Allan Cox was one of the preeminent geophysicists of his generation. He made many important scientific contributions to the field of paleomagnetism and to the study of plate tectonics. His untimely death at the age of 61 was a loss to Stanford University, his home institution, and to the geophysics community.
Cox was born in Santa Ana, California, in 1926 as the son of a house painter. He attended the University of California at Berkeley where he started his education as a chemistry major. He only went to Berkeley for one quarter before he dropped out and joined the merchant marine. His work in the merchant marine allowed him time for one of his great loves, reading over a wide range of topics. After three years in the merchant marine, he returned to Berkeley, again as a chemistry major. One of his life defining experiences at that time was spending summers in Alaska with geologist Clyde Wahrhaftig of the U.S. Geological Survey. These summer jobs gave Cox a strong love of geology. When...
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Bibliography
Cox, A.V., 1973. Plate Tectonics and Geomagnetic Reversals. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Cox, A.V., and Hart, R.B., 1986. Plate Tectonics, How it Works. Palo Alto, CA: Blackwell Scientific.
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Kodama, K.P. (2007). COX, ALLAN V. (1926–1987). In: Gubbins, D., Herrero-Bervera, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4423-6_57
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