Plate Tectonics Project

The Atlantis made 299 voyages and traveled more than 700,000 miles during this time period.

The R/V Atlantis was finally delivered to Woods Hole in April. The Atlantis had six labs and storage spaces, navagation systems, sea floor mapping sonar, satellite communication, three winches or vises, three cranes, machine shop, and specialized hangers for Alvin and other special vehicles.

A magnetometer is an instrument for measuring the intensity of a magnetic field, especially the earth's magnetic field.

Satellite laser ranging is where scientists can accurately measure laser signals that are bounced off of reflective plates. Also, it was first invented around 1950.

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) measures the difference between two radio wavefronts emitted from a quasar. A quasar is a one of over a thousand known extragalactic objects, starlike in appearance and having spectra with characteristically large redshifts, that are thought to be the most distant and most luminous objects in the universe.

The NOAA was formed for the purpose of the exploration of the ocean floors.

Global Positioning System is a global system of U.S. navigational satellites developed to provide precise positional and velocity data and global time synchronization for air, sea, and land travel.

The contract between the National Science Foundation and The Regents, University of California was signed. This was the first phase of the Deep Sea Drilling Project.

At this time, the Levingston Shipbuilding Company put down the keel for the Glomar Challenger.
A keel is a a central fore-and-aft structural member in the bottom of a hull, extending from the stem to the sternpost and having the floors or frames attached to it, usually at right angles: sometimes projecting from the bottom of the hull to provide stability.

In the same year of the launch, the Deep Sea Drilling Project accepted the Challenger.

Total distance penetrated below sea floor: 325,548 m
Total interval cored: 170,043 m
Total core recovered and stored: 97,056 m
Overall core recovered: 57%
Number of cores recovered: 19,119
Number of sites investigated: 624
Deepest penetration beneath ocean floor: 1,741 m
Maximum penetration into basaltic earth crust: 1,080 m
Deepest water (Leg 60 Site 461A): 7,044 m
Total distance traveled: 375,632 mi

A year after the keel was laid down, the Glomar Challenger was launched from Orange, Texas.

Fred is still alive today and is 79 years old.

Drummond Matthews, Fred Vine, and some others discovered that the crust surrounding the midocean ridges showed alternating bands.

Matthews, Vine, and Morley compared magnetic reversals and magnetic striping pattern found on the ocean floor.

At this time, Hess took part in a submarine gravity study.

Harry taught at Rutgers for a year in Washington, D.C.

Harry went to Princeton.

Hess wrote his first paper while after taking part in the submarine gravity study.

Harry wrote a paper on cell dimensions after finding the fine-scale lamellae of calcium-poor orthopy-roxene were due to subsolidus exsolution of calcic pyroxene, rather than to twinning.

Dietz went to the University of Illinois.

During this time period, Robert was a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

While working for the Naval Electronics Laboratory (NEL), Dietz went on several oceanographic cruises to explore the Pacific basin.

In Tokyo, Robert was a Fullbright Scholar at the University of Tokyo.

Kiyoo figured out the hypocentres of 12 deep earthquakes between this time period.

In Kiyoo's fourth paper, he measured the frequency-distribution of the earthquakes between these years.

Kiyoo showed equal arrival times in P-Waves in the North Tazima earthquake.

Kiyoo wrote several papers on intermediate and deep earthquakes about their frequency and spatial distributions.

Hugo graduated from Pomona College in this year.

Hugo worked as an assistant physicist the Carnegie Institution seismological program.

Hugo built the The Benioff Seismometer in 1932.

Hugo got his Ph.D. from the California Institute.

Sir Edward's scientific life began in this year.

1931 was the worst year during the depression.

Edward and others found evidence of diffraction patterns.

Bullard, Harold Jeffreys, Johnny von Neumann, and Leslie FIavill worked on gravity measurement here.

Arthur wrote the book, The Age of the Earth at this time.

Arthur had a son and a wife to support and could no longer do any research.

By this time, Arthur had enough evidence to declare that the Earth was 3 billion years old.

In 1953, there was still prejudice and hesitance about continental drift. Arthur was among that party. He said, "I have never succeeded in freeing myself from a nagging prejudice against continental drift."

Ivan went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and got his bachelor of science.

Ivan went to Oxford University and got his Ph.D. in Astrophysics.

Ivan became the vice president of the Raytheon Corporation for engineering and research.

The proposed technique of a three-dimensional, time-difference-of-arrival position-finding system was the beginning of the GPS.