Hi Mark. I started studying earthquakes many years ago. There were numerous interruptions because of various jobs with the military.

After I retired and took a job with a very large international company and while still doing odd jobs for the military I got the chance to sit down and really start looking at earthquakes. Most of my study was by the way of the library, but while doing some odd jobs I had the chance to use a computer.

Back in the mid 60s I was hearing something about plates, but had no idea as to what they were. The use of the computer in the early 70s finely gave me the answer as to what they were. Up until then I knew a little about the theory. I had no idea that it had been proven.

This all began in 1965 when Tuzo Wilson introduced the term “plate” for the broken pieces of the Earth's lithosphere. In 1967, Jason Morgan proposed that the Earth's surface consists of 12 rigid plates that move relative to each other. Two months later, Xavier Le Pichon published a paper showing the location and type of plate boundaries and their direction of movement. What a noise that made.

Since the mid-1960s, the plate tectonic model has been rigorously tested. Because the model has been successfully tested by numerous methods, it is now called the “plate tectonic theory” and is accepted by almost all geologists.

No I haven’t written any books about earthquakes. To be truthful I wouldn’t know where to start, or even how. It’s strange that you should ask though, as you are about 5th or 6th person to ask me that. One person even told me that I should write one.

I haven’t many years left and I hate to start something that I may not be able to finish. Anyway I’m having to much fun doing what I’m doing now, which is just about anything I want to. I just have to remember not to do anything that is illegal, immoral or indecent and I’ll have it made. Take Care…Don, the old man in creepy town.