Earth
and Space Sciences Faculty |
|
Ron
Merrill |
Areas of Interest:
Solid earth
geophysics
Research Group:
Geomagnetism
and Paleomagnetism
Other UW Academic Affiliations:
Adjunct Professor, Dept of Oceanography
Education:
Ph.D., Geophysics, University
of California, Berkeley, 1967
Background and Honors:
Ronald T. Merrill received his B.S. and M.S. in mathematics from the University
of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He received his Ph.D. in geophysics at the University
of California at Berkeley in 1967 and joined the Department of Oceanography
at the University of Washington in the same year. Currently he is a Professor
in Earth and Space Sciences and an adjunct Professor of Oceanography. He is
a past president of the Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Section of the American
geophysical Union (AGU), a fellow of the AGU and he received the John Adam Fleming
Medal of the AGU in 2002.
Current Research:
Merrill's interests are in geomagnetism
and paleomagnetism. In particular, his research activities are roughly divided
between rock magnetic studies and studies involving the history and origin of
Earth's magnetic field. The rock magnetic work involves theoretical studies
to determine the magnetic structures of minerals and the stability of those
structures with time. In short, it is an attempt to find out why paleomagnetism
works so well. In the magnetic field work Merrill and Australian colleagues
use global databases to examine assumptions used in paleomagnetism and to determine
what information can be obtained about the properties of, and processes acting
in, Earth's deep interior through the analysis of paleomagnetic data.
Selected Publications:
Merrill R. T., M. W. McElhinny
and P. L. McFadden, The Magnetic Field of the Earth: Paleomagnetism, the Core,
and the Deep Mantle pp 531, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 1996.
Newell, A. and R. T. Merrill, The curling nucleation mode in a ferromagnetic cube, J. Applied Physics, 84, 4394-4402, 1998.
Newell, A. and R. T. Merrill, Single-domain critical sizes for coercivity and remanence, J. Geophys. Res. 104, 617-628, 1999.
Merrill, R. T. and P. L . McFadden, Geomagnetic Polarity Transitions, Rev. of Geophys. 37, 201-226, 1999.
McFadden, P. L. and R. T. Merrill, Evolution of the geomagnetic reversal rate since 160 Ma: Is the process continuous? , J. Geophys. Res. 105, 28,455–28,460, 2000.
Merrill, R. T. and P. L. McFadden, Geomagnetism, in Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd edition, Ed. R. Meyer, Academic Press, 2002.
Heller,R., R.T. Merrill and P.L. McFadden, The variation of intensity of earth’s magnetic field with time, Phys. Earth Planet. Int. 131, 237-250, 2002.
Heller,R., R.T. Merrill
and P.L. McFadden, The two states of paleomagnetic field intensities for the
past 320 Myr, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., in press, 2003.
Last Modified:2/10/2003
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