Francis Parker Shepard

Francis Parker Shepard (* 10. May 1897 in Marblehead , Massachusetts ; † 25. April 1985 in La Jolla ) was an American sedimentologist whose name primarily with the study of submarine canyons and ocean currents on the ocean floor around the shelf and continental slope is associated .

Life

Shepard was the son of a reasonably wealthy family. He studied geology under RA Daly at Harvard University , interrupted his military service in the US Navy during the First World War . After meeting his future wife, Elizabeth Buchner, he decided to do his PhD at the University of Chicago , not far from where she lives in Milwaukee . In Chicago he worked with J Harlen Bretz , Rollin D. Salisbury and Rollin T. Chamberlin (son of Thomas Chamberlin ) on the structural geology of the Rocky Mountains . He received his PhD in 1922, and began teaching at the University of Illinois . From 1939 to 1946 he was professor of geology there.

After a sabbatical in 1933, he for the study of submarine canyons off the coast of California took advantage of Shepard and his spent graduate student Robert S. Dietz and Kenneth O. Emery most summers in La Jolla, as they there at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography , a professional research vessel was available.

During World War II , Shepard returned to the University of California for the US Navy, advising the Navy on planning submarine operations. After the war, Shepard got an unlimited job in La Jolla and became professor of marine geology there in 1945. Between 1951 and 1960 he was director of a project of the American Petroleum Institute (API Project 51), which dealt with sedimentation in the northern Gulf of Mexico. After his retirement in 1966, Shepard continued to work, even though he could not leave the house towards the end of his life for health reasons.

Act

Shepard initially worked in the field of structural geology of the Rocky Mountains , and published eleven structural geological papers after completing his doctorate. The fact that his father was chairman of the shipping company Shepard Steamship Line allowed him to use his father's yacht from 1923 , and Shepard increasingly turned to exploring the oceans using the methods of marine geology . He studied the distribution of sediments on the New England shelf and found evidence of the role of sea ​​level fluctuations in the development of the shelf. In the following years he expanded his work to shelf areas worldwide, and in 1937 published his classic work Sediments of the continental shelves . At La Jolla, he focused his work on the California shelf and the Gulf of California and explored the processes that shaped them. He started from the idea that submarine canyons were originally formed by rivers when the sea level was significantly lower during the Pleistocene than it is today. He later recognized the role of suspension currents claimed by RA Daly and Ph. H. Kuenen , which dominate the formation of the canyons, at least in the lower part.

Shepard published more than 200 essays and several books. In 1948 his textbook Submarine Geology appeared , a standard work in marine geology, which was reprinted numerous times. The Earth Beneath the Sea (1959) and Our Changing Coastlines (1971, with Harold R. Wanless ) also established themselves as standard works .

Honors

Shepard received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London (1966) as well as the Sorby Medal of the International Association of Sedimentologists (1978). Since 1967 the Society for Sedimentary Geology has awarded the Francis P. Shepard Medal for outstanding contributions to marine geology.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul L. Hancock, Brian J. Skinner, David L. Dineley: The Oxford Companion to The Earth . Ed .: Oxford University Press . 2000, ISBN 0-19-854039-6 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Deborah Day: Francis Parker Shepard Biography. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1997 ( PDF file; 236 kB )
3. ^ ^{A b c} Joseph R. Curray: Francis Parker Shepard, 1897–1985. GSA Today, December 2001, Geological Society of America ( PDF file; 236 kB )
4. ↑ Wollaston Medal winners ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Geological Society of London)  
5. ^ Sorby Medal winners (International Association of Sedimentologists)
6. ^ Francis P. Shepard Medal for Marine Geology ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and winners ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Society for Sedimentary Geology)  

literature

• Joseph R. Curray: Francis Parker Shepard, 1897-1985 . In: Robert L. Fisher, Edward D. Goldberg, and Charles S. Cox (Eds.): Coming of Age: Scripps Institution of Oceanography: A Centennial Volume, 1903- 2003. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 2003, pp. 157–167 ( PDF file; 4.6 MB )

Web links

• Deborah Day: Francis Parker Shepard Biography. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1997 ( PDF file; 236 kB )
• Francis P. Shepard: Autobiography. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, approx. 1983 [1] (PDF file; 9.4 MB)