Harry Hammond Hess | |
|---|---|
 Harry Hess in 1941 | |
| Born | May 24, 1906 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | August 25, 1969 (aged 63) Woods Hole, Massachusetts United States |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Known for | Discovering seafloor spreading |
| Awards | Penrose Medal (1966) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology |
| Thesis | Hydrothermal metamorphism of an ultrabasic intrusive at Schuyler, Virginia (1932) |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur Francis Buddington |
| Doctoral students | Eugene 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.
- ^ Chemistry Tree profile Harry Hammond Hess
- ^ "J Tuzo Wilson". Virtual Geoscience Center. Society of Exploration Geophysics. Archived from the original on 2010-07-15.