- Walter Alvarez
:"For his grandfather, the American doctor, see
Walter C. Alvarez ."Walter Alvarez (born 1940), son ofNobel Prize winningphysicist Luis Alvarez , is a professor in theEarth andPlanetary Science department at theUniversity of California, Berkeley .Born in
Berkeley, California , he earned hisB.A. ingeology in 1962 fromCarleton College inMinnesota and Ph.D. in geology fromPrinceton University in 1967.His grandfather is the famed physician
Walter C. Alvarez and his great-grandfatherLuis F. Alvarez , who worked as a doctor inHawaii , developed a method for the better diagnosis of macularleprosy . His great-auntMabel Alvarez was a notedCalifornia artist and oil painter.He worked for American Overseas Petroleum Limited in
The Netherlands , and inLibya at the time of Colonel Gadaffi’s revolution. Having developed a side interest inarchaeological geology , he left the oil company and spent some time inItaly , studying the Roman volcanics and their influence on patterns of settlement in early Roman times.Alvarez then moved to Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of
Columbia University , and began studying the Mediterranean tectonics in the light of the new theory ofplate tectonics . His work on tectonicpaleomagnetism in Italy led to a study of thegeomagnetic reversal s recorded in Italian deep-sealimestone s, and he and his colleagues were able to date the reversals for an interval of more than 100 million years of Earth history.Alvarez and his father
Luis W. Alvarez are most widely known for their discovery (withFrank Asaro andHelen Michel ) that aclay layer occurring right at theCretaceous -Tertiary (K-T) boundary was highly enriched in the elementiridium . Since iridium enrichment is common inasteroid s, but very uncommon on the Earth, they further postulated that the layer had been created by theimpact of a large asteroid with the Earth and that this impact event was the likely cause of theCretaceous-Tertiary extinction event .This iridium enrichment has now been observed in many other sites around the world. And further, the very large
Chicxulub crater was identified and is now regarded as the definitive evidence of a large impact. Consequently, a majority of scientists now accept the impact scenario as the most likely cause for the K-T extinction event which occurred 65 million years ago and eliminated 85% of all species, including all of thedinosaur s. His book, "T. Rex and the Crater of Doom", details the discovery of the K-T extinction event.In addition to his interest in extinction events and impacts, Alvarez has contributed to the understanding of
Mediterranean tectonics, Roman geology andarcheology , and the establishment of magnetostratigraphic correlations.Alvarez is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious 2006
Nevada Medal and accompanying $20,000 honorarium, and thePenrose Medal , theGeological Society of America ’s highest award. In 2005, he received the doctorate "Honoris Causa" in Geological Sciences from theUniversity of Siena , Italy.Further reading
*"T. Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez ISBN 0-375-70210-5
*"The Mountains of Saint Francis: The Geologic Events that Shaped Our Earth" by Walter Alvarez (W. W. Norton, December 2008)External links
* [http://eps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/faculty.cgi?name=alvarez Walter Alvarez's Berkeley homepage]
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