Affiliation:
1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8 W 3P6,
Canada
2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Abstract
Born in Vienna, Austria, shortly before the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost its
access to the sea, Walter Munk became a leading geophysicist and physical
oceanographer after being sent to school in New York State and later moving west
to California. He and Harald Sverdrup developed wave prediction schemes that
were used by the Allies in World War II to evaluate whether amphibious landings
would be feasible. His post-war research included further major contributions to
the understanding of ocean waves, as well as ocean circulation, tides, internal
waves, mixing processes and many other phenomena. He showed how variations in
the Earth's rotation contained a wealth of valuable geophysical information
and was an instigator of the ‘Mohole’ project that failed for
political reasons but paved the way for the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Although
primarily a theoretician, throughout his career he was an enthusiastic adopter
of new technologies and data analysis techniques. He showed how acoustic
transmissions could be used to map ocean eddies and currents as well as to
monitor temperature changes of whole ocean basins. He was a key adviser to the
US Navy and a dedicated member of the science advisory group, JASON, that
focuses on national security. As well as his scientific contributions, his
legacy includes the La Jolla Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. He
was liberal in his political outlook, gregarious, hospitable and treated
everyone, from undergraduate to admiral, with the same interest and respect.
Reference72 articles.
1. Aaserud F.
1986
Oral history interview of Walter Munk for the American Institute
of Physics. Transcript available at
https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4790.
2. The MEDEA Program: Opening a Window into New Earth Science Data
3. Internal wave measurements from a midwater float
4. Internal wave observations from a midwater float, 2
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