Edward A. Irving

Edward A. Irving
Born 27 May 1927[1]
Colne, Lancashire, England
Died 25 February 2014 (aged 86)[1]
Saanich, British Columbia, Canada
Residence Sidney, British Columbia, Canada
Fields Paleomagnetism
Institutions Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Geosciences Center
Alma mater Cambridge University
Notable awards CM, FRSC, FRS
Wollaston Medal (2005)
Spouse Sheila

Edward A. "Ted" Irving, CM FRSC FRS (27 May 1927 – 25 February 2014) was a geologist and emeritus scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada. His studies of paleomagnetism provided the first physical evidence of the theory of continental drift. His efforts contributed to our understanding of how mountain ranges, climate, and life have changed over the past millions of years.

Education

Irving was born and raised in Colne in the Pennine Hills of east Lancashire, England. In 1945, he was conscripted into the British Army. Irving served in the Middle East infantry. In 1948, he began studying geology at Cambridge University and obtained his BA in 1951. He spent the next year at Cambridge as a research assistant with Keith Runcorn in the geology and geophysics department before entering the graduate program.[2]

When Irving started his graduate studies, the history of the Earth's magnetic field was known for the few centuries since the first magnetic observatories had been established. With fellow students Ken Creer and Jan Hospers, he looked to extend this record back in time. Irving used a magnetometer, recently designed by Patrick Blackett, to analyze the magnetic directions imparted to rocks by their iron minerals. He found large discrepancies between the directions of the present magnetic field direction and those recorded in Precambrian rock in the highlands of Scotland. He surmised the only explanation could be that Scotland had shifted relative to the geomagnetic pole. Irving also determined that India had moved northward by 6000 km and rotated by more than 30°. These results confirmed the predictions Alfred Wegener had put forth in his theory of continental drift in 1912.[2][3]

In 1954, Irving attempted to obtain a PhD for his graduate work. Unfortunately the field was so new that his doctoral examiners were not familiar enough with the subject matter to recognize his research achievements. They refused to give him the degree.[4] Not having a PhD did not stop him from obtaining a position as a research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Career

For the next ten years he studied Australia's ancient latitudes and published around 30 papers. He was able to demonstrate the continent's southward movement since the Permian period. In 1965, he submitted some of his papers to Cambridge and obtained a ScD, the highest earned degree at the time.[2]

Irving met his wife Sheila while in Australia. She was a Canadian citizen. In 1964, they moved to Ottawa, Canada, and Irving began work as a research officer for Dominion Observatory with the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys. In 1966, Irving returned to England to teach geophysics at the University of Leeds. He returned to Ottawa in 1967 to work as a research scientist in the Earth Physics Branch of the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources. In 1981, Irving moved to Sidney, British Columbia, to establish a paleomagnetism laboratory at the Pacific Geoscience Centre with the Earth Physics Branch. The branch would later be incorporated into the Geological Survey of Canada. He mapped the movements of Vancouver Island and other parts of the Cordillera that have moved sideways and rotated relative to the Precambrian Canadian Shield.[2]

In 2005, Irving was semi-retired, investigating the nature of the geomagnetic field in the Precambrian to understand how the crust was being deformed and how the latitudes varied. He and his wife Sheila had four children.[2] He died during the night of 24 February 2014 in Saanich, British Columbia.[1]

Honors and awards

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Edward (Ted) Irving". Times Colonist. 28 February to 1 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Davis 2005
  3. ↑ LeGrand 1990, pp. 146–147
  4. ↑ Merrill 2010, pp. 41–42
  5. ↑ "GAC National Medals & Awards: Logan Medal". Geological Association of Canada. Retrieved March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Fellows". The Royal Society. Retrieved March 2012.
  7. ↑ "1979 Walter H. Bucher Medal Winner: Edward Irving". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved March 2012.
  8. ↑ "J. Tuzo Wilson Medal". Canadian Geophysical Union. Retrieved March 2012.
  9. ↑ "Arthur L. Day Medal". Past Award & Medal Recipients. The Geological Society of America. Retrieved March 2012.
  10. ↑ "Irving, Edward". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved March 2012.
  11. ↑ "Convocation '99: Honorary degree recipients". The Ring. University of Victoria. Retrieved March 2012.
  12. ↑ "Order of Canada: Edward (Ted) Irving, C.M., Sc.D., D.Sc. (Hon.), F.R.S.". It's an Honour. The Governor General of Canada. Retrieved March 2012.
  13. ↑ Yorath 2003

References

  • Davis, T. H. (8 February 2005). "Inaugural Article: Biography of Edward Irving". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (6): 1819–1820. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.1819D. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407301101.
  • Glen, William (1982). The Road to Jaramillo: Critical Years of the Revolution in Earth Science. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1119-4.
  • Frankel, Henry R. (2012). The continental drift controversy: Paleomagnetism and Confirmation of Drift (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521875059.
  • LeGrand, H. E. (1990). Drifting continents and shifting theories : the modern revolution in geology and scientific change (Reprinted ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31105-2.
  • Merrill, Ronald T. (2010). Our magnetic Earth : the science of geomagnetism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-52050-6.
  • Yorath, Chris (2003). "Ted Irving Awarded OofC" (PDF). Geolog 32 (1): 1.

External links