Robert L. Fisher Papers, 1950-2013

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Summary

Creators:
Fisher, Robert L. (Robert Lloyd), 1925-
Abstract:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography research geologist Robert L. Fisher's papers, correspondence, professional materials, research files and writings.
Extent:
47 Linear feet (47 cartons, 25 films, 1 map case folder, 54 map case drawers, 284 rolled charts)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Robert L. Fisher Papers. SMC 114. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Background

Scope and content:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography research geologist Robert L. Fisher's papers, correspondence, professional materials, research files and writings. It includes an extensive array of materials pertaining to SIO expeditions and marine operations, as well the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) and Deep Sea Drilling projects. Subjects of note include marine geology, seafloor exploration and cartography, and deep-sea topography, as well as the study of seafloor spreading, subduction and plate tectonics.

Arranged in fifteen series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) SUBJECT FILES, 4) GROUPS & ORGANIZATIONS, 5) GENERAL BATHYMETRIC CHART OF THE OCEANS (GEBCO), 6) MARINE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE (MOC), 7) CONFERENCES & EVENTS, 8) EXPEDITIONS & WORK AT SEA, 9) DEEP SEA DRILLING PROJECT (DSDP), 10) TEACHING, 11) TALKS & APPEARANCES, 12) WRITINGS & PUBLICATIONS, 13) PHOTOGRAPHS & SLIDES, 14) AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS and 15) CHARTS AND MAPS.

Biographical / historical:

Robert Lloyd Fisher (b. 1925) is a Research Geologist Emeritus in the Geosciences Research Division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). He is known as a leading contributor to the field of deep-sea geology, with significant lifelong contributions to the areas of seafloor exploration and cartography, sub-oceanic igneous crustal composition and structure, and trench tectonics in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Fisher earned a B.S. in Geology from Caltech in 1949 and a Ph.D. in Marine Geology from UCLA in 1957 (with all research completed at the SIO campus). Active at sea from 1951 to the early 1980s, Fisher was a participant in, and chief scientist of, many major deep-sea geological-geophysical expeditions from SIO. In the 1950s and 1960s he used sound-train analyses from subsurface bomb detonations and innovative echo-sounding practices to determine the depths of deepest-ocean trenches. Fisher was among the first to recognize Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench as the deepest locality in the world's oceans, as well as finding Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench, slightly less, to be the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere. A dexterous mapmaker, Fisher's participation in SIO's Vermilion Sea Expedition to the Gulf of California in 1959 produced a bathymetric chart in 1961 which foreshadowed later plate tectonic patterns. Pioneering the theory of subduction, the 1954 two-ship CHUBASCO Expedition in the Middle America Trench established that at trenches the "oceanic" crust above the mantle creeps diagonally into the mantle beneath the landward flanks "continental" layers by convective action.

When the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) installed a working group to coordinate the International Indian Ocean Expedition (1959-1965) Fisher was appointed Co-Chairman alongside USSR's P. L. Bezrukov of its Geology-Geophysics and Bathymetry Subcommittee. He also served as chairman (1982-2003) of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Subcommittee on Undersea Feature Names, there advocating for the appropriate and enduring naming of newly-discovered seafloor features. Fisher was awarded the inaugural Drake Medal by GEBCO in 2004 in recognition of his lifelong contributions to global oceanic geography.

Acquisition information:
Acquired 1990-2013.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.

Original media formats are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available for researchers.

Terms of access:

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

Preferred citation:

Robert L. Fisher Papers. SMC 114. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Location of this collection:
9500 Gilman Drive, Dept. 0175
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175, US
Contact:
(858) 534-2533
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Website