East Pacific Rise seafloor magnetic profile - observed vs calculated

Neil D. Opdyke (February 7, 1933 – April 7, 2019) was an American geologist. He was the Distinguished

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in the Department of Geological Sciences at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

, United States. He was previously with Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, including a stint as Director. He was well known for his groundbreaking research in the 1950s on paleoclimate and continental drift, with

Keith Runcorn (Stanley) Keith Runcorn (19 November 1922 – 5 December 1995) was a British physicist whose paleomagnetic reconstruction of the relative motions of Europe and America revived the theory of continental drift and was a major contribution to pla ...

, and later in Africa and Australia with Mike McElhinny and others. Back the U.S. in the mid-1960s he worked on the documentation of magnetic reversals in deep-sea sediments, which led to proof of 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 ...

the governing paradigm for marine magnetic anomalies. In 1969, Dr. Opdyke & Ken Henry used marine core data for a convincing test of the GAD hypothesis that is central to the use of

paleomagnetism Paleomagnetism (occasionally palaeomagnetism) is the study of prehistoric Earth's magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.'' Certain ...

in continental reconstruction. Opdyke’s work with

Nick Shackleton Sir Nicholas John Shackleton (23 June 1937 – 24 January 2006) was an English geologist and paleoclimatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period. He was the son of the distinguished field geologist Robert Millner Shackleton and great- ...

in 1973 marked the beginning of the integration of oxygen isotope

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

and

magnetostratigraphy Magnetostratigraphy is a geophysical correlation technique used to date sedimentary and volcanic sequences. The method works by collecting oriented samples at measured intervals throughout the section. The samples are analyzed to determine their ' ...

that has led to current methods of tuning timescales. Neil pioneered magnetic stratigraphy in terrestrial (non-marine) sediments and produced some of the most impressive records, notably from Pakistan and southwestern United States. These studies led to a vastly improved time frame for vertebrate evolution and allowed the documentation of mammal migration.

Research interests

* Paleomagnetism and its application to tectonics and magnetostratigraphy. *

Paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology ( British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of ...

and

paleogeography Palaeogeography (or paleogeography) is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term pale ...

of the

Phanerozoic The Phanerozoic is the current and the latest of the four eon (geology), geologic eons in the Earth's geologic time scale, covering the time period from 538.8 million years ago to the present. It is the eon during which abundant animal and ...

Education

* B.A., Columbia University, 1955 * D.Sc., University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1982 * Ph.D., Durham University, England, 1958

Memberships and distinctions

* European Geosciences Union Petrus Peregrinus Medal 2008 for pioneering work in magnetic stratigraphy of marine and continental sediments and its contribution to our understanding of the history of the magnetic field and its geological applications. *

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, 1996 * American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998 * Geological Society of America, fellow * American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow * American Geophysical Union, Fellow * American Geophysical Union John Adam Fleming Medal 1996

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Neil D. Opdyke on 17 March 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Session I
Oral history interview transcript with Neil D. Opdyke on 11 July 1997, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Session II {{DEFAULTSORT:Opdyke, Neil D. 1933 births 2019 deaths Alumni of King's College, Newcastle American geologists Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty University of Florida faculty Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Geological Society of America Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people