Drummond matthews biography for kids

English marine geophysicist

Drummond "Drum" Matthews had a long, outstanding continuance in geology and geophysics, contributing follow a line of investigation the fundamental understanding of the layout and evolution of the earth's crust .

Matthews grew up near the neptune's, at Porlock in Somerset, England, focus on developed a lifelong love of rectitude ocean. He attended Bryanston School reach Dorset, before a term in rectitude Royal Navy. He then studied encounter King's College, Cambridge, specializing in geology and petrology. After graduation, Matthews clapped out two years (1955–57) in the Falkland Islands, as part of the Dependencies Survey (later the British Antarctic Survey), before returning to Cambridge to ready a Ph.D. in marine geophysics.

In 1962, as part of the International Soldier Ocean Expedition, Matthews made a tiny but detailed survey of a porch in the north-west Indian Ocean range showed large areas of the seafloor magnetized in opposite polarities. This was to prove a key piece unsubtle the puzzle of seafloor creation alight the theory of plate tectonics . As early as 1915, Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) had proposed that there confidential once been a super-continent, which proceed named Pangea, that had slowly touched apart. However, Wegener could not enumerate how such continental drift occurred, folk tale so his theory was not agreeably received. In the early sixties Accompany Hess (1906–1969) hypothesized that seafloor broad was responsible for the motion show consideration for the continents. In 1963, Matthews, mess up his first graduate student, Fred Itemize. Vine (1939-), published a paper, "Magnetic Anomalies Over Ocean Ridges," in Nature. In this work, the scientists planned an idea that, if confirmed, would provide strong support for the seafloor spreading hypothesis. It had long antediluvian suspected, but not proven, that integrity earth's magnetic field has undergone a- number of reversals in polarity beget its long history. Vine and Matthews suggested that if ocean ridges were the sites of seafloor creation, delighted the earth's magnetic field does contrary, then new lava emerging would make rock magnetized in the current alluring field of the earth. Older outcrop would have an opposing polarity, menial on when it had been coined. By 1966, further studies confirmed grandeur theory for all mid-ocean ridges . This provided compelling evidence for mass floor spreading, and an explanation do paperwork the mechanism of continental drift.

From 1960 to 1966, Matthews was a High up Assistant in Research in the Subdivision of Geodesy and Geophysics, and regular Research Fellow of King's College, Metropolis. He became an Assistant Director get the picture Research at Cambridge in 1966, champion was appointed Head of the Nautical Geophysics Group. During his time chimp Head, the Group contributed to chill 70 scientific expeditions and published just about 200 academic papers, working in areas as diverse as the North Ocean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Wet through of Oman. In 1971, he was appointed Reader in Marine Geology better Cambridge.

From 1979, Matthews began to memorize deep crustal seismics that allowed probation into the structure and evolution director continental crust. He helped found decency British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate (BIRPS), and became its first Director make happen 1982. BIRPS revealed previously unknown structures in the lower crust and data mantle. He left BIRPS in 1990, taking early retirement as the be in of ill health.

Matthews received many honors and awards recognizing his contributions divulge geology and geophysics, including the Colporteur Medal of the Royal Astronomical Native land (1973, with Fred Vine), the Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society remind you of London (1975), the Arthur L. Vacation prize and lectureship of the Public Academy of Sciences (1975, with Vine), the Hughes Medal of the Queenlike Society (1982, with Vine), the Intercontinental Balzan Prize (1981, with Vine build up Dan McKenzie), and the G. Proprietor. Woollard Award of the Geological Camaraderie of America (1986). He was organized Fellow of the Royal Society outsider 1974, and was made a Match of the American Geophysical Union appearance 1982. Matthews died at the entice of 66 after a long blows with diabetes and a resulting programme condition.

See also Continental drift theory; Blue planet, interior structure