George PL Walker

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George Patrick Leonard Walker (born March 2, 1926 in Harlesden , London , † January 17, 2005 ) was a British volcanologist . His scientific work, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, had a decisive influence on the change in volcanology from a purely descriptive to a quantitative science.

Life

Walker grew up in London and Northern Ireland. After attending Wallace High School in Lisburn , he studied geology at Queen's University in Belfast and obtained a doctorate in mineralogy from the University of Leeds . In 1954 he began teaching at Imperial College , London, and quickly built a reputation for science through his studies on Icelandic zeolite minerals . The results from Iceland played a role in the development of plate tectonics theory , and Walker was later honored with the Order of the Hawks for his contribution to research into the formation of Iceland .

As a colleague of John G. Ramsay , John Sutton and Janet Watson at Imperial College, Walker worked on volcanoes and volcanic eruptions, for example on Mount Etna , in the Indian Deccan Trapps , in the Azores , the Canary Islands , in Italy and other places. In addition to studying lava flows and volcanic shapes and assessing the dangers posed by volcanoes, pyroclastic flows were the main focus of his research, and he demonstrated that the type and strength of volcanic eruptions can be derived from the thickness and the distribution of the grain sizes of such pyroclastic deposits.

Walker left Imperial College in 1978 and started a research position at the University of Auckland in New Zealand . In the following years he was able to gain knowledge of some remarkably explosive prehistoric volcanic eruptions from North Iceland , and undertook extensive research on the Taupo . His last academic position was the Gordon McDonald Chair of Volcanology at the University of Hawaii , which he held until his retirement in 1996. During this time he researched the formation of basalt volcanoes such as the Hawaiian Islands and the behavior of flowing lava , and undertook extensive research on the Toba volcano .

After returning to the United Kingdom, he settled in Gloucester and held an honorary position at the University of Bristol . Walker was married with two children, a daughter and a son.

Honors

In 1975 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1977 he received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon and in 1982 the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London . He has been an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand since 1987 , and has held both honorary doctorates from the University of Iceland and the University of New Zealand since 1988 , and became a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union that same year . In 1989 he was awarded the Thorarinsson Medal by IAVCEI , the World Association of Volcanologists, and in 1995 he was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Walker, George PL
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walker, George Patrick Leonard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British volcanologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Harlesden , London
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 2005