Allan Cox Papers SC0343
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0r29r89t No online items Guide to the Allan Cox Papers SC0343 Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson Department of Special Collections and University Archives October 2010 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the Allan Cox Papers SC034315385 1 SC0343 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Allan Cox papers Creator: Cox, Allan Identifier/Call Number: SC0343 Identifier/Call Number: 15385 Physical Description: 20.75 Linear Feet Date (inclusive): 1954-1987 Abstract: Papers document his professional life as teacher, administrator, and researcher and include correspondence; memoranda; research notes, charts, proposals, and reports; grant applications; outlines, tests, lecture notes, and other teaching materials; manuscripts; minutes; date books; papers and theses by his students; reprints; maps; and his notes while a student at UC Berkeley. Cox studied paleomagnetism and plate tectonics theory; some materials pertain to research done on the Galapagos Islands and in China. Information about Access This collection is open for research. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes. Cite As [identification of item] Allan Cox papers (SC0343). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Biographical/Historical Sketch The son of a house painter, Allan attended high school in Santa Ana. He pursued his education through independent reading during 3 years in the merchant marine (1945-48), 3 years of undergraduate chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley (1948-51), and 2 more years of independent reading as a private in the U.S. Army (1951-53). The most important event in his education, and the one that helped him choose geology as a career, was a summer job with the U.S. Geological Survey in 1950 as a field assistant to Clyde Wahrhaftig in Alaska. Allan received his B.A. (1955), M.A. (1957), and Ph.D. (1959) degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was inspired by the teaching of John Verhoogen and Perry Byerly. He began his professional career at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, where he helped establish what was to become one of the most successful paleomagnetic laboratories in the country. From 1959 to 1967 he worked as a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1967 he joined the faculty at Stanford University, where he became Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geophysics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1969 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974. He became president of the American Geophysical Union in 1978. He received the Fleming Medal of the American Geophysical Union (1969), the Day Medal of the Geological Society of America (1975), and the Vetlesen Prize (1971). In 1979 he became the dean of the School of Earth Sciences. He was an author of over 100 papers in learned scientific journals. He established our Master's degree program in exploration geophysics, and was mentor to many students. The essence of Allan Cox is a rare quality -- the ability and determination to bring out the very best in others. To a degree we've never seen in another person with his achievements, he had a most wonderful mix of personal humility with demanding standards, so that before a colleague knew what was happening, he or she was challenged into performing at a level not previously thought possible. And once that level was established those demands were never relaxed. The atmosphere was exhilarating. His best-known research joined the paleomagnetism and radiometric ages of rocks collected from different parts of the world to find that before 700,000 years ago the geometric field had pointed south instead of north. Since the reversals were found to occur simultaneously everywhere, the polarity of the entire planetary field must have reversed. Together with his colleagues, by 1966 he had established a radiometric polarity time scale for the past 4,500,000 years and had concluded that polarity changes had occurred at an average rate of 5 reversals per million years. They found that the time intervals Guide to the Allan Cox Papers SC034315385 2 SC0343 between successive reversals were highly variable in