Bill Mathews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bill Mathews | |
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| Born | 1919 Vancouver, British Columbia |
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| Died | March 3, 2003 |
| Residence |  Canada |
| Nationality | Canada |
| Fields | Geology, Volcanology |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley, 1948-1951 University of British Columbia, 1951-2003 |
| Alma mater | University of British Columbia, 1935–1941 University of California, Berkeley, 1946-1948 |
| Known for | Studying subglacial eruptions and volcano-ice interactions |
| Notable awards | Willet G. Miller Medal, Royal Society of Canada, 1989 |
William Henry Mathews (1919–2003) was a Canadian geologist, volcanologist, engineer, and professor. He is considered a pioneer in the study of subglacial eruptions and volcano-ice interactions in North America. Many of his publications continue to be regarded as classics in their field, even now several decades after they were written.
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[edit] Biography
Bill Mathews was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1919. His childhood was marked by personal tragedy, as his mother and a brother died when he was two, and his father, Vancouver pioneer Thomas Mathews, died when he was 13.
Mathews attended King George Secondary School before entering the University of British Columbia in 1935, earning a Bachelor of Applied Science in geological engineering in 1940, followed by a Master of Applied Science with a major in petrology and a minor in physics in 1941. During college, he served as a student assistant for the Geological Survey of Canada from 1938 to 1941, and was also an instructor in the mountain infantry school of the Alpine Club of Canada, training personnel for the Canadian armed forces. After graduation, he worked as a mining engineer for the British Columbia Department of Mines from 1942 to 1946.
He then moved on to the University of California, Berkeley, completing his Ph.D. in June 1948 with a dissertation titled Geology of the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia. While at Berkeley, he also met and married his wife, Laura Lou. Mathews served on the Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor from 1948 to 1951, and then returned to Canada to accept an associate professorship in the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of British Columbia. He was promoted to full professor in 1959, served as department chairman from 1964 to 1971, and continued teaching until his retirement to professor emeritus status in 1984.
Mathews received the Willet G. Miller Medal for "outstanding research in any branch of the earth sciences" from the Royal Society of Canada in 1989. Even after his retirement from teaching duties, he maintained an active research program and began writing a book on the geology of southern British Columbia, working part-time on the project until his death in 2003. The book was published posthumously in 2005 as Roadside Geology of Southern British Columbia.
[edit] Scientific research
Mathews scientific work embraced a broad spectrum of topics, including volcanoes, glaciers, regional geomorphology, landslides, hydrogeology, stratigraphy, coal geology, and mineral deposits. But his most influential work was in the fields of subglacial eruptions and volcano-ice interactions. He discovered several ideal field laboratories for this research in his home province of British Columbia, including the numerous volcanoes in Garibaldi Provincial Park just north of Vancouver and the remote Tuya Volcanic Field in far northern British Columbia. While still in graduate school at Berkeley in 1947, he published a paper, "Tuyas, Flat-Topped Volcanoes in Northern British Columbia", in which he coined the term "tuya" to refer to the distinctive, flat-topped, steep-sided volcanoes formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. He took the name from Tuya Butte, a near-ideal specimen of the type, and this name has since become standard worldwide among volcanologists in referring to and writing about these volcanic formations. He also named a tuya after him within the Tuya Volcanic Field, called Mathews Tuya.
Mathews published his first article, titled "Geology of the Garibaldi Lake area", in the Canadian Alpine Journal in 1938 when he was only 19 years old. He would go on to author more than 100 published scientific papers and reports over the next six decades. A large portion of this body of work is devoted to the numerous fascinating volcanic, glacial, and limnological features of Garibaldi Provincial Park, which he examines, analyzes, and interprets in meticulous detail and with far-reaching insight.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Books and theses
- Mathews, Bill; Monger, Jim (2005). Roadside Geology of Southern British Columbia. Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-503-9. (includes biographical sketch)
- Mathews, William H. (1975). Garibaldi Geology: A popular guide to the geology of the Garibaldi Lake area. Geological Association of Canada.
