Doak C. Cox (1917-April 21, 2003) was a Hawaiian
geologist, best known for work in the prediction of
tsunamis.
[Chester Lao , Jacquelin N. Miller, "Memorial to Doak C. Cox 1917-2003" ''Geological Society of America Memorials'', volume 33, April 2004 pages 9-11]
/ref>
Early life and education
Cox was born in Wailuku, Hawaii, Wailuku on the Hawaiian island of Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
,["Group honors three scientists", '' The Honolulu Advertiser'' (September 20, 2002), page B3.] but spent most of his childhood on Kauai
Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...
. His father, Joel B. Cox, was a civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
working for a sugar plantation. In 1938 Cox graduated from the University of Hawaii with a B.S. degree
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
in Physics and Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
. He earned his Master's degree in Geology from Harvard University in 1941.
Career
Cox spent the next four years working with the U.S. Geological Survey. After World War II, his career path lead him to accomplishing a good deal of research in hydrogeology, earthquake and tsunami research, and the environment. In 1946 he returned home to work for the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA). At HSPA, he was put in charge of the water development and research program of water and geology. For the next 14 years, Cox worked on Arno Atoll, Western Samoa, the Marshall Islands and the Marianas
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
. He was the first to define the sigmoidal mixing curve in a fresh water lens, which he discovered by using a series of sampling tubes.
Cox was good at recognizing needs that could be taken care of by science. After the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake
The 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska on April 1, 1946. The shock had a moment magnitude () of 8.6, a tsunami magnitude of 9.3, and a surface-wave magnitude () of only 7.4, and a maximum Mercalli inten ...
created a destructive tsunami, he wanted to make a wave-based warning system for tsunamis. He wanted to know the height and velocity of quake-generated waves, what time they would arrive, what direction they would come from, and what the destruction impact may be. In 1946, 1952, 1957, 1960, and 1964 Cox gathered data from tsunamis that struck Hawaii.
Selected bibliography
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Doak
1917 births
2003 deaths
20th-century American geologists
People from Wailuku, Hawaii
People from Kauai
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
University of Hawaiʻi faculty