Geology and geophysics
Educated at Toronto, Cambridge and Princeton, Wilson became Toronto’s professor of geophysics in 1946. His research expanded from regional geology to continental movement and global ocean structures.
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Hotspots and island chains
In 1963 he explained the Hawaiian chain by a moving Pacific plate crossing a relatively stable volcanic source. The sequence of island ages connected volcanism with plate movement.
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Transform faults and ocean cycles
His 1965 transform-fault concept explained sideways plate-boundary motion and predicted where earthquake activity should occur. North Atlantic geology also led him to examine an ocean’s closure and reopening, later known as the Wilson cycle.
References: [1]