Val Worthington
Born
Lawrence Valentine Worthington

(1920-03-06)March 6, 1920
Chelsea, London, England
DiedFebruary 10, 1995(1995-02-10) (aged 74)
Abacos, Bahamas
CitizenshipUnited States of America, United Kingdom
Alma materPrinceton University (1938–1941)
SpouseRuth Worthington (née McGuinness)
Children1 daughter Jill Worthington, 1 son Lawrence Worthington
Scientific career
Fieldsphysical oceanography
InstitutionsWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

Lawrence Valentine Worthington (March 6, 1920 – February 10, 1995), better known as Val Worthington was a British-American physical oceanographer. His most noted contributions are the discovery of mode water which he called 18° water, first published in a research journal in May 1959,[1] and confirming the existence of as well as producing the first recording of the sound of the sperm whale[2]

Early life

Worthington was born on March 6, 1920, in Chelsea, London, England. He attended and graduated from Westminster School in 1938. He came to the United States that year and enrolled at Princeton University, which he attended from 1938 to 1941.

Career

In 1941 Worthington’s career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution began when he joined the staff as a bathythermograph technician. He took a military leave in 1943 to serve in the U.S. Navy and returned to WHOI in 1946 as a hydrographic technician working to describe Gulf Stream meanders and ring formation.[3] In 1950 he was appointed a physical oceanographer and in 1951 was named a research associate. Worthington was appointed a senior scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department in 1963, and served as department chairman from 1974 to 1981. He retired in 1982 and was named a scientist emeritus that year.

Research

Worthington conducted his research out at sea on various vessels such as RV Atlantis II, DSV Alvin and RRS Discovery II. Worthington’s research interests included Atlantic circulation, deep water circulation, the Caribbean Sea, the Kuroshio Current and water mass formation. His research attributions include disproval of the existence of the American Scout seamount,[4] measurements of deep currents in the western North Atlantic,[5] oceanographic measurements of the Caribbean Sea,[6] measurements of vertical water movement in the Cayman Basin,[7] confirming the existence of deep currents in the Labrador Sea,[8] confirming the existence of large cyclonic rings from the northeast Sargasso Sea,[9] a census of Gulf Stream rings,[10] and a census on the water masses of the world ocean.[11]

Later life and legacy

After Worthington’s retirement in 1982 colleagues at WHOI wrote a tribute to him entitled “Kanpū Soka: Cold Wind Two Gyres” a rough english translation for a nickname given to Worthington by colleagues Hideo Kawai and Susumu Honjo based on his controversial North Atlantic gyre theory. The 860 page collection’s publication was paid for by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.[12]

Soon after his retirement a species of copepod, small crustaceans on which fish feed, was named in honor of Worthington. Paracandacia worthingtoni, found at that time only in the South Pacific, was described by biologist George Grice in the Bulletin of the Plankton Society of Japan in 1981.[13] The classification was changed to follow the accepted genus and therefore became Candacia worthingtoni[14]

Worthington died on February 10, 1995, in the Abaco, Bahamas at the age of 74.[15]

References

  1. ^ Worthington, L.V. (May 1959). "The 18 water in the Sargasso Sea". Deep-Sea Research. 2 (2–4): 297–305. doi:10.1016/0146-6313(58)90026-1.
  2. ^ Worthington, L. V.; Schevill, William E. (1957-08-01). "Underwater Sounds heard from Sperm Whales". Nature. 180 (4580): 291. Bibcode:1957Natur.180..291W. doi:10.1038/180291a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4173897.
  3. ^ Fuglister, F. C.; Worthington, L. V. (1951-01-01). "Some Results of a Multiple Ship Survey of the Gulf Stream". Tellus. 3 (1): 1–14. doi:10.3402/tellusa.v3i1.8614. ISSN 0040-2826.
  4. ^ Backus, Richard H.; Worthington, L.V. (August 1965). "On the existence of the Seamont known as "American Scout"". Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts. 12 (4): 457–IN6. doi:10.1016/0011-7471(65)90399-2. ISSN 0011-7471.
  5. ^ SWALLOW, J. C.; WORTHINGTON, L. V. (June 1957). "Measurements of Deep Currents in the Western North Atlantic". Nature. 179 (4571): 1183–1184. doi:10.1038/1791183b0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4207059.
  6. ^ Worthington, L.V. (August 1966). "Recent oceanographic measurements in the Caribbean Sea". Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts. 13 (4): 731–739. doi:10.1016/0011-7471(66)90603-6. ISSN 0011-7471.
  7. ^ Webb, D.C.; Worthington, L.V. (October 1968). "Measurements of vertical water movement in the Cayman Basin". Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts. 15 (5): 609–612. doi:10.1016/0011-7471(68)90066-1. ISSN 0011-7471.
  8. ^ Swallow, J.C.; Worthington, L.V. (February 1969). "Deep currents in the Labrador Sea". Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts. 16 (1): 77–84. doi:10.1016/0011-7471(69)90052-7. ISSN 0011-7471.
  9. ^ McCartney, Michael S.; Worthington, L. Valentine; Schmitz, William J. (1978). Large cyclonic rings from the northeast Sargasso Sea. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. doi:10.1575/1912/10632.
  10. ^ Richardson, P. L.; Cheney, R. E.; Worthington, L. V. (1978). "A census of Gulf Stream rings, spring 1975". Journal of Geophysical Research. 83 (C12): 6136. doi:10.1029/jc083ic12p06136. hdl:1912/10394. ISSN 0148-0227.
  11. ^ Worthington, L.V. (1981). The water masses of the world ocean: some results of a fine-scale census, in Evolution of Physical Oceanography, Scientific Surveys in Honor of Henry Stommel, Bruce A. Warren and Carl Wunsch, eds. Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press. pp. 42–69.
  12. ^ Kanpū Soka: Cold Wind-Two Gyres : a Tribute to Val Worthington. Printed in U.S.A. for the Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale University [by] Van Dyck Print. Company. 1982.
  13. ^ Grice, G. D. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst (USA)) (1981). "Paracandacia worthingtoni, a new species of calanoid copepoda from the Pacific Ocean". Bulletin of Plankton Society of Japan (Japan). ISSN 0387-8961.
  14. ^ "WoRMS – World Register of Marine Species – Candacia worthingtoni (Grice, 1981)". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
  15. ^ "Valentine Worthington". www.whoi.edu/. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
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