Long before anyone had heard of Tom Hanks the movie star, every seismologist knew of Tom Hanks the geophysics star. Tom was indeed a star, not just in multiple seismological disciplines but throughout geophysics. It is conventional, at this point, to write in detail about a late scientist’s work and then maybe append a few sentences at the end to indicate that the late scientist may have encountered other humans and perhaps had a family. But that would be a disservice to Tom, who was not only a great scientist but a great person.

His office was dominated by an...

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