Harry Hammond Hess

Harry Hammond Hess
Harry Hess in 1941
BornMay 24, 1906 (1906-05-24)
New York City, New York, United States
DiedAugust 25, 1969 (1969-08-26) (aged 63)
Alma materPrinceton University
Known forDiscovering seafloor spreading
AwardsPenrose Medal (1966)
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
ThesisHydrothermal metamorphism of an ultrabasic intrusive at Schuyler, Virginia (1932)
Doctoral advisorArthur Francis Buddington
Doctoral studentsEugene Merle Shoemaker[1]
John Tuzo Wilson[2]
Ronald Oxburgh

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 published theories on sea floor spreading, specifically on relationships between island arcs, seafloor gravity anomalies, and serpentinized peridotite, suggesting that the convection in the Earth's mantle is the driving force behind this process.

  1. ^ Chemistry Tree profile Harry Hammond Hess
  2. ^ "J Tuzo Wilson". Virtual Geoscience Center. Society of Exploration Geophysics. Archived from the original on 2010-07-15.