Jack Oliver (scientist)
John Ertle Oliver | |
---|---|
Penrose Medal (1998) | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Seismology |
John "Jack" Ertle Oliver (September 26, 1923 – January 5, 2011) was an American scientist. Oliver, who earned his PhD at
Early life and years at Columbia
Jack Oliver was born in
Oliver's work on using seismic waves to detect nuclear explosions led to his being invited to serve as an advisor to the
It was during Oliver's years at Columbia that he and his students Bryan Isacks and Lynn Sykes undertook the research leading to their 1968 paper, “Seismology and the New Global Tectonics,” which provided strong evidence for the acceptance of plate tectonics.[5] The paper was based on the findings of earthquakes hundreds of miles under the Pacific Ocean found using a network of seismic detectors that Oliver and his team had placed on Fiji and Tonga. The research by Oliver's team led them to conclude that the collision of tectonic plates was forcing material deep into the earth where they met below the Pacific Ocean, and provided strong evidence of the existence of continental drift, a theory that had been largely scoffed at by the scientific community when it was first proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912.[2] The order of the three coauthors' names on that paper (Isacks, Oliver, Sykes) was decided by lot, according to a footnote on the paper. This odd choice provoked speculation, but Oliver explained that decision was made before writing the paper, as all three authors worked full speed in what they saw as a race against other researchers.[6]
Oliver headed the Lamont seismology program for many years, and was chair of Columbia's Department of Geology from 1969 to 1971.[4]
Years at Cornell
In 1971, Oliver went to Cornell University, where he became chair of the geophysics department.[2][4] Oliver was eager to use reflection seismology techniques to probe the deep structure of continents, but many were skeptical of this approach because at that time refraction profiling was the standard way to examine crustal structures.[7]
With Cornell colleague Sidney Kaufman, Oliver co-founded the first national program using reflection seismology to explore Earth's continental crust.[8] The Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (COCORP) was initially funded by a small grant from the NSF. It has been used to map geological faults in many parts of the US,[7] and has served as a model for seismic exploration projects in more than 20 other countries.[8]
Personal life
Oliver met his wife Gay van der Hoeven on a hike near New York City, and they were married in 1964. The couple raised two daughters, Nell and Amy.[9]
In addition to his scientific work, Oliver enjoyed creating limericks,[2] such as this one from his 1996 book Shocks and Rocks:[10]
- The plates in dynamic mosaic
- Through history both fresh and archaic
- Like bold engineers
- For some two billion years
- Have kept Earth from becoming prosaic.
Publications
- Isacks, Bryan; Oliver, Jack; Sykes, Lynn R. (1968). "Seismology and the New Global Tectonics". Journal of Geophysical Research. 73 (18): 5855. .
References
- ^ Bryan L. Isacks | Earth 520: Plate Tectonics and People: Foundations of Solid Earth Science, Penn State e-Education Institute
- ^ New York Times. January 12, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
- PMID 21307924.
- ^ a b c d "John Oliver, a Father of Plate Tectonics, Dies". The Earth Institute, Columbia University. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
"It was literally the bible for understanding seismology," said Larry D. Brown, a former student of Oliver's who is now chairman of Cornell's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "It was one of the top five seminal papers on plate tectonics."
- ^ Elizabeth Weise (2011-01-10). "One of 'fathers' of plate tectonics dead at 87". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
John (Jack) Oliver, one of a trio of authors whose 1968 paper helped shift support to the theory of plate tectonics, is dead at 87.
- ^ Andrew Alden. "R.I.P. Jack Oliver, 1923–2011". About.com Geology. Archived from the original on 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
His specialty was seismology, one of the major lines of evidence that brought about the plate-tectonic scientific revolution in the 1960s.
- ^ a b "Biographies: Jack E. Oliver". Society of Exploration Geologists. Archived from the original on 2011-02-16. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
In order to lead Cornell to a position of eminence in the earth sciences, Jack envisioned a concentration on the problems of continental geology, particularly a deep structure of the continents.
- ^ a b "John (Jack) Oliver, pioneer in plate tectonics, dies at 87". Cornell University. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
Larry Brown, the Sidney Kaufman Professor of Geophysics and chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, called the paper one of the most important in geophysics in the last century
- ^ "John E. (Jack) Oliver (1923 – 2011)". Ithaca Journal. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
When he was in his eighties he still hiked the Taughannock Falls loop regularly, one of his favorites.
- ISBN 978-0-87590-280-7. Retrieved 2011-01-12.