Download Thomas Vincent McEvilly 1935–2002

OBITUARIES
Thomas Vincent McEvilly 1935–2002
Fellow of the RAS, distinguished seismologist and earthquake prediction pioneer.
S
eismology lost one of its most popular and
distinguished members on 22 February
2002 with the death of Thomas McEvilly,
Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the
University of California, Berkeley. He was
undergoing treatment for cancer at St
Anthony’s Medical Center in St Louis, the city
of his birth. He was a Fellow of the RAS, the
American Geophysical Union and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
McEvilly graduated with a BSc summa cum
laude in geophysics from St Louis University in
1956. He worked briefly in oil exploration with
the California Company and was associated
with the Sprengnether Instrument Company
(1961–68), eventually becoming engineering
vice-president. In 1960 he returned to St Louis
University, where he graduated with a PhD in
geophysics in 1964.
McEvilly’s contributions to geophysics ranged
widely, but particularly in seismology. His many
publications investigated, among other topics,
seismic crustal profiling, earthquake source
properties, test-ban treaty verification methods
and seismographic instrumentation. He was for
ten years editor of the Bulletin of the
Seismological Society of America and was
elected an honorary member of the Society. He
served on many scientific advisory committees
for government, university and professional
organizations, including UNESCO, the US
National Academy of Science/National
Research Council from 1981 to 1983.
In the early 1960s considerable Federal
money became available for upgrades in seismology to support the surveillance of a nuclear
test-ban treaty. At the Seismographic Stations
at the University of California, Berkeley, Prof.
Perry Byerly had secured substantial funds
for the first regional telemetry seismographic
network in the world. When Byerly became ill,
it was necessary to secure another professor,
in short order. As a consequence, I was
appointed professor and director in 1963 and,
in turn, sought the help of an assistant professor of seismology. In those days, candidates
were not found by advertising in journals but
by personal contacts. The Department of
Geology and Geophysics – now Earth and
Planetary Science – at Berkeley had a close relationship with St Louis University, where a
strong seismology programme had been developed by J B Macelwane, a PhD from Berkeley
and who had taught seismology there. Of special value to the Berkeley situation, Tom was
deeply knowledgeable about state-of-the-art
1.36
seismological instrumentation.
McEvilly was selected and arrived at Berkeley
in August 1964. Everyone was struck by how
young he looked. Indeed, he never seemed to
age. He flourished at his new academic home,
not only in earthquake studies with many students and colleagues, but also with friends
through mutual delight in fine wines and in visits to wineries often found in California near
active earthquake faults. In due course he
became assistant director of the Seismographic
Stations (1968–89), was appointed chairman of
the Department of Geology and Geophysics
(1976–80), and was the first director of the
Earth Sciences Division of the National
Berkeley Laboratory (1982–83).
Berkeley
The first major project in which he was
involved at Berkeley was the planning and construction of the San Andreas Multi-Purpose
Observatory on the San Andreas fault near
Hollister. It was expected that instruments on
this site would capture the dynamics of a large
but still-awaited fault rupture. McEvilly and I,
our staff and students derived much pleasure
and stimulus from this enterprise, no doubt
then technically ahead of its time. More
broadly, McEvilly undertook many detailed
studies of California earthquakes, research that
became a persistent part of his career. The initial pivot, to which he returned many times in
his life, was the Parkfield earthquake of 1966.
In 1968 McEvilly, Cinna Lomnitz and I wrote
a joint paper that summarized the main
University of California, Berkeley, seismological contribution to the establishment of plate
tectonics. This analysis of plate-margin seismicity in central and northern California was
based on the high resolution of focal depths
and fault mechanisms, made feasible by the
Berkeley Telemetry Network.
Research grants from the Advance Research
Project Agency (APRA) remained generous
through the 1970s. In 1980, Prof. Lane
Johnson joined the faculty, and Tom and Lane
took over the major research effort supported
by APRA. Many lasting publications by them
and their students resulted.
Over the years, McEvilly’s research became
more and more diverse within the context of
seismicity, crustal structures, seismic source and
fault properties. An extensive list of over 100
publications resulted, featuring an unusual
variety of dozens of student and professional
co-authors.
Two major contributions to seismology
should be highlighted. McEvilly played a crucial role in the success, from its inception, of
the Incorporated Research Institutions for
Seismology (IRIS), the dominant observational
portal in modern seismology. He was chairman
of the IRIS board of directors (1984–86) during its somewhat turbulent birth, and continued to play a vital role on advisory committees
up until his illness. During the early strenuous
debates, Tom had the necessary warm personality and broad knowledge to weld together the
warring factions.
The second significant part of McEvilly’s
research involved earthquake prediction, which
had been boosted as a worthy seismological
enterprise in the early 1970s. Close scrutiny of
the historical recordings of the Berkeley seismographic network led to a paper published in
1979 with W Bakun in which they described a
striking 22-year earthquake pattern along the
Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault. The
result was the famous “Parkfield Prediction
Experiment” which generated high hopes for
reliable quantitative prediction. The extent of
McEvilly’s disappointment when the early
1990s window closed uneventfully is not clear.
He was a member and chairman (1989–96) of
the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation
Council for the US Geological Survey where
he was consistently critical of over-promising
success in prediction.
McEvilly excelled in teaching on a one-to-one
basis. His graduate course called Advanced
Seismometry was unique in the United States
and is often mentioned by students of that era
as providing a firm foundation in their seismological careers. He was, as his published
reviews attest, a master of seismic instrumentation. Among his last papers and proposals
are many creative ideas on diverse seismic monitoring and networks, including borehole sensors and fault studies with GPS geodetic
equipment.
A hallmark of McEvilly’s scientific abilities
was his powerful intuition. Along with it went
great enthusiasm for his subject and an unconstrained generosity in collaborations with colleagues and students. There is little doubt that
his work was a great delight to him. After
retirement, it continued to be driven by this singular seismological pattern.
McEvilly is survived by his wife Dotty, six
children, nine grandchildren, two brothers
and a sister. A graduate student fellowship in
his honour has been established in the
Department of Earth and Planetary Science at
the University of California, Berkeley (www
.seismo.berkely.edu).
Bruce A Bolt.
February 2003 Vol 44