Cox, Allan V.

Cox, Allan V. (Verne)

(1926–87) geophysicist; born in Santa Ana, Calif. He was a professor of geophysics at Stanford University (1967), then dean of their School of Earth Sciences (1979). His paleomagnetic research substantiated evidence of periodic reversals in the earth's magnetic field, confirmed plate tectonic theories of continental drift and sea floor spreading, and led to publication of a new geologic time scale (1982).