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CITATION Given, H., and R. Monroe. 2019. In memoriam: (1917–2019) and Gustaf Arrhenius (1922–2019). 32(1):22–23, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2019.111.

DOI https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2019.111

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DOWNLOADED FROM HTTPS://TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHY SPECIAL ISSUE ON SCIENTIFIC OCEAN DRILLING: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

In Memoriam Walter Munk (1917–2019) and Gustaf Arrhenius (1922–2019)

By Holly Given and Robert Monroe

Two pioneers of scientific ocean drill- who both lived to advanced ages before occasionally dabbled in whole Earth geo- ing, Walter Heinrich Munk and Gustaf succumbing to pneumonia within one physics, Munk is famous in the scientific Olaf , passed away week of each other. Both were Europeans ocean drilling community for his proposi- in February 2019. As colleagues at from privileged backgrounds who were tion at a 1957 meeting of the US National Scripps Institution of Oceanography, brought to Scripps by famous mentors. Science Foundation Advisory Panel for UC , Munk and Arrhenius Both stayed to build their legacies in the Earth Sciences to drill through the oce- both took part in the 1961 feasibility amid the heady explosion of anic crust to reach Earth’s mantle. A com- test for aboard the drill- science under federally funded research mittee of the American Miscellaneous ing platform CUSS I (Figure 1), which programs that grew from World War II. Society (AMSOC) began work on the marked retrieval of the first cores of oce- Walter Munk was born October 19, proposal for Project Mohole at a cham- anic crust aided by the new invention of 1917, into a wealthy Viennese bank- pagne breakfast held on Walter’s patio the dynamic positioning. ing family in the waning days of the following month. For a number of rea- There are many parallels in the lives Austro-Hungarian Empire. Out of con- sons, including cost overruns, the project of these two men, who were friends and cern over her bon vivant son, Munk’s was scuttled before the attempt could be neighbors, as well as colleagues, and mother sent him to New York in 1932 to made. Munk later called the evolution of learn the banking business from a rela- this complex mission “Project No Hole,” tive. Bored, Munk drove across the coun- and said it was one of the main disap- a try to study geophysics at Caltech with pointments of his scientific career. Beno Gutenberg, and eventually received The AMSOC committee set up an an invitation to from oceanogra- Ocean Sediments Drilling Panel in 1962. pher Harald Sverdrup, director of Scripps This effort took hold, growing into the at the time, who became his mentor. organized scientific ocean drilling pro- Although Munk’s scientific bibliography, grams we recognize today. Walter’s beginning in the 1940s, firmly character- involvement with scientific ocean drill- izes him as a physical oceanographer who ing came full circle in 2012 when the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the b Sloan Foundation hosted his visit to D/V Chikyu, and JAMSTEC Director Asahiko Taira honored him by re-naming the ship’s library the Walter Munk Library (Figure 2). Gustaf Arrhenius was born Septem- ber 5, 1922, in Stockholm into an aris- FIGURE 1. (a) From left facing camera: Roger tocratic heritage of explorers and scien- Revelle, Walter Munk, and Gustaf Arrhenius tists. His maternal grandfather, Gustaf aboard the oil drillship, CUSS I, during Project Mohole, 1961. Among participants was John Nordenskiöld, son of the great Swedish Steinbeck, who covered the test cruise for Life explorer Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, magazine. (b) From left: Roger Revelle, Willard surveyed and cataloged artifacts of the Bascom, Gustaf Arrhenius, and Walter Munk aboard CUSS I during Project Mohole, 1961. Mesa Verde civilization of Colorado. Photo courtesy of UC San Diego Library His paternal grandfather, Nobel laureate

22 Oceanography | Vol.32, No.1 FIGURE 2. Walter Munk with JAMSTEC President Asahiko Taira on the deck of D/V Chikyu. Credit: JAMSTEC

FIGURE 3. Scientists, including Gustaf Arrhenius (back row, fourth from right) and Walter Munk Svante Arrhenius, founded the field of (seated, second from right) on the fantail of R/V Spencer F. Baird, homeward bound from the physical chemistry and was the first per- Capricorn Expedition (1952–1953). Back row (left to right): Richard von Herzen, Roger Revelle, Willard N. Bascom, Theodore Robert Folsom, Alan Churchill Jones, Gustaf Arrhenius, Henri Rotschi, son to publish—in 1896—on the pros- Robert Livingston, Russell Raitt. Seated (left to right): Philip E. Jackson, Richard E. Blumberg, Ronald pect of anthropogenic global warm- Mason, Robert Floyd Dill, Arthur E. Maxwell, Winter Davis Horton, Walter Munk, and Helen Raitt. February 1953. Photo courtesy of UC San Diego Library ing caused by industrial CO2 emissions. Steeped in the family tradition of scien- tific exploration, Arrhenius signed up almost 20 years before turning his atten- and philanthropist Cecil Green. for Albatross, the legendary 1947–1948 tion to the evolution of the solar sys- With Jenny de Hevesy Arrhenius, Swedish expedition organized by ocean- tem and the origins of life as seen in the Judith Horton Munk, and Mary Coakley ographer Hans Pettersson that used a new geologic record. Munk, Gustaf and Walter organized piston coring tool developed by Börge Aside from their contributions to sci- informal intellectual “salons” for visit- Kullenberg to retrieve the first long cores entific ocean drilling, Arrhenius and ing scientists and graduate students in of ocean sediments from the equatorial Munk inspired generations of scientists their ocean view La Jolla homes. These Pacific. Because no one place in Sweden as visionaries and through their wider great men indeed personified the mod- had enough laboratory space to pro- dimensions as human beings. ern golden age of scientific inquiry and cess the more than 200 Albatross cores, With his connections among the intel- expressed what is best about the academic Arrhenius offered his father’s laboratory, lectual elite of Europe, Arrhenius was life—yes, the dedication to rigorous sci- and the samples became the basis for his heavily involved in the establishment entific inquiry and discovery, but also the PhD thesis. Based on his Albatross expe- of UC San Diego in the 1960s. He was intellectual camaraderie, the adventure, rience, Arrhenius was invited by Scripps asked to lead the search for someone to the global connections, and the down- Director Roger Revelle to join the famous head the new Literature Department, right fun of it all. They will be missed, but 1951–1952 Capricorn Expedition that but was unsuccessful at recruiting novel- their legacies live on. mapped the Pacific seafloor on the way ist Wallace Stegner, because at that time AUTHORS back from the thermonuclear test in the UC San Diego lacked a library. Holly Given ([email protected]) is Executive Director, Marshall Islands (an expedition that also Building on the school he established IODP Science Support Office, andRobert Monroe ([email protected]) is Media Specialist, both at included Munk; see Oceanography 17(2), with Sverdrup to teach wave height pre- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2004.53; diction to Navy personnel during World La Jolla, CA, USA. Figure 3 ). Arrhenius developed analysis War II, Munk was largely responsible for ARTICLE CITATION techniques and published extensively on the enduring ties between Scripps and the Given, H., and R. Monroe. 2019. In memoriam: Walter Munk (1917–2019) and Gustaf Arrhenius (1922–2019). the chemistry of pelagic sediments and Office of Naval Research, and later culti- Oceanography 32(1):22–23, https://doi.org/10.5670/ interpretations for paleoceanography for vated a close relationship with geophysicist oceanog.2019.111.

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