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Harmon Craig (1926–2003) It Accomplished Its Main Goals and Spawned Continuing Projects

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Harmon Craig (1926–2003) It Accomplished Its Main Goals and Spawned Continuing Projects news and views Obituary programme did not self-destruct, as some people thought (or maybe hoped) it would; Harmon Craig (1926–2003) it accomplished its main goals and spawned continuing projects. Craig himself was After the Second World War, weary of interested in the rate of turnover of the their part in the development of the oceans. Here, the starting point was the idea atomic bomb, faculty at the University of that 226Ra, with a half-life of 1,620 years, Chicago turned to more esoteric matters. might be a good tracer of circulation, being With mass spectrometers in place for introduced at the ocean bottom from making isotope measurements, Harold C. sediments and making its way up to the 226 Urey and colleagues began studies in surface, decaying along the way. The Ra OCEANOGR. SCRIPPS INST. geochemistry and cosmochemistry. It daughter, 210Pb, was proposed as a surrogate was into this hotbed that Harmon Craig that could be measured. But when Craig was propelled without waiting to finish and colleagues pursued this path, they his undergraduate degree. Craig, who discovered that 210Pb reacted with particles died on 14 March, one day short of and was removed from the ocean by his seventy-seventh birthday, was to settling. This provided the basis for contribute hugely to these fields over the understanding the behaviour of particle- ensuing half-century. reactive elements in the ocean. One of the aims of the Urey group was Another fruitful project concerned to determine the temperatures of the helium isotopes. The talented Brian Clarke ancient oceans. This depended on developed a technique for measuring the 3 4 analysing carbon dioxide released from Pioneer in isotope ratio of He to He. When this was applied calcium carbonate fossils, and measuring to an ocean water ‘profile’ collected by the relative masses of the isotopes 18O and geochemistry Craig, the astounding result was that, 16O. The constancy of the carbon isotopes relative to atmospherically derived gases, was tacitly assumed. For his thesis, Scripps, mainly through the foresight of there was an excess of 3He, not 4He as had however, Craig measured the natural Roger Revelle, its director, brought in been expected. The implication was that variability that occurs in the ratio of Harmon Craig. Earth’s interior is still releasing a gas 13C/12C. The independent discovery of Back then, instruments were not built that was trapped when the planet was natural radioactive 14C by W. F. Libby at the in a day. As Craig was tooling up, he formed. The consequences lay not only in University of Chicago immediately led to tackled the question of what happens to understanding ocean circulation but also dating applications in archaeology and CO2 in the atmosphere and the oceans. in deciphering the way in which Earth’s geology. Craig’s analysis permitted the His theoretical solutions are valid to this mantle behaves at ocean spreading centres proper determination of radiocarbon day, and anticipated the programme for and in ocean-island basalts. ages — later to be corrected to calendar measuring atmospheric CO2 begun at In one of his last papers, Craig made years by accommodating the variations Scripps by C. D. Keeling in 1957 at Revelle’s sense of the cosmogenic 32Si measurements in initial 14C/12C. His thesis remains the instigation. made on GEOSECS. To some, this was a primary citation for work that involves Craig decided that somebody should hopelessly flawed set of data when tested 13C/12C variation in natural materials — work out how oxygen and hydrogen with a simple model of the silica cycle. from studies of food chains to identifying isotopes are distributed in the hydrological Craig and his co-authors responded sources of ancient marbles. cycle, especially if these isotopes were going with a paper, “Paradox lost: 32Si and the In cosmochemistry, the quest for the to be used for palaeoenvironmental global ocean silica cycle”, in which the best measure of the early composition of reconstructions. In two elegant papers mixing of two sources of silica explained the Solar System centres on meteorites that resulted from his presentation to an the results. So here was a man whose called chondrites. It was commonly appreciative Italian audience at Spoleto eye for high-quality measurements first assumed that they have a uniform in 1965, he laid out the framework for showed up in studies on meteorites, but composition. Working with Urey, however, investigating kinetics and equilibrium in who decades later was instrumental in Craig first established ‘quality certification’ determining the isotopic composition of deciphering a major problem in marine to reject meteorite samples modified by the hydrosphere, including the oceans. geochemistry. weathering, then showed that chondrites These ‘Spoleto’ papers remain fundamental Harmon Craig influenced so many fall into at least two major groups. The documents in light-isotope geochemistry. fields because he combined the strengths Solar System, it emerged, was not so In 1967 came another turning point. At a of a brilliant field observer with those uniform after all, a discovery that with later meeting at the Woods Hole Oceanographic of a meticulous measurer and a profound work provided a new view of how and from Institution, Henry Stommel proposed that a theorist. Yet this seeming one-man army what materials planets formed. systematic study of the geochemistry and was not acting alone. In everything he In 1955 came Craig’s move to the oceanography of all the oceans should be did he was aided and encouraged by his institution where he remained for the rest undertaken. With the new tracers and wife, Valerie. It was her patience with of his career — the Scripps Institution of chronometers then available, it was the Craig’s perennially searching mind Oceanography in San Diego. The eastern right moment to embark on this daunting that made the Craig enterprise such a universities in the United States were not enterprise. In due course it became clear success. Karl K. Turekian yet ready to accept the strange world of that the leaders of this Geochemical Ocean Karl K. Turekian is in the Department of Geology geochemistry. In the west, however, the Sections Study (GEOSECS), split among and Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 208109, California Institute of Technology hired a different institutions, should be Wallace New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8109, USA. bevy of geochemists from Chicago, while Broecker, Derek Spencer and Craig. This e-mail: [email protected] NATURE | VOL 423 | 12 JUNE 2003 | www.nature.com/nature © 2003 Nature Publishing Group 701.
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