earth science

Ron G. Mason

Ron G. Mason is a earth science 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 Ron G. Mason rather than just read about it. In short: Ronald George Mason (Winsor, Hampshire, England, 24 December 1916 – London, 16 July 2009) was one of the oceanographers whose pioneering Cold War geomagnetic survey work lead to the discovery of magnetic striping on the seafloor. First discovering magnetic stripes on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the United States West Coast, he later also identified them around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ronald George Mason (Winsor, Hampshire, England, 24 December 1916 – London, 16 July 2009) was one of the oceanographers whose pioneering Cold War geomagnetic survey work lead to the discovery of magnetic striping on the seafloor. First discovering magnetic stripes on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the United States West Coast, he later also identified them around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Career Mason received his doctorate in geophysics at Imperial College, London, in 1947. In 1955, while on sabbatical at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, Mason secured permission to embark and tow the ASQ-3A fluxgate magnetometer, developed by Victor Vacquier of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, behind the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey's survey ship USC&GS Pioneer (OSS 31) while she participated in a joint survey effort with the U.S. Navy. Scripps was cooperating in order to map any magnetic anomalies the magnetometer detected on the seafloor. During the summer of 1955, Mason arranged to have the ASQ-3A – originally designed for use aboard aircraft – housed in a non-magnetic, fishlike container, making it the first marine magnetometer. In August 1955, Pioneer conducted a survey in the Pacific Ocean along the United States West Coast from Point Conception, California, to Cape Flattery, Washington, with Mason aboard and the ASQ-3A trailing in her wake in its container. Within hours, Mason detected an unmistakable pattern of north-south magnetic "stripes" in the seafloor rocks; as Pioneer's cruise continued, Mason continued to observe this pattern throughout the survey area. Mason's work aboard Pioneer with the fluxgate magnetometer thus revealed "magnetic striping" on the floor of the Pacific, the first time it had been noted anywhere. The magnetic data he collected from the ocean crust later was interpreted as containing field reversals that were used by Canadian geophysicist Lawrence Morley to prove seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. Mason was appointed to the Chair of Pure Geophysics at Imperial College in 1967 and became head of the college's Geophysics Department in 1977. During the 1980s, he pioneered extremely accurate techniques for measuring the Earth's crust which further confirmed plate tectonic movements.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ron G. Mason

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ron G. Mason claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, 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 Ron G. Mason 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 Ron G. Mason 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 Ron G. Mason

In research: Ron G. Mason appears in earth science 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 Ron G. Mason 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: Ron G. Mason is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1916 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century British physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ron G. Mason 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 Ron G. Mason in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ron G. Mason 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 Ron G. Mason out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ron G. Mason in simple terms?

Why does Ron G. Mason matter?

Because it connects several earth science 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 Ron G. Mason?

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 Ron G. Mason.