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Reinhard Bortfeld (25 February 1927 – 10 July 2019) was a German geophysicist.
Life
Bortfeld grew up in
Annaburg
Annaburg () is a town in Wittenberg district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was the seat of the former ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' Annaburg-Prettin.
Constituent communities
The town Annaburg consists of the following ''Ortschaften'' or municipa ...
in
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
, Germany. After World War II he came to
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
where he studied
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, graduated with a
Staatsexamen
The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, physical therapists, teachers, research librarians, archivists, pharmacists, food chemists, psyc ...
in 1950, and completed his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in 1951. He worked for many years as a geophysicist in the industry: from 1952 until 1962 at
Mobil Oil A.G. in
Celle
Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...
, then until 1975 at
Prakla-Seismos in
Hannover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, and finally until 1980 at
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
in
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, Netherlands. In 1980 he became a full professor and director of the Institute of Geophysics at the
Clausthal University of Technology
The Clausthal University of Technology (, also referred to as TU Clausthal or TUC) is an institute of technology ('' Technische Universität'') in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany. The small public university is regularly ranked amon ...
, Germany. He retired and became professor emeritus in 1992.
In 1960 Bortfeld married Monika Bortfeld, with whom he has a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Julia.
Work in geophysics
With his mathematical approach to solve problems of
exploration geophysics
Exploration geophysics is an applied branch of geophysics and economic geology, which uses physical methods at the surface of the Earth, such as seismic, gravitational, magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic, to measure the physical properties o ...
, Bortfeld has had long lasting impact, in particular on the field of
reflection seismology
Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflection (physics), reflected seismic waves. The method requir ...
. He is primarily known for the ''Bortfeld approximation'' of the
Zöppritz equations, which facilitated a physical interpretation of the reflection coefficients of
seismic wave
A seismic wave is a mechanical wave of acoustic energy that travels through the Earth or another planetary body. It can result from an earthquake (or generally, a quake), volcanic eruption, magma movement, a large landslide and a large ma ...
s. He has been considered as the father of the
amplitude versus offset
In geophysics and reflection seismology, amplitude versus offset (AVO) or amplitude variation with offset is the general term for referring to the dependency of the seismic attribute, amplitude, with the distance between the source and receiver ( ...
method,
which, after further developments, has played a crucial role for the detection of economically useful geological deposits. Heading the data processing center at Prakla-Seismos, he advanced the use of computers in exploration geophysics. During his tenure at the Clausthal University of Technology, he was in charge of processing the data for the German continental seismic reflection program (DEKORP). He also worked on the application of
geometrical optics
Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light Wave propagation, propagation in terms of ''ray (optics), rays''. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstract object, abstraction useful for approximating the paths along ...
to seismic systems. This work inspired further developments by subsequent generations of geophysicists.
[ Bortfeld was awarded the Conrad Schlumberger Award in 1960 and the ''Reginald Fessenden Award'' in 1989.]
Selected publications
*
*
* R. Meissner and R.K. Bortfeld. ''DEKORP–Atlas. Results of Deutsches Kontinentales Reflexionsseismisches Programm'', Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1990.
Further reading
* Exploration geophysics
Exploration geophysics is an applied branch of geophysics and economic geology, which uses physical methods at the surface of the Earth, such as seismic, gravitational, magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic, to measure the physical properties o ...
* Amplitude versus offset
In geophysics and reflection seismology, amplitude versus offset (AVO) or amplitude variation with offset is the general term for referring to the dependency of the seismic attribute, amplitude, with the distance between the source and receiver ( ...
* Zoeppritz equations
In geophysics and reflection seismology, the Zoeppritz equations are a set of equations that describe the partitioning of seismic wave energy at an interface, due to mode conversion. They are named after their author, the German geophysicist Kar ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bortfeld, Reinhard
German geophysicists
1927 births
2019 deaths
People from Wittenberg (district)
People from Nordsachsen
University of Göttingen alumni
German expatriates in the Netherlands
20th-century German geologists
Academic staff of the Clausthal University of Technology