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JOHN TUZO WILSON
October24, 1908 - April 15, 1993
Photo: Steve Jaunzems, 1967, University of Toronto, UTM Library Archives
ABSTRACT
An early proponent of the continental drift theory, J. Tuzo Wilson is chiefly remembered for his
proposition that transform faults were present in the ocean floor, an idea that led to conclusive
evidence that the sea floor and the Earth's crust are constantly moving. As part of this theory, he
maintained that the Hawaiian Islands were created as a tectonic plate, extending across much of the
Pacific Ocean, shifted slowly in a northwesterly direction over a fixed hotspot, spawning a long series of
volcanoes. Wilson later hypothesized that an ancestral Atlantic Ocean basin had opened and closed
during the Paleozoic Era, in turn creating the huge land mass known as Pangaea. This theory helped
account for the presence of the Appalachian Mountains found in eastern North America, the striking
similarity of many rock features in western Europe and North America, and parallel cyclical
developments on all of the continents.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
John Tuzo Wilson, primarily known as Tuzo Wilson, was born on October 24, 1908, in Ottawa, Ontario.
While in high school, Wilson gained some of his first geologic exposure from summer employment
through the Geological Survey of Canada. He then continued his interests at the University of Toronto
and graduated in 1930 with a B.A. degree in physics and geology. In 1936 he earned his doctorate
degree in geology from Princeton University. After finishing his academic studies, Tuzo enlisted in the
Canadian Army and served during World War II. In 1946 he was became Professor of Geophysics at the
University of Toronto, and was later appointed principal of the University's Erindale College in 1967.
Tuzo served from 1983-1986 as the chancellor of York University located in Toronto, Canada. In 1974,
Wilson was named Director General of the Ontario Science Centre. John Tuzo Wilson died on April 15,
1993, in Toronto, Ontario. He was 84 years old.
Major Contributions to the Geological Sciences
In 1963, Wilson developed a concept crucial to the emergence of the plate-tectonics theory. He
suggested that the Hawaiian and other volcanic island chains may have formed due to the movement of
a plate over a stationary hotspot in the mantle. This hypothesis eliminated an apparent contradiction to
the plate-tectonics theory. However, in the early 1960s, his idea was considered so radical that his
"hotspot" manuscript was rejected by all the major international scientific journals. This manuscript
ultimately was published in 1963 in a relatively obscure publication, the Canadian Journal of Physics, and
became a milestone in plate tectonics.
Another of Wilson's important contributions to the development of the plate-tectonics theory was
published two years later. He proposed that there must be a third type of plate boundary to connect the
oceanic ridges and trenches which he noted may end abruptly and can transform into major faults that
slip horizontally. A well-known example of such a transform-fault boundary is the San Andreas Fault
zone located in California.
During the 1960's Wilson also spent a great deal of time studying the North Atlantic Ocean partially
through the use of air photos in geological mapping . He showed that there was strong evidence for an
earlier Atlantic Ocean that was closed by continental drift and then reopened, along a slightly different
center, into our current Atlantic Ocean. This work, lead to the categorization of the world's oceans in
terms of the stages of development in a cycle that is now called the Wilson Cycle [also known as the
supercontinent cycle].
Conclusions
Tuzo Wilson’s approaches to science and to life were straightforward. He himself had the wonderful
capacity to assimilate and retain the detail, while arriving intuitively at simple yet elegant models. He
was one of the most imaginative earth scientists of his time, and the father of academic geophysics in
Canada. Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson was also pivotal in advancing the plate-tectonics theory.
Intrigued by Wegener's notion of a mobile Earth and influenced by Harry Hess' exciting ideas, Wilson
was eager to convert others to the revolution brewing in the earth sciences during the early 1960s.
References
Science.ca (n. d.) John Tuzo Wilson. Retrieved April 22,2013,
United States Geological Survey ( 1999), J. Tuzo Wilson: Discovering transforms and hotspots. Retrieved
April 20, 2013, from: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/Wilson.html
University of Toronto (n. d.). John Tuzo Wilson. Retrieved April 20, 2013,
from http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/overview/history/john-tuzo-wilson