William Maurice Ewing

William Maurice " Doc" Ewing (May 12th 1906 - May 4th 1974) is a geophysicist and American oceanographer .

Biography

Ewing is born with Lockney with the Texas, the elder one of seven children. He studies with the Université Rice, obtains his B.A. in 1926, his master in 1927 and his doctorate in 1931. It Marie first once in 1928.

Research

Ewing belongs to the generation of geologist during whom the transition between the school from geology regarding surface from the Ground as fixed and motionless more or less and the modern school took place. The caricature of the academic geologist is “an old professor marmonnant an interminable catalog of common fossils of the Carbonifère, moving a cloud of dust occasionally… ”. Alfred Wegener proposed in 1915 its theory of the Continental drift but failed to provide a plausible cause of this drift causing its rejection by the whole of the scientific community. The geologists implicitly regard sea-beds as having a nature identical to that of the continents.

The samples also show that the Terrestrial magnetic field is reversed several times in the past. In 2007 the precise causes are still badly known.

Ewing also works in the field of seismology, at the beginning of the Années 1950 it develops with Frank Close a seismograph which takes into account a seismic type of wave more or less ignored by the geologists. The waves of surfaces are generated by Earthquakes or nuclear explosions underground. A network of detection made up of 125 observation stations is installed in 1957 and 1958. This network will be used inter alia detecting the Soviet nuclear tests then to later check the application of the treaty of prohibition of the nuclear tests. In the Years 1960, Ewing works on lunar seismology .

During its career it publishes or is joint author moreover of the 340 articles as of the book Elastic Waves in Layered Media with Frank Close and Wenceslas Jardetzky.

Rewards

Medal Penrose in 1974 on a purely posthumous basis
medal H. Bucher in 1974
Robert Earl McConnell Award in 1973
National Medal off Science in 1973
Medal Vega
Medal Wollaston in 1969
Gold medal of Royal Astronomical Society in 1964
member of National Academy off Sciences
member of American Academy off Arts and Sciences
member of American Philosophical Society
Sidney Powers Memorial in 1968
foreign member of the Geological Society off London in 1964
medal John J. Carty in 1963
medal William Bowie in 1957
Public Distinguished Award Service in 1955
medal Arthur L. Day in 1949
Guggenheim Fellow in 1938,1953 and 1955
Awarded eleven honorary dismantle.
the Medal Ewing of the Society off Exploration Geophysicists and of the American Geophysical Union bears its name
Dorsa Ewing a Dorsum on the the Moon.

Sources and references

Maurice Ewing and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Random links: