Walter Alvarez

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Walter Alvarez is an American professor in the Earth and Planetary Science department at the University of California, Berkeley. Born on October 3, 1940, in San Diego, California, he comes from a family with notable scientific achievements.

Alvarez's father, Luis Álvarez, was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who shared his passion for science with his son. Walter graduated in Geology at Carleton College in Northfield (Minnesota) in 1962 and later obtained his doctorate in geology at Princeton University in 1967. His academic career began at the University of Berkeley in the mid-1970s, where he worked as an assistant to Geology from 1977 to 1979.

However, Alvarez's true passion lay in historical geology and archaeology. He left his job with American Overseas Petroleum Limited to move to Italy, where he conducted geological surveys on volcanic deposits north of Rome within the archaeological excavation campaigns of the British Academy in Rome between 1968-1971. This marked the beginning of a long-term research focus on tectonic problems of the Mediterranean area and the stratigraphic relief of pelagic sediments.

In collaboration with his father, Alvarez began studying the impact of meteorites on mass extinctions, particularly the extinction event that occurred about 65 million years ago at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The discovery of a positive anomaly in iridium concentration in rocks from Calabria was instrumental in this research. Iridium is a rare element on Earth but very common in meteorites.

The Alvarez's theory posits that an asteroid impact caused the extinction event, which led to significant changes in the geology of the region. The results of their studies were also important for understanding the geological history of the Reventino massif and its similarities with rocks from the Alps and Corsica.

Today, Walter Alvarez is a prominent figure in the Earth and Planetary Science department at UC Berkeley, continuing his father's legacy in scientific research and discovery.