J. Tuzo Wilson

J. Tuzo Wilson (1908-1993), Canadian geophysicist who helped found the theory of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the concept that Earth’s solid outer crust is made up of plates that float on top of a hotter, more-fluid rocky layer. Wilson also had a strong interest in the public understanding of science.

Wilson was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and raised by parents who were avid mountain climbers and taught their children to appreciate the outdoors and geology. His father was an engineer, his mother an active volunteer. Wilson’s first job, at the age of 16, was in a forestry camp. He liked outdoor work so much that he signed on as a mountaineering assistant and decided to major in geology. After college at the University of Toronto, he went to study with well-known British geophysicist Sir Harold Jeffreys. Wilson could not find work when he returned to Canada during the Great Depression of the 1930s, so he went to graduate school at Princeton, where he received his Ph.D. in 1936. After this, he joined the Canadian Geological Survey and served in a technical capacity in the Canadian Army during World War II (1939-1945). After his military retirement as a colonel, he joined the faculty at the University of Toronto.

In the late 1950s, after some traditional geological research, he became involved in the development of the plate tectonics theory. From 1957 to 1960, Wilson was president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. He traveled widely and became aware of increasing geophysical evidence for plate tectonics, or what was at that time an extension of the theory called continental drift. Continental drift theory stated that the continents were once joined into one large landmass and had gradually moved apart over millions of years. In the 1960s, Wilson made several important contributions to this idea. Using principles of geology and geophysics, he established the theory of plate tectonics as an explanation for continental drift. Wilson is best known for his identification of transform faults, earthquake faults that are part of plate tectonic boundaries. He also contributed to the confirmation of seafloor spreading along plate boundaries, which is new material surfacing that builds the ocean floor. Wilson also recognized how volcanic chains, such as the Hawaiian Islands, support the concept of tectonic plates because the volcanoes result from the plate moving over a fixed hot spot, a plume of volcanic activity from deep within the earth.

When he retired from the University of Toronto in 1974, Wilson became director of the Ontario Science Centre, helping transform it from a traditional museum into an interactive science center that served as a model for many to follow. Throughout his life Wilson traveled extensively and considered himself an ambassador of science and the geosciences. Wilson received numerous honors for his pioneering contributions to the development of plate tectonics theory.