Robert Sinclair Dietz (September 14, 1914 – May 19, 1995) was Professor of Geology at Arizona State University. Dietz was a geophysicist and oceanographer who conducted pioneering research along with Harry Hess concerning seafloor spreading as early as 1960 - 1961. While at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography he observed the nature of "the Emperor chain of seamounts that extended from the northwest end of the Hawaiian Island-Midway chain and speculated over lunch with Robert Fisher in 1953 that something must be carrying these old volcanic mountains northward like a conveyor belt."

In later work he became interested in meteorite impacts and was the first to recognize the Sudbury Basin as an ancient impact event.

Publications

• Dietz, Robert S. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Life and Times of a Journeyman Geologist." Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science 22 (1994), 1-32.
• Dietz, Robert S., "In Defense of Drift," The Sciences, vol. 23, Nov.-Dec. 1983, p. 26.
• Dietz, Robert S., Sudbury Structure as an Astroprobleme, University of Chicago, 1964
• Dietz, Robert S. and scientific illustrator John C. Holden, Creation/Evolution Satiricon: Creationism Bashed, Winthrop, WA: Bookmaker, 1987

References

1. Biography from USCD
2. Dietz and Hess
3. Dietz Museum of Geology at ASU
4. Biography from ASU

Plate tectonics | 1914 births | 1995 deaths | Arizona State University professors | Oceanographers | American geologists | Geophysicists