Drummond Hoyle Matthews FRS (5 February 1931 – 20 July 1997), known as "Drum", was a British marine geologist and geophysicist and a key contributor to the theory of

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label= Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of larg ...

. His work, along with that of fellow Briton Fred Vine and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Lawrence Morley, showed how variations in the magnetic properties of rocks forming the ocean floor could be consistent with, and ultimately help confirm,

Harry Hammond Hess Harry Hammond Hess (May 24, 1906 – August 25, 1969) was an American geologist and a United States Navy officer in World War II who is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the unifying theory of plate tectonics. He is best known for his th ...

's 1962 theory of

seafloor spreading Seafloor spreading or Seafloor spread is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. History of study Earlier theories by Alfred Wegener a ...

. In 1989 he was awarded the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

's highest honour, the

Wollaston Medal The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), ...

Early life

During World War II he went to school at The Downs in Malvern, and then

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928. ...

in Dorset. He became head boy at both.

Career

Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...

's theory of

continental drift Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted" across the ocean bed. The idea of continental drift has been subsumed into the science of pl ...

had never gained much scientific support due to its lack of any satisfactory mechanism to drive the process. During the 1950s, however, extensive surveys of the ocean floor revealed a global, linked system of mid-ocean ridges, all of which exhibited high thermal flow and considerable seismic activity. Hess hypothesized that new ocean crust was being formed at the ocean ridges by extrusions of magma from the Earth's mantle, and that convection currents within the mantle were continuously carrying the newly formed crust away from the ridge, widening the ocean basin and pushing the continents apart. In 1962 Matthews, as a research fellow at King's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, made a survey across part of an ocean ridge in the north-west

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. This revealed a pattern of magnetic anomalies running in parallel stripes and virtually symmetrically on either side of the ridge. The most plausible explanation for these anomalies required the assumption (already in circulation at the time, but not yet proven) that the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magneti ...

had reversed its polarity repeatedly over time. Ocean crust consists of basic

igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...

, containing significant amounts of

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With ...

. When such rock solidifies, the magnetite aligns itself with the prevailing magnetic field at the time, thus providing a sort of "fossil" magnetic record. If new crust were being formed at the ridges and moving away, as Hess theorized, then reversals in the Earth's magnetic polarity would result in just the kind of parallel, symmetrical anomalies that Matthews' survey had found. The ocean crust would in effect act as a kind of giant tape recorder of magnetic anomalies over time. Matthews and his research student, Fred Vine, published these ideas in the article "Magnetic Anomalies over Ocean Ridges" in the magazine ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' in 1963. From then on, rapid progress was made both in terms of acceptance of Hess's theory and of further verification. Subsequent surveys of other ocean ridges showed similar and correlatable anomalies in every case. Confirmation of the Earth's polarity reversals a few years later not only further validated the

Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis The Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis, also known as the Morley–Vine–Matthews hypothesis, was the first key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. Its key impact was that it allowed the r ...

but provided a timescale allowing the rate of spreading to be estimated for each section of ocean ridge. The contribution of Matthews and Vine proved to be an essential element in the development and acceptance of plate tectonics theory. In 1977 he won the Chree medal and prize. In 1982 Matthews became the first scientific director of the British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate (BIRPS), which had been established in 1981 to carry out deep seismic reflection profiling around the United Kingdom Continental Shelf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Drummond 1931 births 1997 deaths 20th-century British geologists People educated at Bryanston School Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Wollaston Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society British geophysicists Marine geologists People educated at The Downs School, Herefordshire Tectonicists Marine geophysicists