Jack Oliver

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Ertle "Jack" Oliver (born September 26, 1923 in Massillon , Ohio ; † January 5, 2011 in Ithaca (New York) ) was an American geophysicist who was in the early stages of the implementation of the theory in the 1960s seismological data collection made important contributions to plate tectonics .

Oliver studied, interrupted from military service in the US Navy in the Pacific during World War II, at Columbia University , where he had a scholarship as a football player. In 1947 he earned his bachelor's degree and then his master's degree in physics. In 1953 he received his PhD in geophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory . At that time, he dealt with the seismological verification of nuclear weapons tests, which is why he was an advisor to the US government on these issues in the negotiations on the test ban agreement in 1958 and 1959. In the 1960s he and his students and staff installed a network of seismological stations in the Pacific, including Fiji and Tonga . The data were an important pillar of plate tectonics, as they provided indications, for example, of plate subduction. In 1968 he published an important paper with his former students Bryan L. Isacks and Lynn R. Sykes that summarized these findings. For many years he was head of seismological research at the Lamont-Doherty Observatory at Columbia University and from 1969 to 1971 head of the Faculty of Geology. In 1971 he went to Cornell University as a professor of geophysics . There he and Sidney Kaufman initiated a program to explore the deep crust of the earth using reflection seismics (COCORP, Consortium for the Continental Reflection Profiling). Among other things, they examined the Appalachians (with Robert D. Hatcher ).

In 1984 Oliver was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . In 1987 he was President of the Geological Society of America . In 1998 Oliver was awarded the Penrose Medal by the Geological Society of America .

He had been married since 1964 and had two daughters.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He received his doctorate in 1965 with Oliver and was later a professor at Cornell University
  2. ↑ Isacks, Oliver, Sykes Seismology and the New Global Tectonics , Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 73, 1968, p. 5855
personal data
SURNAME Oliver, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oliver, John Ertle (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Massillon (Ohio)
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 2011
Place of death Ithaca (New York)