List of geophysicists

A

• Leason Adams – high pressure mineral physics
• Thomas J Ahrens – experimental methods for modeling hypervelocity impacts and materials in the Earth's core and mantle
• Claude Allègre Crafoord Prize
• Hannes Alfvén – Alfvén waves, magnetohydrodynamics of magnetosphere; Nobel Prize in Physics
• Keiiti Aki – seismology; William Bowie Medal
• Don L. Anderson – seismology and Earth's interior ; Crafoord Prize
• Tanya Atwater – plate tectonic history of North America

  B

• George Edward Backus – geophysical mathematician, development of geophysical inverse methods; contributions to dynamo theory
• Peter Barlow – experimental and observational studies of terrestrial magnetism, Copley Medal
• Anthony R. Barringer – developed the INPUT airborne electromagnetic system for detecting ores
• Julius Bartels – contributed to physics of the Sun and Moon; geomagnetism, meteorology and the physics of the ionosphere
• Louis Bauer – mapped the Earth's magnetic field
• Hugo Benioff – discovered link between deep earthquakes and subduction zones
• Lloyd Berkner – studied the ionosphere
• Henry Bryant Bigelow – awarded the William Bowie Medal
• Francis Birch – developed theoretical and experimental models for the Earth's interior; Vetlesen Prize
• Kristian Birkeland – first realized that energetic electrons cause the aurora; nominated 7 times for Nobel Prize
• Abu Rayhan Biruni – made accurate measure of circumference of Earth and other contributions to geodesy
• Jacob Bjerknes – awarded the William Bowie Medal
• Patrick Blackett – paleomagnetism, continental drift, Nobel Prize
• Martin Bott – magnetic anomalies, gravity anomalies
• Pierre Bouguer – geodesy; the Bouguer gravity anomaly
• William Bowie – geodesy and isostasy
• Wallace Smith Broecker – climate, ocean circulation; Crafoord Prize, Vetlesen Prize
• Bernard Brunhes – paleomagnetism; discovered the first geomagnetic reversal
• Walter Hermann Bucher – awarded the William Bowie Medal
• Edward Bullard – developed theory of geodynamo, pioneered use of seismology to study the sea floor, and used seafloor bathymetry to test continental drift
• Keith Edward Bullen – seismological interpretation of the deep structure of the Earth's mantle and core
• Victor Robertovich Bursian pioneer in theory of Electrical resistivity tomography

  C

• Henry Cavendish – made first estimate of the mass of the Earth
• Anny Cazenave – geodesy and satellite altimetry; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Sydney Chapman – predicted magnetosphere; developed theories for effect of solar wind on geomagnetic storms and aurorae
• Jule Gregory Charney – dynamical meteorology; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Jon Claerbout – exploration geophysics
• Alexis Clairaut – proved Clairaut's theorem and calculated the ellipticity of the Earth
• William Compston – developed the Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe for isotopic analyses of geological samples
• Vincent Courtillot – paleomagnetist; promoted theory that mass extinctions are caused by massive volcanic episodes
• Thomas Cowling – solar magnetic field, dynamo theory
• Allan V. Cox – created a timeline for geomagnetic reversals and was a pioneer in plate tectonics; Vetlesen Prize
• Albert P. Crary – Arctic and Antarctic exploration, seismology

  D

• Reginald Aldworth Daly – awarded the William Bowie Medal
• George Howard Darwin – analyzed tides and tidal friction; first to develop mathematical theory for evolution of the Sun–Earth–Moon system
• Arthur Louis Day – mineral physics and volcanology
• Everette Lee DeGolyer – exploration geophysics in the petroleum industry
• Robert S. Dietz – proposed – theory of seafloor spreading; discovered several impact craters including Sudbury Basin
• Richard Doell – created a timeline for geomagnetic reversals and was a pioneer in plate tectonics; Vetlesen Prize
• James Dooge – hydrology
• Erich von Drygalski – polar explorer and geophysicist
• Adam Dziewonski – large-scale structure of Earth's interior and nature of earthquakes; Crafoord Prize

  E

• Carl Eckart – underwater acoustics; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Walter M. Elsasser – first mathematical dynamo theory for Earth's outer core
• Loránd Eötvös – developed a highly accurate torsion balance for gravimetry
• Eratosthenes – measured circumference of the Earth and the tilt of its axis
• Maurice Ewing – broad contributions to seafloor seismology; predicted and discovered the SOFAR channel

  F

• Gerhard Fanselau – geomagnetic observations
• Joseph Charles Farman – co-discoverer of the ozone hole
• Yevgeny Konstantinovich Fyodorov pioneer in Arctic geophysical survey
• Osmond Fisher – continental drift
• John Adam Fleming – magnetosphere and atmospheric electricity
• James David Forbes – built the first seismometer
• Scott Forbush – solar-terrestrial interactions and the Forbush decrease
• Efi Foufoula-Georgiou – wavelet analysis
• Robert Were Fox the Younger – discovered the geothermal gradient; constructed a dip circle for use at sea
• Benjamin Franklin – established that lightning is electrical

  G

• Carl Friedrich Gauss – first mathematical representation of Earth's magnetic field; geodetic surveys
• Henry Gellibrand – discovered that magnetic declination varies with time
• James Freeman Gilbert – development of geophysical inverse theory; network of seismometers to study Earth's free oscillation
• William Gilbert – early magnetic experiments; first to argue that the Earth itself is magnetic
• George Graham – discovery of the diurnal variation of the Earth's magnetic field; related Aurora borealis to magnetic field variations
• Harsh Gupta – methodology for discriminating normal earthquakes from reservoir-induced ones, study on the genesis of stable continental region earthquakes; Padma Shri, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and Waldo E. Smith Award
• Beno Gutenberg – probability distribution of earthquake energies and relation of energy to magnitude

  H

• Edmond Halley – first chart of Earth's magnetic field
• Christopher Hansteen – produced the first charts of the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field
• Harry Hammond Hess – seafloor gravity anomalies and theory of seafloor spreading
• Georg Hartmann – kept early records of magnetic declination
• Bernhard Haurwitz – meteorology
• Veikko Aleksanteri Heiskanen – studies of the global geoid
• Raymond Hide
• Arthur Holmes – performed first Uranium-lead dating
• M. King Hubbert – correct statement of Darcy's law and mathematical demonstration that rock undergoes plastic deformation; Vetlesen Prize
• Alexander von Humboldt – global network of geomagnetic observatories

  I

• Akitsune Imamura – seismologist
• Ted Irving – early paleomagnetic evidence for continental drift
• Ahmet Mete Işıkara – earthquake scientist

  J

• Harold Jeffreys – deduced that the Earth's outer core is molten; contributed to mathematical geophysics; Vetlesen Prize
• Lucy Jones – earthquake science and safety
• Thomas H. Jordan – seismic contributions to plate tectonics
• James A. Jackson – seismologist; contributed to rebuttal of the 'jelly sandwich' model of the crust

  K

• Hiroo Kanamori – fundamental contributions to the physics of earthquakes; Kyoto Prize
• Louise H. Kellogg – modeling of the Earth's mantle
• William Thomson, Lord Kelvin – influential estimate of the age of the Earth, ultimately proved incorrect

  L

• Kurt Lambeck – changed understanding of the ways post-glacial rebound affects ocean levels; awarded Wollaston Medal and Balzan Prize
• Johann von Lamont – surveys of the Earth's magnetic field
• Louis J. Lanzerotti – magnetosphere and ionosphere; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Joseph Larmor – proton precession, dynamo theory
• Inge Lehmann – seismologist who discovered the Lehmann discontinuity and argued for a solid inner core
• Xavier Le Pichon – constructed history of plate motions
• Humphrey Lloyd – observational geomagnetism
• Cinna Lomnitz – creator of "Lomnitz Law", founder of Mexico's first seismic network and editor of Geofísica Internacional
• Andrew Long – developed widely used instruments for marine exploration for oil and gas; Honorary Lecturer for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• Augustus Edward Hough Love – developed theory of Love waves

  M

• Gordon J. F. MacDonald – investigated rotation of the Earth and true polar wander
• James B. Macelwane – seismologist; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan – shape of the Earth and aurora
• Robert Mallet – developed controlled source seismology; coined terms seismology and epicenter
• Syukuro Manabe – climate models; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Pierre de Maricourt – – first extant treatise on properties of magnets; detailed study of the compass
• Edme Mariotte – one of the pioneers of modern hydrology; used floats to measure river flow
• Drummond Matthews – used ocean magnetic anomalies to confirm theory of seafloor spreading
• Motonori Matuyama – first to show that a geomagnetic reversal had occurred in the past
• Dan McKenzie – mathematical framework for plate tectonics; mantle convection; sedimentary basin formation; Crafoord Prize
• Marcia McNutt – elastic strength of lithosphere; identified the South Pacific superswell
• Felix Andries Vening Meinesz – developed a precise gravimeter and discovered gravity anomalies above the ocean floor
• Oscar Edward Meinzer – groundwater hydrology; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Henry William Menard – plate tectonics; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Giuseppe Mercalli – developed Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquakes
• John Milne – invented the horizontal pendulum seismograph
• Andrija Mohorovičić – identified Mohorovičić discontinuity;
• W. Jason Morgan – geodynamics, plate tectonics
• Jean Morlet – developed the wavelet transform for exploration geophysics
• Lawrence Morley ) – used ocean magnetic anomalies to confirm theory of seafloor spreading
• Ahsan Mubarak – seismic detection of nuclear tests
• Walter Munk – rotation of the earth; acoustic tomography of the oceans; Crafoord Prize, Vetlesen Prize, Kyoto Prize

