1906-1974

American Geologist, Geophysicist and Physicist

William Maurice Ewing, known as "Doc" to his associates, was a pioneer in the development of techniques to study ocean basins, which at that time were still essentially a mystery. He also made fundamental contributions to the study of earthquake origins.

With a working scholarship, Ewing studied at the Rice Institute in Houston (1926-1931), earning a Ph.D. in physics. He had already become interested in ocean crust and sediment study during summer jobs prospecting for oil in the Gulf of Mexico with other future figures in marine geophysics—Albert D. Crary and H. N. Rutherford. In 1924 they were on a 22-foot (6.7 m) whaleboat throwing packages of explosive blasting gelatin over the side—a way of obtaining seismic reflection profiles of the continental shelf that was improved by Ewing. He taught physics in Pennsylvania, first at the University...