astronomy

Harold Wellman

Harold Wellman is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harold Wellman rather than just read about it. In short: Harold William Wellman (25 March 1909 – 28 April 1999) was a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics. He is notable for his discovery of South Island's Alpine Fault.

Key takeaways

Harold Wellman belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harold Wellman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harold Wellman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harold William Wellman (25 March 1909 – 28 April 1999) was a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics. He is notable for his discovery of South Island's Alpine Fault. Wellman became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1954, and was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1957 and the McKay Hammer Award in 1959.

Life and career

Harold Wellman was born in Devonport, England, to Evan Edward Wellman, an engineer in the Royal Navy, and May Kinglake Hoare. In 1927, his father was deployed at Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand for three years and the family moved to New Zealand. Harold Wellman first worked as a surveyor, but was soon forced to become a gold prospector on the West Coast due to the lack of work available during the depression. In the mid-1930s, Wellman began his geological study while working in mineral exploration for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. He initially studied at Canterbury University, later moving to Victoria University where he completed his Bachelor of Science (1939) and Master of Science (1941). That same year he married Joan Evelyn Butler in Dunedin, with whom he had three children. Between 1952 and 1958, he worked for the New Zealand Geological Survey based in Wellington. During this time he received major awards for his research, gaining a fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1954, an honorary Doctor of Sciences from the University of New Zealand in 1956 and he was awarded the Royal Society's Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1957. He later joined the Department of Geology at Victoria University, becoming chair in 1970 and an emeritus professor in 1975.

Works and discoveries During his career Harold Wellman published on a wide variety of geological topics, however, he was most influential in discovering the Alpine Fault and its importance to New Zealand's geology. In 1940 Harold Wellman first identified that the Southern Alps was related to a fault line which ran for approximately 650 km (400 miles). The fault was officially named the Alpine Fault in 1942. At the same time, Harold Wellman proposed the 480 km (300 miles) lateral displacement on the Alpine Fault. This displacement was inferred by Harold Wellman due in part to the similarity of rocks in Southland and Nelson on either side of the Alpine Fault. Lateral displacements of this magnitude could not be explained by pre-plate tectonics geology and his ideas were not initially widely accepted until 1956. Wellman also proposed in 1964 that the Alpine Fault was a Cenozoic structure, which was in conflict with the older Mesozoic age accepted at the time. This idea coupled with the displacement on the fault proposed that the Earth's surface was in relatively rapid constant movement and helped to overthrow the old geosynclinal hypothesis in favour of plate tectonics.

References

Further reading Nathan, S (2005). Harold Wellman: a man who moved New Zealand Wellington, 2005.

External links 1966 encyclopedia entry on Harold Wellman BBC Horizon "The Man Who Moved the Mountains" (13 April 1992) Professor Harold Wellman's theodolite at Tepapa Museum}

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harold Wellman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harold Wellman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harold Wellman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harold Wellman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harold Wellman

In research: Harold Wellman appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harold Wellman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harold Wellman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1909 births, 1999 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harold Wellman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harold Wellman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harold Wellman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harold Wellman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harold Wellman in simple terms?

Harold William Wellman (25 March 1909 – 28 April 1999) was a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics. He is notable for his discovery of South Island's Alpine Fault.

Why does Harold Wellman matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harold Wellman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harold Wellman.