Seventy Years of Exploration in Oceanography

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvi

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2. Waves and Wave Spectra

   Pages 1-10

3. Coming to America

   Pages 11-23

4. Bikini (1946) and Eniwetok (1951)

   Pages 25-31

5. Settling Down at Scripps

   Pages 33-34

6. From Waves to Tides 1958–1968

   Pages 35-37

7. Deep Sea Tides 1964–2000

   Pages 39-45

8. Internal Waves 1971–1981

   Pages 47-50

9. Ocean Acoustics 1974–Present

   Pages 51-66

10. Mohole 1957–1964

    Pages 67-70

11. The Wobbling Earth 1950–1960

    Pages 71-74

12. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) 1962–Present

    Pages 75-89

13. Navy

    Pages 91-97

14. Finis

    Pages 99-102

15. Epilogue

    Pages 103-103

16. Back Matter

    Pages 105-137

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It all began with Markus Jochum approaching one of us (HvS) – “when you guys are doing interviews with senior scientists from oceanography and related sciences, why are you not doing Walter Munk?” Indeed, why not? Walter Munk, an icon in oceanography, had just given a wonderful talk in a symposium in honor of his 90th birthday, sweeping a grand circle from his earliest work with Chip Cox on airborne measurements of ocean surface roughness to the latest satellite data – not simply a review, but the struggle of an active scientist opening up new perspectives – as inspiring and stimulating as when one of us (KH) rst met him at the Ocean Waves Conference in Easton in 1961 (Fig. I. 1). Walter immediately agreed to share with us his recollections on the nearly seventy years of his path-breaking contributions in a sheer amazing range of topics, from ocean waves, internal waves, ocean currents, tides, tsunamis, sea level, microseisms and the rotation of the earth to ocean acoustic tomography. With “you guys” Markus was referring to HvS and the various partners HvS had 1 invited to join him in conducting a series of interviews of retired colleagues.

• Geophysics
• History of Science
• Moho
• Ocean
• Oceanography
• Oceanophy
• Science Studies
• Tide

From the reviews:

“It is … a joyful romp through the history of oceanography that will appeal to both those in the field and those curious about it—touching not just on oceanography, but Earth sciences in general. … So my recommendation is: Go ahead, get to know Walter. You’ll be glad you did.” (Jerome A. Smith, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, December, 2011)

• Institute of Coastal Research, GKSS Research Center, Geesthacht, Germany

  Hans Storch

• Center of Excellence CLISAP, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

  Hans Storch

• Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany

  Klaus Hasselmann

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