Warren B. Hamilton
Distinguished Senior Scientist
Currently teaching: Geodynamics and
Geology, GPGN 417
Major current interests: Tectonics,
Geodynamics, Evolution of crust and
mantle, Terrestrial planets
EDUCATION
A.B., UCLA, 1945, Geology
M.Sc, University of Southern California, 1949, Geology
Ph.D., UCLA, 1951, Geology
CAREER
1943-1946 US Navy (NROTC Cadet, then deck officer on aircraft carrier)
1951-1952 University of Oklahoma, Assistant Professor
1952-1995 U.S. Geological Survey, Geologist to Senior Scientist
in Geologic, then Geophysical, Branches; retired 1995.
1-semester Visiting Professorships at Scripps Inst.Oceanog 1968,1979,
Caltech 1973, Yale 1980, U. Amsterdam + Free U. Amsterdam 1981.
30 short courses (many as distinguished lectureships) to university
and professional groups around the world, +>200 invited lectures
1996-continuing. Colorado School of Mines, Dept. of Geophysics,
Distinguished Senior Scientist [volunteer]
1999-2002 Adjunct Professor, Louisiana State University
2000-continuing Adjunct Professor, University of Wyoming
2006-cont., volunteer instructor, DU/Osher Lifelong Learning Inst.
(outreach)
MAJOR HONORS
NAS Senior Exchange Scientist to USSR, 1967
NAS Plate Tectonics Delegation to China and Tibet, 1979
Distinguished Service Medal, US Dept. of the Interior, 1981
Honorary Fellow, Geological Society of London, 1983
Fellow, Geol. Soc. America, and Geol. Assoc. Canada
Chairman, Cordilleran Section, GSA, 1987-88
Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1989
Penrose Medal, Geological Society of America, 1989
Councilor, GSA, 1995-98
GSA Structural Geology and Tectonics Career Contribution
Award, 2007
MAJOR RECENT PUBLICATIONS.
Hamilton, W.B., 2007, Earth’s first two billion years—the era of internally
mobile crust: Geol. Soc. America Memoir 200, p. 233-296.
Hamilton, W.B., 2007, An alternative Venus: GSA Spec. Paper 430, 879-914.
Hamilton, W.B., 2007, Driving mechanism and 3-D circulation of plate
tectonics, GSA Spec. Paper 433, p. 1-25.
Hamilton, W.B., 2011, Plate tectonics began in Neoproterozoic time, and
plumes from deep mantle have never operated: Lithos, v. 123, p. 1-20.
Hamilton, W.B., 2013, Evolution of the Archean Mohorovicic discontinuity:
Tectonophysics, v. 609, p. 706-733.
Foulger, G.R., et al. incl. WBH, 2013, Caveats on tomographic images
(Review Article): Terra Nova, v. 25, p. 259-281.
Hamilton, W.B., 2015, Terrestrial planets fractionated synchronously with
accretion: GSA Sp.Paper 514 and AGU Sp.Pub.71, 35 p.
PRIOR RESEARCH TOPICS INCLUDE:
Plate tectonics of Indonesia and surrounding regions,
integrating offshore geophysics + onshore geology.
Large book, 3 wall maps, journal articles.
Tectonics, structural geology, and petrology of United
States. Many articles, monographs, maps (CA, NV, ID,
MT, WY, AK, NC, TN) and regional syntheses (plate
and extensional tectonics and mechanisms, batholiths,
Laramide orogeny, more).
Antarctica. 2 monographs on petrology and structure;
continental tectonic synthesis integrated with southernhemisphere continents and arcs.
And many more, North American, Arctic, USSR,
Gondwana, global, planetary.