William Brace (geophysicist)
William Francis "Bill" Brace (born August 26, 1926 in Littleton , New Hampshire ; † May 2, 2012 ) was an American geophysicist .
Brace studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), interrupted by short military service in the Navy, with a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in 1953. From 1955 he was assistant professor and then professor of geology at MIT. 1981 to 1988 he headed the Faculty of Geosciences. From 1976 to 1988 he was Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geology. In 1988 he retired and devoted himself to cabinet making.
At MIT, he set up a school of quantitative geological rock mechanics. In particular, a strength profile of the lithosphere originates from this, with a shear strength increasing with depth in the brittle upper crust (Byerlee's law) and a more plastic lower crust, in which the shear strength decreases with depth (Brace-Goetze Strength Profiles, first by Chris Goetze introduced around 1975), with certain differences in oceanic and continental crust.
In 1987 he received the Walter Bucher Medal from the American Geophysical Union. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1971) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union .
Fonts
- with Chris Goetze Laboratory observations of high temperature rheology of rocks , Tectonophysics, 13, 1972, 583-600
- with David Kohlstedt Limits on lithospheric stress imposed by laboratory experiments , J. Geophys. Research, 85, 1980, 6248-6252
- with JD Byerlee Stick-slip as a mechanism for earthquakes , Science, Volume 153, 1966, 990-992
- with Byerlee Stick-slip, stable sliding and earthquakes - effect of rock type, pressure, strain rate and stiffness , J. Geophys. Research, 73, 1968, 6031-6037
- with RM Stesky, D. Riley, P.-Y. Robin Friction in faulted rock at high temperature and pressure , Tectonophysics, 23, 1974, 177-203
- with Stesky Estimation of frictional stress in the San Andreas fault from laboratory measurements , in RL Kovach, A. Nur (Editor) Proc. Conf. on the tectonic problems of the San Andreas fault , Stanford University Publ. Geolog. Sci., 12, 1973, 206-214
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brace, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brace, Bill; Brace, William Francis (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American geophysicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 26, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Littleton , New Hampshire , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 2, 2012 |