Frederick John Vine

Photograph of FREDERICK JOHN VINE. Frederick (Fred) Vine was best known for an idea he had as a first-year graduate student at the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, Cambridge, in 1963, which explained how linear oceanic magnetic anomalies are formed. His idea was quickly confirmed and led first to a general acceptance of sea floor spreading and continental drift, and then to the theory of plate tectonics and the reconstruction of the evolution of the Earth's oceans. It produced the greatest change in Earth sciences since Hutton's work in the early nineteenth century. He moved from Princeton University to the University of East Anglia in 1970, where his scientific interests changed to places where oceanic crust is exposed on land. He also served three terms as a very well liked head of the School of Environmental Sciences.