Harry Hammond Hess
Harry Hammond Hess ( born May 24, 1906 in New York City; † August 25, 1969 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts) was an American geologist and one of the pioneers of the theory of plate tectonics.
Education and Teaching
Hess studied at Yale University and Princeton University, where he in 1932 Dr. phil. received his doctorate. 1928/29, he worked as a geologist in Northern Rhodesia. In 1934 he became a professor at Princeton University and from 1950 to 1966 director of the local Department of Geology. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (1949-1950) and the University of Cambridge (1965).
He was chairman of the Department of Geosciences at the National Research Council of the United States from 1955 and Council of Space Research of National Academy of Sciences from 1962. He was 1951-1953 President of the Section Geodesy at the American Geophysical Union, in 1954/55 of the Mineralogical Society of America and 1962, the Geological Society of America.
Military career
Hess did during World War II serving in the U.S. Navy and became captain of the USS Cape Johnson, a troop transport ship, which was equipped with a particularly powerful sonar. In his travels through the Pacific Ocean, which led him to the Mariana Islands, the Philippines and Iwo Jima, he used constantly the sonar of his ship. This enabled him to collect seabed profiles in the North Pacific, which led to the discovery of flattened by surf submarine volcanoes, which he called guyots. Later, he remained in the Naval Reserve and was promoted to Rear Admiral.
Scientific achievements
In 1960, Hess his most important discovery, which is considered one of the greatest advances in 20th century geology. In a report to the " Office of Naval Research ," which was widely read, he developed the theory that the earth's crust continuously created along the long volcanic ocean ridges and spreads slowly from there. The discovery of seafloor spreading helped the then widely rejected theory of continental drift by Alfred Wegener to the scientific recognition. In the geosciences, it came as a result to a departure from the way Fixismus to Mobilism, which formed the basis for the modern theory of plate tectonics. Hess ' report was published in 1962 in his book " History of Ocean Basins ", which was the most referenced work in geophysics for a certain time. Hess was also involved in many other scientific undertakings, such as the Mohole project (1957-1966), a study on the feasibility and the technique of deep-sea drilling.
Honors
In 1966 he received the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America and an international Antonio Feltrinelli Prize. In 1969 he was appointed an honorary doctorate from Yale University, and awarded after his death by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his outstanding service.
After Harry H. Hess, a lunar crater is named. The U.S. Navy named one of its 1977 survey vessels, the USNS HH Hess (T- AGS -38) after him. The American Geophysical Union has awarded since 1984, the Harry H. Hess Medal.