"Magnetic Anomalies over Ocean Ridges" in the magazine Nature in 1963. From then on, rapid progress was made both in terms of acceptance of Hess's theory and of further verification. Subsequent surveys of other ocean ridges showed similar and correlatable anomalies in every case. Confirmation of the Earth's polarity reversals a few years later not only further validated the Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis but provided a timescale allowing the rate of spreading to be estimated for each section of ocean ridge. The contribution of Matthews and Vine proved to be an essential element in the development and acceptance of plate tectonics theory. In 1977 he won the Chree medal and prize. In 1982 Matthews became the first scientific director of the British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate (BIRPS), which had been established in 1981 to carry out deep seismic reflection profiling around the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. References 1931 births 1997 deaths 20th-century British geologists People educated at Bryanston School Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Wollaston Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society British geophysicists Marine geologists People educated at The Downs School, Herefordshire Tectonicists Marine geophysicists