A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine SciencePast Recipient, Dr. Donald W. Forsyth (2002) |
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Donald Forsyth is one of the world's
outstanding marine geophysicists. With
over 90 refereed publications, Dr.
Forsyth's research has had a broad impact
on the marine geosciences, in areas
ranging from oceanic crustal structure to
mantle dynamics and in studies that
combine both theoretical and
observational methods. In the 1970s, he
made the first detailed analysis of upper
mantle velocity structure as a function
of the cooling and thickening of the
oceanic lithosphere and, in a separate
study, was responsible for the first
quantitative analysis of plate tectonic
driving forces. In the 1980s, Forsyth
pioneered early work on modeling the
geodynamics of mantle flow and melting
beneath mid ocean ridges, and began to
develop models to explain the variation
in ridge crest topography with spreading
rate. He invented a new type of gravity
anomaly, the mantle Bouguer anomaly,
which has been widely used to map crustal
thickness variations in the oceans. Dr.
Forsyth was one of the founding members
of the RIDGE program, and in the 1990s
led the highly successful MELT
experiment, the largest marine seismic
experiment ever attempted. Aimed at using
seismic and electromagnetic techniques to
constrain mantle flow and melting
processes beneath the East Pacific Rise,
this experiment pioneered the use of
broadband seismic techniques in the
oceans. Most recently, Forsyth is
spearheading the development of the
Oceanic Mantle Dynamics Initiative, a
decade-long program that intends to
expand the use of broadband seismic
techniques to investigate a variety of
additional problems in ocean mantle
dynamics. 