Australian geologist (1914–2006)
Rhodes Whitmore Fairbridge (21 May 1914 – 8 November 2006) was an Australian geologist and expert on climate change . His father was Kingsley Fairbridge .[ 1]
Born in Pinjarra, Western Australia , Fairbridge graduated from Queen's University in Ontario and earned his master's degree from Oxford . In 1941, he earned a doctorate in geology from the University of Western Australia .
He taught at Columbia University from 1955 until his 1982 retirement. While there, he was supervising editor for the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences . In the early 1960s, he developed the so-called "Fairbridge Curve",[ 2] [ 3] a record of changes in sea levels over the last 10,000 years.[ 4] In the 1980s Fairbridge wrote about climate's impact on the long-term evolution of shields and peneplains .[ 5] [ 6]
Fairbridge died in 2006 in Amagansett, New York of a brain tumor .[ 7] [ 8]
Works
The Encyclopedia of Oceanography – edited (Reinhold Pub. Co., 1966)
The Encyclopedia of Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences – edited (Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1967)
The Encyclopedia of Geomorphology – edited (Reinhold Book Corp., c1968)
Climate : History, Periodicity, and Predictability (Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1987)
The Encyclopedia of Climatology – edited with John E. Oliver (Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1987)
The Physiographic Regions of Australia – co-written with J. Gentilli (University of Western Australia, 19--)
Damuth, John E.; Fairbridge, Rhodes W. (1970). "Equatorial Atlantic Deep-Sea Arkosic Sands and Ice-Age Aridity in Tropical South America". Geological Society of America Bulletin . 81 (1): 189. Bibcode :1970GSAB...81..189D . doi :10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[189:EADASA]2.0.CO;2 . ISSN 0016-7606 .
Fairbridge, Rhodes W. (July 1950). "Recent and Pleistocene Coral Reefs of Australia". The Journal of Geology . 58 (4): 330– 401. Bibcode :1950JG.....58..330F . doi :10.1086/625751 . JSTOR 30070464 . S2CID 129361767 .
References
^ Mackey, Richard. "Rhodes Fairbridge and the idea that the solar system regulates the Earth's climate" (PDF) . Journal of Coastal Research . SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium): 955– 968. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2008.
^ "Fairbridge sealevel curve" . unc.edu. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017.
^ 15 October 2003 Classification of Coasts. Journal of Coastal Research pp. 155–165
^ The "Solar Jerk", The King-Hele Cycle, and the Challenge to Climate Science
^ Fairbridge, Rhodes W.; Finkl, Charles W. Jr. (1980). "Cratonic erosion unconformities and peneplains". The Journal of Geology . 88 (1): 69– 86. Bibcode :1980JG.....88...69F . doi :10.1086/628474 . S2CID 129231129 .
^ Fairbridge, Rhodes W. (1988). "Cyclical patterns of exposure, weathering and burial of cratonic surfaces, with some examples from North America and Australia". Geografiska Annaler . 70 A (4): 277– 283. doi :10.1080/04353676.1988.11880257 .
^ Pearce, Jeremy (27 November 2006). "Rhodes W. Fairbridge, 92, Early Expert on Climate Change, Dies" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 29 March 2025 .
^ "Earth scientist's early climate change indicator lives on" . The Sydney Morning Herald . 6 January 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2025 .
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