science · 10 May 1897 · 127 years ago
birth
Born 10 May 1897; died 25 Apr 1985 at age 87.
Fraancis Parker Shepard was an American marine geologist who studied submarine canyons, coastal processes and features, submerged deltas, sea-level changes and continental shelves, all of which he preferred rather than deep-ocean geology. His work off the California coast near La Jolla pioneered Pacific marine geology. Although his early career began with the study of structural geology, with field trips in the Rocky Mountains leading to a Ph.D. in 1922. The next year, his father, head of Shepard Steamship Line and an avid sailor, offered the use of his yacht. Thereby, Shepard's lifetime interests shifted to marine geology. When the surface sediment samples he collected from the continental coast off the New England coast did not match what theory predicted, in 1932, he published his observations and offered new interpretations, even challenging existing ideas.
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