earth science

Ruy Finch

Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch rather than just read about it. In short: Ruy Herbert Finch (August 30, 1890 – March 25, 1957) was an American volcanologist who served as second director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) from 1940 to 1951. Finch is known largely for his discovery of the 1790 Footprints, and for the formal addition of block lava to the lava classification types.

Key takeaways

Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ruy Finch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ruy Herbert Finch (August 30, 1890 – March 25, 1957) was an American volcanologist who served as second director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) from 1940 to 1951. Finch is known largely for his discovery of the 1790 Footprints, and for the formal addition of block lava to the lava classification types. In 1951, a group of scientists including Finch were named in the journal Science as "outstanding authorities in their respective fields".

Career Born in Sunbury, Finch was an Ohio native. He attended George Washington University and the University of Chicago before starting his professional career in 1910 by working as a seismologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau. The HVO was formed during his time with the Weather Bureau. In 1919, HVO was merged into the bureau; Finch moved to the island of Hawai‘i in 1923, and was present during the eruption of Kīlauea in 1924. In 1926, Finch moved to Mineral, California—from that time until 1935, he founded and directed a seismograph station near Lassen Peak, after which he was transferred to Hawaiʻi National Park. During his time at Hawaiʻi, he worked as a park guide, among other jobs. He became director of HVO in 1940, and served until 1951. During his time at the observatory, he worked with multiple other geologists of the time, most notably, T. A. Jaggar and Gordon Macdonald. After his tenure with the observatory, he retired and moved to an apple orchard in Watsonville, California with his family, where he died in 1957. While Thomas A. Jaggar was starting the observatory, he began a newsletter called The Volcano Letter, a publication on volcanology. When Jaggar retired in 1940 and Finch took over as director, he became editor of the Letter, which later went on to be reprinted by Richard S. Fiske, Tom Simkin, and Elizabeth A. Nielsen as editors—Simkin was also an author of the book Volcanoes of the World.

References

Further reading Macdonald, Gordon A. (1958). "Memorial to Ruy Herbert Finch (1890–1957)". Geological Society of America Proceedings for 1957: 117–121. OCLC 16339031. Kīlauea. "The May 1924 Explosive Eruption of Kīlauea". U.S. Geological Survey. Previously published as "The 1924 explosions of Kilauea". Archived at the Wayback Machine.

External links U.S. Geological Survey images associated with Finch:

Railroad tracks buckled at fault boundary at Kapoho, Hawai‘i Eight ton block ejected from Halema‘uma‘u during explosion at Kīlau... Spectators flee explosion from Halemaumau at Kīlauea, May 18, 1925 T.A. Jaggar's dog, Teddy, stands where an injured spectator was fou... Area Affected by Earthquakes at Kapoho, Hawai‘i, in Apr., 1925

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ruy Finch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch

In research: Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch 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: Ruy Finch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890 births, 1957 deaths, 20th-century American geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Ruy Finch in simple terms?

Why does Ruy Finch 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 Ruy Finch?

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 Ruy Finch.