Overview of the Department

The Department of the Geophysical Sciences was founded on the concept that studies in the earth and planetary sciences, whether they be of the solid earth, the oceans, the atmosphere, or the solar system, are intrinsically related. The faculty is committed to the development of creative scientific talent through theoretical, laboratory, and field research on fundamental problems covering a broad range of geophysical topics.

The Department occupies the Hinds Laboratory, constructed in 1969 with funds provided by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the bequest of Henry Hinds. The research and teaching in the department encompass solid earth geophysics, geochemistry and cosmochemistry, paleontology, and the atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Research opportunities available to students are broadened by ties with the Enrico Fermi Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and various laboratories throughout the country.

Facilities are available for sediment transport, satellite data analysis, atmospheric chemistry, remote atmospheric probing, synoptic meteorology; high temperature and high pressure experiments in mineralogy, petrology, and geophysics; fossil preparation and fossil image analysis; low temperature geochemistry and sedimentology, trace-element analyses by neutron activation; and for studies employing the following equipment: an electron microprobe and ion microprobe, a scanning electron microscope, stable isotope mass spectrometers, x-ray diffractometers, and single crystal diffractometers.

The department has numerous links to computing facilities on campus as well as to computers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Science Foundation computing centers, and Argonne National Laboratory. Various projects in the department operate their own workstations for advanced graphics and image processing applications. The resources of Regenstein and Crerar Libraries, which contain over four million volumes, are located within one block of the department.

History

The Department of the Geophysical Sciences was formed in 1961 by merging the previously existing departments of Geology and of Meteorology.

THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY (1892-1961)

The Department of Geology was founded in 1892 by T.C. Chamberlin, the most distinguished geologist of his day. Chamberlin's research interests concerned the origin and early history of the solar system, a theme that has persisted at Chicago to the present time. Together with Rollin D. Salisbury, he wrote the most influential textbook in geology of the first half of this century.

The early years of the Department were dominated by outstanding scholars engaged in research on glacial geology, areal surveys and economic geology. In addition to Chamberlin and Salisbury's three volume Geology, these were the years of Chamberlin's Origin of the Earth, Johannsen's Manual of Petrographic Methods and the founding of the Journal of Geology (1893). Chamberlin was responsible for the rebirth of the Illinois Geological Survey, and Stuart Weller served as the first member of its staff while still on the faculty.

During the period 1917 to 1941 research in the Department of Geology began to shift from regional studies toward more fundamental problems. Late in this period Norman L. Bowen established a high-temperature laboratory for the study of equilibrium relations among mineral systems. This pioneering work ultimately led to the establishment of a strong school in geochemistry at Chicago. Francis Pettijohn completely revised the field of sedimentary petrology with his Manual of Sedimentary Petrology (with W.C. Krumbein) and Sedimentary Rocks.

At the same time, the next advance in sedimentary geology was initiated by Krumbein's development of modern quantitative methods of analysis. The work of the vertebrate paleontologists Samuel W. Williston, Alfred S. Romer and E.C. Olson was largely responsible for revealing the early history of the reptiles and the beginnings of the mammalian radiation. After World War II, Olson, together with R.L. Miller, introduced multivariate quantitative methods to the study of fossils. The work of Stuart and Marvin Weller provided much of the geological framework for the development of the midcontinental coal industry.

In the following years, the Department became even more oriented toward basic research on fundamental problems. The application of chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology to the solution of geological problems replaced the earlier emphasis on the regional field studies and the systematic classification of observational data. Particularly notable were Lowenstam's ecological studies of ancient reefs, which provided a new way to view paleontological data. Ralph Johnson continued this approach by applying studies of modern marine communities to the interpretation of the fossil record. The strong tradition begun by Bowen in experimental petrology was strengthened and continues to this day.

Chicago is preeminent in the area that encompasses geochemistry, experimental petrology, mineralogy, and crystallography. John Jamieson established a program in geophysics to determine the behavior of earth materials under high pressures and temperature. Robert Miller turned his mathematical skills from paleontology to the statistical analysis of sedimentary data and the physics of sediment transport.

Throughout its history, the Department of Geology played a major role in the training of geologists. Salisbury and J. Harlen Bretz were particularly noted for their rigorous, forceful teaching in the field and lecture hall. Up until the time it was absorbed into the new Department, the Department of Geology had turned out more Ph.D.'s than any other department of geology in the country.

THE DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY (1942-1961)

Meteorology as a separate discipline was started at the University of Chicago in 1940, first as an Institute under the auspices of the Department of Physics, but became independent in 1942. The Department was organized by Carl-Gustaf Rossby, considered to be the outstanding meteorologist of his generation. A magnetic personality, Rossby attracted to Chicago some of the leading meteorologists of that period, and created an atmosphere of intense excitement in the new views of the upper troposphere then unfolding.

By the time he returned to his native Sweden, Rossby had established what was known as the "Chicago School" of meteorology. The Chicago School was characterized by the development of dynamic models of the general circulation. This research revealed the existence of the jet stream, a discovery in which the distinguished Finnish meteorologist Erik Palmen, then a visitor, was intimately involved. It also established the importance of vorticity theories of wave motion in both the atmosphere and the ocean. War-time needs led to the establishment of the Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Puerto Rico. It was there that Herbert Riehl began the development of models of tropical weather disturbances.

The momentum of the Chicago School of meteorology carried the Department beyond the end of World War II. Dave Fultz developed laboratory-scale models of atmospheric flows. The results from his laboratory were so stimulating that similar laboratories were subsequently established at a number of other institutions. The thunderstorm project under the direction of Horace Byers led to a program in physical meteorology. Byers, later joined by Roscoe Braham, was the first to reveal the life cycle of thunderstorms. Braham continued this program with pioneering work in the physical and chemical aspects of the nucleation processes responsible for precipitation in the atmosphere. As an outgrowth of the thunderstorm project, T.T. Fujita began his work on mesoscale disturbances. Later he turned his attention to the use of satellites to detect severe storms and to obtain data on the general circulation.

Rossby, although primarily a theoretician, recognized the importance of keeping in touch with the real atmosphere. In concert with Byers, he invited Sverre Petterssen to join the faculty to provide the bridge between theory and practice. Petterssen applied the important theoretical results of the Chicago School to practical forecasting. Earlier, George Platzman, a theoretician, participated in the first experiments in numerical forecasting. Applying these methods to oceanography, he made the first numerical storm-surge forecast.

As in the case of the Department of Geology, the Department of Meteorology was deeply committed to teaching. During the war, the Department trained over 1,700 air corps weather officers. Subsequently graduates of the Department have taken positions of leadership in meteorology in this country and abroad.

Faculty and Current Research

For more information on faculty and current research, please refer to those areas of our site.