length, the shortest being less that than 50,000 years and the longest greater than 1,000,000 years. He died January 27, 1987, in a bicycle accident near his home in Skylonda. Description of the Collection Papers document his professional life as teacher, administrator, and researcher and include correspondence; memoranda; research notes, charts, proposals, and reports; grant applications; outlines, tests, lecture notes, and other teaching materials; manuscripts; minutes; date books; papers and theses by his students; reprints; maps; and his notes while a student at UC Berkeley. Cox studied paleomagnetism and plate tectonics theory; some materials pertain to research done on the Galapagos Islands and in China. AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science ACS American Chemical Society AGU American Geophysical Union CGU Canadian Geophysical Union ERDA Energy Research and Development Administration G Geophysics (course number) GEO Geology (course number) GP Geophysics (course number) GSA Geological Society of America JGG Journal of Geomagnetism and Geoelectricity JGR Journal of Geophysical Research MAG Magnometer NAS National Academy of Sciences NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NRC National Research Council NSF National Science Foundation OPLAR Oceanic Plateaus Research PEPS Paleomagnetic Euler Poles PRF Petroleum Research Fund Subjects and Indexing Terms China -- Geophysics. Plate tectonics Paleomagnetism. Galapagos Islands -- Geophysics. Geophysics. Stanford University. Department of Geophysics. Faculty Cox, Allan Stanford University. School of Earth Sciences Papers box 1, folder 1 GEU 1 box 1, folder 2 Paleomag Reading Lists box 1, folder 3 GP 102 Notes box 1, folder 4 1974 MT box 1, folder 5 Class Notes 1 GP 102 Definitions box 1, folder 6 Equal Area Nets box 1, folder 7 Prob 5 - Solution box 1, folder 8 Lab Notes box 1, folder 9 Converting XYZ to NED box 1, folder 10 Orientation box 1, folder 11 Problem 5 - Finite Rotations box 1, folder 12 Pr. 3 Solution Guide to the Allan Cox Papers SC034315385 3 SC0343 Papers box 1, folder 13 Class Notes 3 box 1, folder 14 Solution to 2 box 1, folder 15 G 102 Midterm - Old box 1, folder 16 Notes on DRM box 1, folder 17 Beok box 1, folder 18 G 102 box 1, folder 19 Revised Strat: Reading List. box 1, folder 20 Old Material box 1, folder 21 GP 152 1981 box 1, folder 22 Ishikawa, Y. GP 150 box 1, folder 23 Dickinson's Handouts box 1, folder 24 Mid-Term - G 150 - 1976 box 1, folder 25 GP 150 box 2, folder 1 Lecture Notes PT box 2, folder 2 GP 150 Syllabus box 2, folder 3 GP 150 Take Home Exam box 2, folder 4 PT 1976 box 2, folder 5 GP 150 box 2, folder 6 GP 150 1978 Final Exam box 2, folder 7 GP 150 Final 1979 box 2, folder 8 Course Evaluations box 2, folder 9 GP 150 M.T. box 2, folder 10 MAG Prob 2 box 2, folder 11 GP 190 MAG Prob box 2, folder 12 GP 190 MAG Lab box 2, folder 13 GP 190 box 2, folder 14 [Unlabelled Notes] box 2, folder 15 [Unlabelled Notes] box 2, folder 16 Sacks, I.S. box 2, folder 17 Exams box 2, folder 18 PS 1 1974 box 2, folder 19 GP 190 Exam box 2, folder 20 GP 190 Student Evamluations box 2, folder 21 1976 Notes box 2, folder 22 S. Ugeda box 2, folder 23 1974 MT box 3, folder 1 G 190 - 1974 Class Notes 1 box 3, folder 2 Class Notes 1974 Master box 3, folder 3 Class Notes Pre '74 box 3, folder 4 Problems Pre '74 box 3, folder 5 190 - Problem Solutions Pre '74 box 3, folder 6 George's Lectures box 3, folder 7 Miscellaneous box 3, folder 8 New Master box 3, folder 9 [Loose Material] box 3, folder 10 Ditto Masters box 3, folder 11 [Loose Material] box 3, folder 12 Lab #1 box 3, folder 13 Blakely GP 240 box 4, folder 1 Bott box 4, folder 2 Bott and Hutton box 4, folder 3 Bott and Hutton box 4, folder 4 Bullard et. al. box 4, folder 5 Caner box 4, folder 6 Clarke box 4, folder 7 Elasser box 4, folder 8 Emilia and Bodvarsson box 4, folder 9 Emilia and Bodvarsson Guide to the Allan Cox Papers SC034315385 4 SC0343 Papers box 4, folder 10 Henderson box 4, folder 11 Henderson box 4, folder 12 Henderson and Wilson box 4, folder 13 Henderson and Wilson box 4, folder 14 Hubert box 4, folder 15 Johnson box 4, folder 16 Kanasewich et. al. box 4, folder 17 Linsser box 4, folder 18 Naidu box 4, folder 19 Reford and Sumner box 4, folder 20 Rikitake and H.