“ I ’ m probably the person who ’ s been closest to an H-bomb and is still alive ...”
MUNK
MEMORIES
However , Munk ’ s discoveries would serve a far more serious and historic purpose . During WWII , after a stint in the U . S . Army Ski Battalion , he was dispatched to South Carolina to explore the issue of detecting German submarines . Yet Munk noticed something else as he stood on the shore watching troops training on amphibious landing vehicles : they were being battered by waves as they approached the beach . Munk , then an unknown doctoral student , called his well-respected mentor , Sverdrup , who flew out immediately . With the Navy gearing up for an on-shore invasion of Northwest Africa , Munk and Sverdrup were charged with finding a method to predict waves .
Munk pored over three years ’ worth of archived weather maps from Pan Am Airways , searching for patterns and determining how waves were affected by storms both near and far . The Sverdrup / Munk theory proved so accurate that the men were authorized to establish a school at Scripps for meteorological officers from both the Army and the Navy , graduating 100 students as part of the war effort . Some of those former students would play a crucial role in the D-Day landings in Normandy , which helped usher in the end of the war .
“ For me , that was the beginning of a long collaboration with the Navy ,” says Munk , who even today remains the Secretary of the Navy / Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair at Scripps and still holds a top security clearance . “ I ’ ve flunked retirement ,” he says with a chuckle . “ I like to work .”
Munk ’ s work earned him a PhD in 1947 , and soon he was off on his next adventure . In the early ’ 50s , he consulted for the Navy again , this time on a series of nuclear tests in the American Pacific . Munk was there for the granddaddy of all blasts , which took place in 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands . The military ’ s new hydrogen bomb was estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic weapons that had ended the war . Munk worried that the H-bomb would trigger underwater landslides , leading to a tsunami , flooding low-lying areas of nearby islands and potentially killing thousands .
“ We invented a warning test ,” explains Munk . He and his team from Scripps set up a buoy system with lines that ran from the seafloor to surface platforms . Pressure on the buoy lines would indicate a tsunami . Munk watched the test explosion floating on a 5 ’ x5 ’ raft about five miles away from the blast . No tsunami followed , but the principles of his warning system are still in use today .
“ I ’ m probably the person who ’ s been closest to an H-bomb and is still alive ,” recalls Munk , who was soaked by radioactive rain . “ Back on the ship , a safety officer tested us . The Geiger counter was off the charts . People still ask me if I was irradiated . I say no , I haven ’ t been affected . Been affected . Been affected . Been affected .” Munk chuckles at his well-polished joke , as does everyone on the patio , rapt by his story .
Soon after , on one of many expeditions with Revelle in the deep Pacific , Munk was part of the first oceanographic team to scuba dive in the field , part of a multifaceted approach to research .
Professors like Walter Munk change the lives of those who go on to make the legacy of impact Tritons are known for . Munk ’ s centennial brought forth an outpouring of memories ( and even a poem ).
Walter was on my thesis committee and not only brilliant but always the consummate gentleman . He is a great role model for one to aspire to emulate .
MARK BAKER , PHD ’ 85
My 5th grade science teacher showed our class the film Waves Across the Pacific . I decided right then and there I wanted to go to Scripps , study oceanography and meet Walter Munk . I did that and years later ended up talking with Walter about a different aspect of that project . So , at age about 45 , I finally understood what Walter and friends had introduced me to and what had so intrigued me at age 10 .
DIANE HENDERSON , PHD ’ 90
Dr . Munk was the one member of my thesis committee who most demonstrated that individuals could impact the world at large . He welcomed me into his home more than once and inspired me to dig deeper into things that interested me at the time and later in my career .
JOE PRESLEY JR ., MS ’ 77 , PHD ’ 86
On the dark face of the ocean
( I do not palter ) Four million millennia of night Have ceased with eight decades of light
Shone by Walter ( And Newton ’ s Laws of Motion )
MARK WIMBUSH , PHD ’ 69
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