In the Footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton: New Ideas in Earth Science
This unusual book, published to honor the late iconoclast and geologist extraordinaire Warren Bell Hamilton, comprises a diverse, cross-disciplinary collection of bold new ideas in Earth and planetary science. Some chapters audaciously point out all-too-obvious deficits in prevailing theories. Other ideas are embryonic and in need of testing and still others are downright outrageous. Some are doubtless right and others likely wrong. See if you can tell which is which. See if your students can tell which is which. This unique book is a rich resource for researchers at all levels looking for interesting, unusual, and off-beat ideas to investigate or set as student projects.
On the last paper of Warren B. Hamilton
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Published:May 03, 2022
ABSTRACT
When Warren Hamilton passed away in October 2018, he left behind the manuscript for a synthesis paper that was published in Earth-Science Reviews in 2019: “Toward a myth-free geodynamic history of Earth and its neighbors.” Integrating hundreds of detailed studies across four worlds and billions of years, the paper’s outlook is heterodox, presenting alternatives to conventional wisdom in every paragraph for almost 50 pages. During the last years of his life, Hamilton had worked steadily on this paper, which he viewed as the culmination of his long career. This chapter tells the story of how Hamilton wrote his last paper, summarizes a few of the many ideas it contains, and describes how, with help from his colleagues, the paper was posthumously completed and published.