocities and Inversion for Lateral Heterogeneities and Anisotropy, Part III: Inversion, Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 91, no. B7, p. 7261-7307.
• Anderson, Don L. (1984). The Earth as a planet: paradigms and paradoxes, Science, v. 223, no. 4634, p. 347-355. 178.
• Anderson, Don L. (1982). Hotspots, polar wander, mesozoic convection, and the geoid, Nature, v. 297, no. 5865, p. 391-393.
• Anderson, Don L.; and Given, J. W. (1982). Absorption band Q model for the Earth, Jour. Geophys. Res., v. 87, no. B5, p. 3893-3904.

See also

• List of geophysicists

References