Affiliation:
1. Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
Abstract
Henry (always known as Harry) Elderfield was a marine geochemist whose pioneering measurements of strontium and its isotopes, rare earth elements and manganese in seawater and sediment pore waters gave him insights into the circulation of fluids into, through and out of the oceanic crust and marine sediments and their control of the chemical composition of the oceans. He provided the basis for proxies of past ocean temperatures, pH and water mass distributions. These he used to reveal changes in global temperature and sea-levels on timescales spanning the last 50 million years (Myr) with emphasis on the last 1 Myr of glacial/interglacial history. His work on a proxy for pH, coupled with understanding of the dissolved carbon system in seawater, allowed examination of problems of ocean acidification caused by past changes of atmospheric CO
2
. His manner of gentle persuasion underpinned by rigorous chemistry was passed on to more than 40 research students, and his proxy methods are in daily use by hundreds worldwide.
Reference67 articles.
1. Anonymous 2016 Professor Henry ‘Harry’ Elderfield FRS, fellow 1984, emeritus fellow 2010. St Catharine's Mag.,pp. 20-23. Cambridge, UK: St Catharine's Society (mainly tributes by John Elderfield and Nick McCave).
2. Anonymous 2018 No. 50 Squadron Royal Air Force in World War Two. The diary of a WWII Bomber Squadron: part 5 1942 to 1943. See http://www.no-50-and-no-61-squadrons-association.co.uk (accessed 2021).
3. Submarine Thermal Springs on the Galápagos Rift
4. Rare earth elements in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
5. Boron isotopic composition and concentration in modern marine carbonates