Scientists
Harry Hess
Geologist
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
An American geologist and Navy officer whose 1962 theory of seafloor spreading gave continental drift the physical mechanism it had lacked for half a century, turning Alfred Wegener's rejected idea into the accepted foundation of plate tectonics.
Facts
BirthplaceNew York City, New York, United States 1 Defining ContributionProposed seafloor spreading in his 1962 report History of Ocean Basins: that the Earth's crust moves laterally away from long, volcanically active oceanic ridges. The idea supplied the mechanism continental drift had always lacked and sparked what is often called a revolution in the earth sciences. 1 Notable WorkHistory of Ocean Basins (1962) 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Anticipated By
Wegener's rejected continental drift is the idea Hess's seafloor spreading gave a mechanism to, decades later.
Works In
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.