Lawrence Valentine Worthington (March 6, 1920 – February 10, 1995), better known as Val Worthington was a British-American physical

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...

. His most noted contributions are the discovery of

mode water Mode water is defined as a particular type of water mass, which is nearly vertically homogeneous. Its vertical homogeneity is caused by the deep vertical convection in winter. The first term to describe this phenomenon is ''18° water'', which wa ...

which he called ''18° water'', first published in a research journal in May 1959, and confirming the existence of as well as producing the first recording of the sound of the

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

Early life

Worthington was born on March 6, 1920, in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, London, England. He attended and graduated from

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

in 1938. He came to the United States that year and enrolled at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, which he attended from 1938 to 1941.

Career

In 1941 Worthington’s career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution began when he joined the staff as a

bathythermograph The bathythermograph, or BT, also known as the Mechanical Bathythermograph, or MBT; is a device that holds a temperature sensor and a transducer to detect changes in water temperature versus depth down to a depth of approximately 285 meters (9 ...

technician. He took a military leave in 1943 to serve in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

and returned to WHOI in 1946 as a hydrographic technician working to describe

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Current, North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida a ...

meanders and ring formation. In 1950 he was appointed a physical oceanographer and in 1951 was named a research associate. Worthington was appointed a senior scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department in 1963, and served as department chairman from 1974 to 1981. He retired in 1982 and was named a scientist emeritus that year.

Research

Worthington conducted his research out at sea on various vessels such as ,

DSV Alvin ''Alvin'' (DSV-2) is a crewed deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Grou ...

and . Worthington’s research interests included Atlantic circulation, deep water circulation, the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

and

water mass An oceanographic water mass is an identifiable body of water with a common formation history which has physical properties distinct from surrounding water. Properties include temperature, salinity, chemical - isotopic ratios, and other physical ...

formation. His research attributions include disproval of the existence of the American Scout seamount, measurements of deep currents in the western North Atlantic, oceanographic measurements of the Caribbean Sea, measurements of vertical water movement in the Cayman Basin, confirming the existence of deep currents in the

Labrador Sea The Labrador Sea (French: ''mer du Labrador'', Danish: ''Labradorhavet'') is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelf, continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, ...

, confirming the existence of large cyclonic rings from the northeast

Sargasso Sea The Sargasso Sea () is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it has no land boundaries. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its charac ...

, a census of Gulf Stream rings, and a census on the water masses of the

world ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the worl ...

Later life and legacy

After Worthington’s retirement in 1982 colleagues at WHOI wrote a tribute to him entitled ''“Cold Wind Two Gyres”'' a rough english translation for a nickname given to Worthington by colleagues Hideo Kawai and Susumu Honjo based on his controversial North Atlantic gyre theory. The 41 page collection’s publication was paid for by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, the

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

, and by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Soon after his retirement a species of

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

, small crustaceans on which fish feed, was named in honor of Worthington. ''Paracandacia worthingtoni'', found at that time only in the South Pacific, was described by biologist George Grice in the Bulletin of the Plankton Society of Japan in 1981. The classification was changed to follow the accepted genus and therefore became '' Candacia worthingtoni'' Worthington passed away on February 10, 1995, in the Abaco, Bahamas at the age of 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worthington, Valentine British oceanographers 1920 births 1995 deaths People from Chelsea, London Sperm whales People educated at Westminster School, London Princeton University alumni Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Physical oceanographers British emigrants to the United States