1908-1993

Canadian Geologist

In 1963 John Tuzo Wilson revolutionized geology by suggesting that volcanic islands, such of those of Hawaii, had been formed by the movements of plates over a "hotspot" in the earth's mantle. This helped revive the theory of continental drift, which had suffered due to apparent contradictions—contradictions that Wilson's theory resolved. Two years later, in 1965, he offered another groundbreaking idea when he published a paper describing a third type of plate and plate movement, in addition to the two types already identified.

Born on October 24, 1908, in Ottawa, Ontario, Wilson was the son of a Scottish engineer who had immigrated to Canada. In 1930, when he earned his B.A. from Trinity College at the University of Toronto, he became the first student at any Canadian university to earn a degree in geophysical studies. Wilson went on to St. John's College, Cambridge, where...