Jack Oliver (scientist)

John Ertle "Jack" Oliver ( born September 26, 1923 in Massillon, Ohio; † January 5, 2011 in Ithaca (New York)) was an American geophysicist who by in the early stage of implementation of the theory in the 1960s seismological data collection important contributions to plate tectonics provided.

Oliver studied, interrupted by military service in the U.S. Navy during World War II in the Pacific, at Columbia University, where he had a scholarship as a football player. In 1947, he earned his bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in physics. In 1953 he received his doctorate at the Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory in geophysics. At that time, he dealt among other things with the seismic verification of nuclear weapon tests, which is why he was in 1958 and 1959, consultant to the U.S. government on these issues in the negotiations for test ban treaty. In the 1960s, he installed with his students and staff a network of seismological stations in the Pacific, including Fiji and Tonga. The data were an important support of plate tectonics, as they showed evidence for example, subduction of plates. In 1968 he published with his former student Bryan L. Isacks and Lynn R. Sykes an important work which summarized these findings. He was for many years director of the seismological research at the Lamont - Doherty Observatory of Columbia University, 1969-1971 Board of the Faculty of Geology. In 1971 he was a professor of geophysics at Cornell University. There he initiated with Sidney Kaufman, a program to explore the deep crust with seismic reflection ( COCORP, Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling the ).

He was married in 1964 and had two daughters.