Staff Profile

MAURICE TIVEY

Preferred Name: Maurice Tivey

EMERITUS RESEARCH SCHOLAR

GEOLOGY & GEOPHYSICS

Email: mtivey@whoi.edu

Phone: 508 289 2265

Website: https://website.whoi.edu/deeptow/

Some Info Maurice A. Tivey is a Scientist Emeritus Scholar in the Department of Geology Geophysics of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a marine geophysicist with research interests that span all aspects of marine geophysics of the deep ocean with a focus on high-resolution magnetic measurements of the seafloor. Dr. Tivey has published over 100 papers in peer reviewed journals and has more than 160 abstracts and 20 other publications. Dr. Tivey has led and been involved in more than 50 research voyages and made more than 25 dives in deep-sea submersibles including Alvin, the French submersible Nautile, and Japan’s Shinkai 6500. He received a Bachelors of Science degree with Honors in Geology from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1979 and then a Master of Science degree in Geological Oceanography in 1981 from the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He joined Texaco Canada Resources in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1981 as a geophysicist working in the Frontier Arctic region but returned to graduate school in 1984 and earned a Ph.D. (1988) in Geological Oceanography from the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He joined Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as a Post Doctoral Scholar in 1988. He was appointed onto the scientific staff in 1990 and gained tenure in 1998. From 2004 to 2005, he was the Chief Scientist for Deep Submergence for the National Deep Submergence Facility that operates the ROV Jason, HOV Alvin and autonomous vehicles ABE and SENTRY. He is a past Chair of the Department of Geology and Geophysics (2008-2013) at WHOI. He completed a rotation at the National Science Foundation (2015-2018) as a Program Director in the Marine Geology and Geophysics Program of the Ocean Sciences Division (OCE) and then returned to NSF in a supervisory role as Section Head for the Marine Geoscience Section in OCE between 2021 until 2023. He retired from WHOI in 2023 and is now a Scientist Emeritus Scholar in the G&G Dept.

Research Statement

Primary Research Interests: Marine geophysics.  Analysis of marine magnetic anomalies, magnetization of ocean crust, fine-scale magnetic signals, rock magnetism, physical properties of ocean crust including heat flow, midocean ridge crest processes including the formation and evolution of ocean crust, hydrothermal systems and their geophysical signal.