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JOHN
TUZO WILSON (1981)
The
continuing contribution of John Tuzo Wilson, the fourth recipient of the
A.G. Huntsman Award, is well-known to all geoscientists. Because of his
encyclopaedic knowledge of geology and his innovative imagination he
played a key role in the development of the concepts of plate tectonics
and sea-floor spreading with such prescient ideas as mantle plumes or hot
spots and the mechanics of Transform Faults, now basic to modern
geodynamic understanding. His proposal that oceans may have opened and
closed more than once was adopted by geologists working on land as well as
at sea and is commonly referred to as the Wilson Cycle. Although he has
spent considerable time travelling, it is perhaps appropriate that for
over 30 years he was professor of geophysics at the University of Toronto
where his ability to draw the salient information from a vast reservoir of
geological observations, and to clearly explain it, has influenced an
entire generation of geologists and geophysicists. He has used his
abilities well, world-wide, in interpreting geology to the layman and
stimulating the professional. Lately these powers have been harnessed also
at the popular and fascinating Ontario Science Centre. His honours and
awards have been many, including the Vetlesan Prize from Columbia
University and the Maurice Ewing Medal of the American Geophysical Union;
however, it is appropriate that Canada's major marine geoscience institute
officially recognizes John Tuzo Wilson's substantial contribution in this
field by presenting him with the A.G. Huntsman Award.
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