A Personal Recollection of Eldridge Moores as a Giant in Tectonics Research and Mentor
Abstract
As a student of Eldridge's from 1983 to 1989, I benefitted from his mentoring as well as his personal accounts as a participant in and witness to the Plate Tectonic Revolution. Although his main contributions to the Revolution: ophiolites as oceanic crust (Moores and Vine 1971) and ultramafics and orogeny (Moores 1970), as well as his prescient recognition of low-angle normal faults in the Basin and Range (Moores, 1968; and his 1963 PhD thesis) predated our meeting in 1983, he continued to innovate during the time of our association. My graduate years also witnessed his editorship of Geology as he transformed it into the most prestigious geoscience journal. Over the years there seemed to be relatively "quiet" periods that preceded a surprise breakthrough. The SWEAT hypothesis (Moores 1991) bearing on supercontinent assembly and dismemberment was one example, and Historical Contingency (Moores et al. 2000) bearing on the mismatch between geologic field relationships and the arc origin of some ophiolites determined by geochemistry was another. His last paper (Moores et al., accepted), which will be published posthumously is yet another, in which he uses geochemical and tomographic evidence to support the Historical Contingency concept. He was not a hands-on advisor, but his pushing his students to frame research in a broad-interest context and think big was illustrated by the numerous "so what?" comments he'd pencil on drafts of our papers. Over the years he helped sharpen my thinking by engaging me in 'tectonic shoot outs' where we would vigorously debate some issue in tectonics in his office. His unique gift for seeing the big picture came across in personal debates, probing questions after presentations, and his formal reviews of manuscripts. Whereas his formal reviews were briefer than most, his comments tended to be more thought provoking and more challenging to address. His energy and spirit were infectious, and I was one of many in the geoscience community whom he inspired. His mentoring of me extended from my graduate days to his passing in October 2018.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.T24A..08W
- Keywords:
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- 1744 Tectonophysics;
- HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICS;
- 3040 Plate tectonics;
- MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS;
- 8110 Continental tectonics: general;
- TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 8120 Dynamics of lithosphere and mantle: general;
- TECTONOPHYSICS