  N

• Louis Néel – developed theory to explain the stable magnetization in volcanic rocks; Nobel Prize in physics
• Marcia Neugebauer – space physicist and president of the American Geophysical Union
• Marcel Nicolet – ionosphere; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Robert Norman – re-discovery of magnetic dip

  O

• Abel Idowu Olayinka – applied geophysicist
• Richard Dixon Oldham – seismologist, first clear evidence for separate arrivals of P-waves, S-waves and surface waves on seismograms; first clear evidence for Earth's core

  P

• Luigi Palmieri – seismic studies of Mount Vesuvius
• Eugene Parker – solar wind and magnetospheres of the Earth and Sun; awarded Kyoto Prize, National Medal of Science, William Bowie Medal
• Antares Parvulescu, inventor of the first time-reversal experiment, and matched equivalent-space signal processing.
• Blaise Pascal – demonstrated that atmospheric pressure decreases with altitude
• Chaim Leib Pekeris – mathematical methods to study free vibrations of Earth, tides, and origin of Earth's magnetic field; Vetlesen Prize
• William Richard Peltier – geophysical fluid dynamics, glacial rebound, climate change, Vetlesen Prize
• Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt – wrote the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnets and the earliest detailed discussion of freely pivoting compass needles
• Pierre Perrault – developed the concept of the hydrological cycle
• Alexis Perrey – seismologist
• Walter C. Pitman, III – seafloor spreading and tectonics
• George W. Platzman – geophysical fluid dynamics, numerical weather prediction
• John Henry Pratt – laid foundation for principle of isostasy
• Frank Press – design of a long-period seismograph, and the first detection of the Earth's normal modes of oscillation
• Albert Thomas Price – geomagnetism and global electromagnetic induction

  R

• Harry Fielding Reid – elastic-rebound theory and other contributions to seismology
• Roger Revelle – global warming and plate tectonics; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Charles Francis Richter – creation of Richter magnitude scale
• Ted Ringwood – mineral physics; awarded William Bowie Medal and Wollaston Medal
• Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe – global warming; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Keith Runcorn – paleomagnetic work supporting continental drift; apparent polar wander

  S

• Edward Sabine – measured oblateness of the Earth; established system of magnetic observatories
• Benjamin D. Santer – climatologist
• Conrad Schlumberger – and Marcel Schlumberger – invented electric well logging
• Michael Schoenberg – contributions to seismic anisotropy
• Alessandro Serpieri – seismologist
• Nicholas Shackleton – paleoceanography, climate, Crafoord Prize, Vetlesen Prize
• Irwin I. Shapiro – awarded William Bowie Medal
• Otto Schmidt
• Shen Kuo – discovered magnetic declination
• Eugene Merle Shoemaker – planetary science; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Paul G. Silver – seismic anisotropy and splitting of shear waves
• Fred Singer – atmospheric physicist, global warming denier
• Susan Solomon – proposed chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole; awarded Nobel peace prize and William Bowie Medal
• David J. Stevenson – theories of internal structure and evolution of planets
• Balfour Stewart – observations of solar flares and geomagnetic storms
• Henry Stommel – ocean circulation; awarded William Bowie Medal
• Carl Størmer – motion of charged particles in the magnetosphere and origin of the aurora
• Harald Sverdrup – ocean circulation; awarded William Bowie Medal

  T

• Andrey Nikolayevich Tikhonov – magnetotellurics method in geophysics
• Merle Tuve – used radio waves to measure the ionosphere; United States Medal for Merit
• Donald L. Turcotte – developed theory of convection in the Earth's mantle, applications of fractals and chaos to Earth processes; William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union

  V

• James Van Allen – Van Allen radiation belts; awarded Crafoord Prize, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, National Medal of Science, William Bowie Medal
• Petr Vaníček – breakthroughs in theory of spectral analysis and geoid computation, awarded J. Tuzo Wilson Medal, founded Canadian Geophysical Union
• T. Wayland Vaughan – study of corals and coral reefs, larger foraminifera, and oceanography
• Fred Vine – work on marine magnetic anomalies confirmed the theory of seafloor spreading

  W

• Kiyoo Wadati – researched subduction zone earthquakes; lent name to Wadati–Benioff zone
• Alfred Wegener – developed theory of continental drift
• Frank T. M. White – mining and metallurgical engineer; mineral science educator
• Emil Johann Wiechert – first verifiable model of layered structure of the Earth; pioneering work on propagation of seismic waves
• J. Tuzo Wilson – contributions to plate tectonics: theories of hotspots, transform faults and Wilson cycles; Vetlesen Prize; President of AGU;
• J. Lamar Worzel – contributions to underwater acoustics, underwater photography, and gravity measurements at sea
• Carl Wunsch – ocean circulation, climatology; awarded the William Bowie Medal

  Z

• Zhang Heng – invented the first seismoscope