Assignment In Science

Passed by: John Ryan I. Santiago Passed to: Sir Aldrin Gayap

1. What is a magnetic reversal?

To put it simply, a magnetic

reversal refers to the
geomagnetic event where in
the two poles of Earth- the
South pole and the North pole
reverses, the South pole
becomes the North and vice
versa. Magnetic reversals, in
the last 10 million years, have
been happening an average of
4 or 5 reversals per million years, In addition to that reversals aren’t predictable and is
not naturally periodic that is why we can only state the average reversal interval. A full
reversal may also take one to several thousand years based on mathematical models of
the behavior of the magnetic field and partly on limited evidence from rocks that
retained an imprint of the ancient magnetic field during the time when it was present.

2. Who proposed sea-floor spreading theory

(Autobiography)?

Harry Hammond Hess, Considered one of the "founding

fathers" of the unifying theory of plate tectonics, Rear Admiral
Harry Hammond Hess was born on May 24, 1906, in New York
City. He is best known for his theories on sea floor spreading,
specifically work on relationships between island arcs, seafloor
gravity anomalies, and serpentinized peridotite, suggesting that the convection of the
Earth's mantle was the driving force behind this process. This work provided a conceptual
base for the development of the theory of plate tectonics.

Teaching career

Harry Hess taught for one year (1932–1933) at Rutgers University in New Jersey and
spent a year as a research associate at the Geophysical Laboratory of Washington, D.
C., before joining the faculty of Princeton University in 1934. Hess remained at Princeton
for the rest of his career and served as Geology Department Chairman from 1950 to 1966.
He was a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (1949–1950),
and the University of Cambridge, England (1965).

The Navy-Princeton gravity expedition to the West Indies in 1932

Hess accompanied Dr. Felix Vening Meinesz of Utrecht University on board the US Navy
submarine USS S-48 to assist with the second U.S. expedition to obtain gravity
measurements at sea. The expedition used a gravimeter, or gravity meter, designed by
Meinesz.[4] The submarine traveled a route from Guantanamo, Cuba, to Key West,
Florida, and return to Guantanamo through the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos region
from 5 February through 25 March 1932. The description of operations and results of the
expedition were published by the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office in The Navy-Princeton
gravity expedition to the West Indies in 1932.[5]

Military and war career

Hess joined the United States Navy during World War II, becoming captain of the USS
Cape Johnson, an attack transport ship equipped with a new technology: sonar. This
command would later prove to be key in Hess's development of his theory of sea floor
spreading. Hess carefully tracked his travel routes to Pacific Ocean landings on the
Marianas, Philippines, and Iwo Jima, continuously using his ship's echo sounder. This
unplanned wartime scientific surveying enabled Hess to collect ocean floor profiles across
the North Pacific Ocean, resulting in the discovery of flat-topped submarine volcanoes,
which he termed guyots, after the nineteenth century geographer Arnold Henry Guyot.
After the war, he remained in the Naval Reserve, rising to the rank of rear admiral.

Scientific Discoveries

In 1960, Hess made his single most important contribution, which is regarded as part of
the major advance in geologic science of the 20th century. In a widely circulated report to
the Office of Naval Research, he advanced the theory, now generally accepted, that the
Earth's crust moved laterally away from long, volcanically active oceanic ridges. He only
understood his ocean floor profiles across the North Pacific Ocean after Marie Tharp and
Bruce Heezen (1953, Lamont Group) discovered the Great Global Rift, running along the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge.[6][7] Seafloor spreading, as the process was later named, helped
establish Alfred Wegener's earlier (but generally dismissed at the time) concept of
continental drift as scientifically respectable. This triggered a revolution in the earth
sciences.[8] Hess's report was formally published in his History of Ocean Basins (1962),[9]
which for a time was the single most referenced work in solid-earth geophysics. Hess was
also involved in many other scientific endeavours, including the Mohole project (1957–
1966), an investigation onto the feasibility and techniques of deep sea drilling.

Accolades and Affiliations

Hess was president of The Geological Society of America in 1963 and received their
Penrose Medal in 1966.[10]

Death

Hess died from a heart attack in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1969, while
chairing a meeting of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. He
was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery and was posthumously awarded the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Distinguished Public Service Award.

The Harry H. Hess Medal

The American Geophysical Union established the Harry H. Hess medal in his memory in
1984 to "honor outstanding achievements in research of the constitution and evolution of
Earth and sister planets.

3. What is sea-floor spreading theory? (w/ illustrations if needed)

The sea-floor spreading theory is the process where a volcanic activity causes a
gradual addition of new oceanic crust in the oceanic floor while moving the older rocks
away from the mid-oceanic ridge and the mid-ocean ridge is where the sea-floor
spreading happens.
 4. What is Panthalassa? (Illustrations needed)

Panthalassa or the
Panthalassic or Panthalassan
Ocean was the superocean
that surrounded the Pangea
supercontinent. The
Panthalassa existed during the
Paleozoic- Mesozoic transition
c. 250 Ma. It made up of
almost 70% of Earth’s surface.
It’s ocean-floor has completely because of continuous subduction along the continental
margins on its circumference.

Referenced from:

http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/reversals.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Hammond_Hess

https://www.eartheclipse.com/geology/theory-and-evidence-of-seafloor-spreading.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthalassa