The Emergence of Geophysics: Journeys into the Twentieth Century
© Geological Society of London
If ever examples are needed of how nurturing curiosity-driven science supports a seedbed of unforeseen applications that benefit humanity – then Richard Howarth’s memoir is the place to go. As noted in the introduction, The Emergence of Geophysics discusses “the development of geophysics, from its earliest days into the twentieth century”. These journeys explore a wealth of geophysical techniques from their infancy, including magnetism, gravity surveying, geo-electrics, seismology, heat-flow, geodynamics and radioactivity.
Readers may be familiar with the use of magnetic lodestones as basic compasses a thousand years ago – but Howarth takes us all the way through the progress in instrumentation that led to marine magnetic surveys and the discovery of plate tectonics. The development of gravimeters takes a striking turn from early pendulums in the 1700s (including Nevil Maskelyne’s famous Schiehallion experiment in Scotland and Pierre Bouguer’s less-successful measurements on Ecuador’s Chimborazo Volcano), to twentieth century regional mapping that used spring-based instruments, as well as the use of satellite-tracking technology to map Earth’s gravity field. Some of the journeys are pretty wild – such as the historical use of earthquake damage to locate epicentres – but they have led to the development of the seismic reflection methods that have underpinned much of society’s wealth-creation attributable to our science. As expected from an author who spent much of his career in applied science, there are extensive examples of how these methods evolved through prospecting for Earth’s resources. Given this is a memoir that looks at the early foundations of geophysics and the scientific edifices built upon them, don’t expect to find discussions of modern subdisciplines such as geodesy, a field that has revolutionised our understanding of active tectonic processes.
Yet, there is still so much more here. Howarth asks whether readers expect a history of geophysics to have been written by a geophysicist. Being a user of geophysical data, one step removed from its practice, has perhaps provided Howarth with perspective. It certainly helps him to place the history of physical phenomena research into broader context and attribute key technical and methodological developments that are widely used today. For Howarth, this research has clearly been a labour of love and is reflected in the memoir being an excellent, methodical and illuminating read – with fantastic use of historical images. The production values are a credit to the Geological Society of London’s Publishing House. It’s a must-read, not just for geophysicists but for all interested in the origins of our science.
Reviewed by Rob Butler
DETAILS
By: R.J. Howarth (2024). Geological Society of London, 438 pp. (pbk)
ISBN: 9781786206251
Price: £130 (pbk), £0 (ebook) www.lyellcollection.org
