I first met Walter Pitman in 1962 in Buenos Aires. I had flown there to join the Vema as chief scientist for two months. Walter, who had just received his undergraduate degree, had signed up for Vema’s eight month cruise, preparatory to coming to Lamont for graduate studies the following year. Walter’s chief assignment was to be in charge of the magnetometer (affectionately known as Maggie), which was towed behind the ship, whenever it was underway. We did not know at that time that the magnetic measurements that were going to be made the next two months were going to be very important in Walter’s career and were also going to play a crucial part in scientific discoveries a few years later. But, I will return to this topic later.
During the next two legs on the Vema, from Buenos Aires to Dakar (West Africa) and Dakar to Halifax, we were to cross the Mid Atlantic Ridge in both the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic. Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp who had made physiographic diagrams of the ocean bottom had predicted that at the crest of the ridge in each ocean, there would be a rift. Just before we were to cross the South Atlantic Ridge crest Walter and I had made a wager. I said there would be a rift at the crest and a large magnetic anomaly. Walter did not think so. When we were at the ridge crest, there was no rift but there was a large magnetic anomaly. Each of us thought he had won the wager. Finally, we decided it was a draw.
While we were under way, we were carrying out a seismic experiment, which involved putting together a charge of a half pound block of TNT with a fuse, every three minutes and throwing it over the side. The charge sank and twenty seconds later it went off. On the ship we could hear a thud but it did no damage other than making it hard to sleep. The scientists on watch took turns to make the charge. One of the scientists, Chuck Hubbard thought that this was getting dull and we needed some excitement. He made a charge, put it in an open empty ammunition box and threw it over the side. The charge did not sink. It floated and went off with a huge bang. Most of us thought we had hit a mine. Walter, in a panic ran to the aft deck to see if his Maggie which was being towed had been damaged. He did not think much of the prank.
After 8 months on the Vema, Walter joined us at Lamont, as a graduate student. He began to speculate about a thesis topic and he and I considered several possibilities. The Sea Floor Spreading revolution was on and the entire magnetics group was lucky to have access to the treasure trove of data at Lamont. Walter was one of the first ones to make good use of it. He was involved in all the historic papers that came out of Lamont on Sea Floor Spreading in all the oceans. This included the data collected on our two legs in 1962. The South Atlantic data was important in confirming the magnetic reversals time scale.
Walter and I worked together on our paper on the opening of the North Atlantic. We had a number of stumbles in the process but came up with the right answer in the end. I remember that there were no “apps” available and we had to write our own. Compounding reversals was a difficult task.
There were some funny moments in all of the Sea Floor Spreading history. We all remember the time Jim Heirtzler showed up in Worzel’s office with the Eltanin 19 profile. “Well, that knocks Sea Floor spreading into a cocked hat,”Worzel said, and Jim nodded assent.
Walter was an imaginative and versatile scientist. He will be missed.
Manik Talwani