George A. Thompson

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George Albert Thompson (born June 5, 1919 in Swissvale , Pennsylvania - † May 12, 2017 in Palo Alto , California ) was an American geologist and geophysicist .

Thompson studied at Pennsylvania State College with a bachelor's degree in 1941 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master's degree in 1942. He then worked for the US Geological Survey until 1944 and served in the US Navy from 1944 to 1946. From 1946 to 1976 he was a geophysicist and geologist with the US Geological Survey. He also became a Lecturer in 1948, Assistant Professor in 1949 and Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University in 1960 . From 1979 to 1982 he headed the Faculty of Geology and from 1980 to 1989 he was Otto N. Miller Professor of Geosciences. From 1987 to 1989 he was dean of the School of Earth Sciences.

He deals with the analysis of the structure of the upper mantle and deep crust of the earth from geophysical data (seismic, gravity) and the interaction of magmatic processes in this area and tectonic processes. One focus of his research is the Basin and Range Province . In 1964 he and Manik Talwani discovered a thinning of the earth's crust in this area from geophysical data and he identified this as the cause of the uplift there. The expansion of the upper crust of the earth is compensated by the flow of material into the deeper crust. In the 1980s he investigated areas of the earth where mafic and ultramafic rocks emerge from the lower crust and upper mantle (such as the Ivrea region) and demonstrated that the reflections at the Mohorovičić discontinuity can be traced back to such rocks. Recently he has been investigating the geological role of deep-lying mantle plumes.

In 2008 he received the Penrose Medal and in 1983 the George P. Woollard Award from the Geological Society of America. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America , of which he was President in 1997, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences . From 2000 to 2003 he was head of the geology section of the National Academy of Sciences.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life and career data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ↑ Danielle Torrent Tucker: Geophysics champion George Thompson dies at 97th Stanford University , May 24, 2017, accessed June 2, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, George A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, George Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Swissvale , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2017
Place of death Palo Alto , California