- Mathews, William Henry (1948). Geology of the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 229 pp..
- Mathews, William Henry (1941). Geology of the Ironmask Batholith. Thesis (Master's)--University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
[edit] Selected significant articles
- Mathews, W. H. (1938). "Geology of the Garibaldi Lake area [British Columbia]". Canadian Alpine Journal 25: 107–112.
- Mathews, W. H. (1947). "Tuyas, flat-topped volcanoes in northern British Columbia". American Journal of Science 245 (9): 560–570.
- Mathews, W. H. (1951). "The Table, a flat-topped volcano in southern British Columbia". American Journal of Science 249 (11): 830–841. (see The Table)
- Mathews, W. H. (1951). "Historic and prehistoric fluctuations of alpine glaciers in the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia". Journal of Geology 59 (4): 357–380.
- Mathews, W. H. (1952). "Mount Garibaldi, a supraglacial Pleistocene volcano in southwestern British Columbia". American Journal of Science 250 (2): 81–103.
- Mathews, W. H. (1952). "Ice-dammed lavas from Clinker Mountain, southwestern British Columbia". American Journal of Science 250 (8): 553–565.
- Mathews, W. H. (1953). "Glacier study for the mountaineer". Canadian Alpine Journal 36: 161–167.
- Mathews, W. H. (1955). "Permafrost and its occurrence in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia". Canadian Alpine Journal 38: 94–98.
- Mathews, W. H. (1956). "Physical limnology and sedimentation in a glacial lake [Garibaldi Lake]". Geological Society of America Bulletin 67 (5): 537–552. doi:.
- Mathews, W. H. (1957). "Petrology of Quaternary volcanics of the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia". American Journal of Science 255 (6): 400–415.
- Mathews, W. H. (1958). "Geology of the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia, Canada; Part 1, Igneous and metamorphic rocks". Geological Society of America Bulletin 69 (2): 161–178. doi:.
- Mathews, W. H. (1958). "Geology of the Mount Garibaldi map-area, southwestern British Columbia, Canada; Part 2, Geomorphology and Quaternary volcanic rocks". Geological Society of America Bulletin 69 (2): 179–198. doi:.
- Williams, P. M.; Mathews, W. H.; Pickard, G. L. (1961). "A lake in British Columbia containing old sea-water". Nature (London) 191 (4790): 830–832. doi:.
- Mathews, W. H. (1965). "Two Self-Dumping Ice-Dammed Lakes in British Columbia". Geographical Review 55 (1): 46–52. doi:.
- Nasmith, H.; Mathews, W. H.; Rouse, G. E. (1967). "Bridge River ash and some other Recent ash beds in British Columbia". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 4 (1): 163–170.
- Mackay, J. R.; Mathews, W. H. (1974). "Needle ice striped ground". Arctic and Alpine Research 6 (1): 79–84. doi:.
- Mackay, J. R.; Mathews, W. H. (1974). "Movement of sorted stripes, The Cinder Cone, Garibaldi Park, B. C., Canada". Arctic and Alpine Research 6 (4): 347–359. doi:.
- Mackay, J. R.; Mathews, W. H. (1975). "Orientation of soil stripes caused by needle ice". Journal of Glaciology 14 (71): 329–331.
- Moore, D. P.; Mathews, W. H. (1978). "The Rubble Creek landslide, southwestern British Columbia". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 15 (7): 1039–1052.
- Mathews, W. H.; Bustin, R. M. (1984). "Why do the Smoking Hills smoke?". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 21 (7): 737–742.
- Mathews, W. H.; Clague, J. J. (1993). "The record of jokulhlaups from Summit Lake, northwestern British Columbia". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30 (3): 499–508.
[edit] Honors and memberships
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[edit] References
- UBC Earth & Ocean Sciences: Alumni Newsletter, 2002-2003. Retrieved on 2007-04-23.
- UBC Archives - W.H. Mathews fonds - Description. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
- UBC Student Services - Senate - Memorial Minute. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
- RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada : Willet G. Miller Medal. Retrieved on 2007-04-23.
