Atlas Trail
Faults, Cores and Seafloors: Eight Scientists of the Solid Earth
These eight scientists worked out what the solid Earth does and what lies inside it, moving from the fault that breaks in an earthquake, through the sinking plates and the layered interior, to the magnetic stripes that record the opening of the ocean floor.
Stop 1 of 8.
Scientists
Harry Fielding Reid explained how an earthquake happens. His theory of elastic rebound held that a fault stores strain until it releases suddenly, and he developed it while teaching dynamical geology and geography at Johns Hopkins University.
Stop 2 of 8.
Scientists
Kiyoo Wadati studied deep earthquakes at the Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan. His 1928 paper comparing earthquake displacement with distance from the epicenter led Charles Richter to develop his magnitude scale in 1935, and his name is attached to the Wadati-Benioff zone.
Stop 3 of 8.
Scientists
Hugo Benioff, working at the California Institute of Technology, charted deep earthquakes beneath the Pacific Ocean and showed their sources grow deeper away from the trench, the pattern called the Wadati-Benioff zone. He also designed the Benioff seismograph in 1932.
Stop 4 of 8.
Scientists
Francis Birch showed in 1952 that Earth's mantle is chiefly silicate minerals around an inner and outer core of molten iron. His 1961 papers gave Birch's law linking compressional wave velocity to rock density.
Stop 5 of 8.
Scientists
Walter Elsasser proposed the dynamo theory, in which electric currents circulating in the fluid outer core generate Earth's magnetic field. He also showed that the field's history is recorded in the magnetic orientation of minerals in rocks, a foundation of paleomagnetism.
Stop 6 of 8.
Scientists
Maurice Ewing founded and directed the Lamont Geological Observatory at Columbia University from 1949. He led more than fifty oceanic expeditions that gathered seismic and core sampling data, advancing plate tectonics theory and the mapping of the ocean floor.
Stop 7 of 8.
Scientists
Robert Dietz did pioneering research on seafloor spreading, published as early as 1960 and 1961, alongside Harry Hess. He also recognized the Sudbury Basin in Canada as an ancient impact structure.
Stop 8 of 8.
Scientists
Drummond Matthews identified parallel magnetic anomalies on either side of mid ocean ridges. With Fred Vine he explained them through reversals of Earth's magnetic field recorded in ocean floor basalt, which validated Harry Hess's seafloor spreading concept.
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