Frederick Vine

Frederick John Vine (born June 17, 1939) is a marine geologist and geophysicist and was a key contributor to the theory of plate tectonics.

Early life

Vine was born in London, W4 and educated at Latymer Upper School and St John's College, Cambridge [http://www.bookrags.com/research/vine-fred-j-1939---woes-02/ Profile at Bookrags.com] ] where he studied Natural Sciences (BA, 1962) and marine geophysics (PhD, 1965).

Plate Tectonics

As a graduate student Fred Vine's Ph.D was 'magnetism in the seafloor', on which he worked along with his supervisor Drummond Matthews. Having met Harry Hess he was fully aware of his theories on sea floor spreading where the ocean bed effectively acts as a 'conveyor belt' moving away from the central ridge.BBC / Open University broadcast series "Earth Story", Vine interviewed by Professor Aubrey Manning] . Vine's work, along with that of Drummond Matthews and Lawrence Morley of the Geological Survey of Canada, helped put the variations in the magnetic properties of the ocean crust into proper context. Specifically Vine and Matthews supported Dietz’s ("Nature" 1961) idea that sea floor spreading was occurring at mid ocean ridges. Vine and Matthews showed that basalt created at a mid-ocean ridge records earth’s current magnetic field polarity (and strength), thus turning Hess's theoretical 'conveyor belt' into a 'tape recorder'. Furthermore, they showed that magnetic reversals, suggested by Allan Cox ("Nature" 1963), can be seen as parallel strips as you travel perpendicularly away from the ridge crest.

Academic career

Professor Vine had a distinguished career. He did important research with E.M. Moores on the Ophiolite within the Troodos mountains of southern Cyprus. He worked with R.A. Livermore and A.G.Smith on the history of Earth's magnetic field. He then did groundbreaking work on the electrical conductivity of rocks from the lower continental crust with R. G. Ross. In 1967 he became assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Princeton University. In 1970 he worked at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, U.K., firstly as a Reader, then as Professor in 1974, and was Dean from 1977–1980, and again from 1993–1998. Since 1998, Vine has been a Professorial Fellow of the University of East Anglia. As of 2008 he remains at the university as Emeritus Professor.

Honours

Professor Vine has received a number of honours including :
* Day Medal in 1968,
* Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1971,
* Chapman Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1973),
* Fellowship of the Royal Society in March 1974,
* Charles Chree medal and prize of the Institute of Physics (1977),
* Hughes Medal of the Royal Society (1982),
* International Balzan Prize (1981) .
* Prestwich Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2007.

Publications

* Vine, F.J. (2001) Reversals of fortune. In: Oreskes, N. (ed.) "An insider's history of the modern theory of the Earth", Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp46-66. [http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/features/page856.html. Geological Society] ] [http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/sci/env/people/facstaff/vinef University of East Angliea - Fred Vine profile] ]
* Vine F D and Matthews D H 1963 Magnetic anomalies over oceanic ridges Nature 199 947–949.
* Vine, F.J. (2003) Ophiolites, ocean crust formation and magnetic studies: a personal view. In: Dilek, Y. and Newcomb, S. (eds.) Ophiolite concept and the evolution of geological thought, Geological Society of America Special Paper, 373, 65-75.

References

External links

* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=CRx66ZpEhOg&feature=PlayList&p=96FD9BB9C1511A3B&index=0&playnext=1 Fred Vine explaining Paleomagnetic reversals - YouTube]