Hubbert, M. King (earth scientist)

 
(1903-1989) American Geophysicist

In its classical form, Earth science is largely descriptive in nature. But it is also a composite science, drawing upon methods of other sciences to explain phenomena of the Earth. The integration of ideas from quantitative fields into geology caused a major revolution in each of the geologic disciplines as it was realized. M. King Hubbert was one of the true pioneers of this integration. He had training in physics and mathematics, but a strong interest in rock mechanics as well. FRANCIS J. PETTIJOHN called him “a student of nobody” even while he was a graduate student. Nobody had the knowledge that he was after. His first assault on the science was a 1937 paper entitled “Theory of Scale as Applied to the Study of Geologic Structures,” in which he used dimensional analysis and continuum mechanics to scale-model geologic structures. He derived scaling laws to model familiar geologic systems based upon the length, mass, and time constants of the systems. The work was considered controversial and raised a stir in the profession. He later applied this work to all of Earth in a paper entitled “The Strength of the Earth,” which would later form the basis for deriving more quantitative plate tectonic models.

In his second major assault, M. King Hubbert addressed the process of fluid flow. He verified Darcy’s law of flow through experimentation and then derived field equations for the movement of fluids through the permeable media of the Earth’s crust in his paper, “Theory of Groundwater Motion.” He introduced gravity as the major controlling factor, but showed that fluids did not necessarily flow from higher to lower pressure. This work caused the previously feuding hydroge-ologists and petroleum geologists to join forces against him because it made all of their work obsolete. But Hubbert prevailed and later applied this work to the migration and subsequent entrapment of oil and gas. He modeled the interactions of fluids with unlike densities in a dynamic continuum which produced several counterintuitive outcomes, at least with regard to accepted ideas. It altered the course of petroleum exploration.

King Hubbert (front left) with colleagues on a resistivity survey in Franklin County, Alabama

King Hubbert (front left) with colleagues on a resistivity survey in Franklin County, Alabama

Hubbert took this fluid research and applied it to rock mechanics. He showed that increased fluid pressure would decrease the strength of rock, ultimately causing fracturing in unexpected orientations. This work was directly applied to oil exploration by pumping fluids under high pressure into oil wells to cause the rock around the well to fracture, thus increasing permeability. But it was also applied to problems of overthrusting, which occurs at angles that were previously unexplain-able. He was involved with the classic “beer can experiment” in which a warming empty beer can scoots along a virtually flat piece of glass on a cushion of air. Thrust sheets were shown to move in the same manner but on a cushion of fluid in a classic Hubbert paper.

M. King Hubbert was born on October 5, 1903, in San Saba County, Texas, where he grew up on a farm. He attended Weatherford College, a nearby two-year school from 1921 to 1923. He enrolled at University of Chicago, Illinois, but had to perform grueling work as a wheat harvester and to replace track for Union Pacific just to obtain travel money. He finally arrived at the University of Chicago in 1924 and earned a bachelor of science degree in geology and physics with a minor in mathematics in 1926. He remained at the University of Chicago for graduate studies and earned a master of science degree in 1928 and a Ph.D. in 1937 in geophysics. Hubbert worked over the summers from 1926 to 1928 as an exploration geologist for the Amarada Petroleum Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He became an instructor at Columbia University, New York, in 1931 while working summers for the Illinois Geological Survey. He met and married Miriam Graddy Berry in 1938. He left Columbia University in 1940 to write and conduct his own research. In 1942, Hubbert joined the World War II effort as a senior analyst for the Board of Economic Warfare in Washington, D.C. He joined Shell Oil Company in 1943 as a geophysicist and held various positions. He retired from Shell Oil Co. in 1963 to assume concurrent positions as a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, D.C., as well as a member of the faculty at Stanford University, California. In 1968, Hubbert retired to professor emeritus from Stanford University. After his second retirement, he was a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins University in 1968, and a regents professor at the University of California at Berkeley in 1973. In 1976, Hubbert retired for a third and final time from his position at the U.S. Geological Survey. M. King Hubbert died in his sleep of an embolism on October 11, 1989.

M. King Hubbert’s busy career can be measured in many ways. His written contributions spanned governmental reports, industrial reports, nearly 100 articles in scientific journals and professional volumes and presentations. The subjects he addressed were just as varied, ranging from petroleum exploration to geophysical techniques to rock mechanics, among others. They were typically innovative and nontraditional, and therefore pioneering. He also wrote a popular textbook, Structural Geology. In recognition of his contributions to the science, numerous honors and awards were bestowed upon him. Hubbert was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Syracuse University, New York, and Indiana State University. He received both the Arthur L. Day Medal and the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America, the William Smith Medal from the Geological Society of London, the Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, the Rockefeller Public Service Award from Princeton University, the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers and the Vetlesen Prize from the Vetlesen Foundation at Columbia University.

In terms of professional and public service, Hubbert was equally notable. He served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1962, among many other committees and panels. He served on numerous committees and panels for the National Research Council, the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, U.S. delegations to the United Nations, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In terms of editorial work, he was editor of Geophysics and associate editor of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin and the Journal of Geology.

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