Vening Meinesz, Felix Andries (1887-1966)

Dutch geophysicist who originated the method of making very precise gravity measurements in the stable environment of a submarine. The results he obtained were important in the fields of geophysics and geodesy. He was able to discount the model of the Earth's shape that proposed a flattening at the equator. Vening Meinesz was born in The Hague and studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Delft. Employed by the government to take part in a gravimetric survey of the Netherlands, he took measurements at over 50 sites. He was professor at Utrecht 1927-57 and also at Delft 1938-57. Between 1923 and 1939 he undertook 11 scientific expeditions in submarines. Vening Meinesz realized that measurements of the Earth's gravitational field could yield indications of the internal features of the Earth. He developed a device requiring the measurement of the mean periods of two pendulums that swing from the same apparatus. The mean of the two periods is not affected by disturbances in the horizontal plane, and so can be used to determine the local gravitational force accurately. Underwater studies led to the discovery of low-gravity belts in the Indonesian archipelago. Vening Meinesz proposed that these were the result of a downward buckling of the crust causing light sediments to fill the resulting depressions. This is the origin of the concept of the syncline.