MacNeil, F. Stearns (1909-1983)

Abstract

[Extract] Darwin's 1842 model for atoll development provoked numerous alternative ideas including antecedent platforms, eustatic sea level oscillations, and integrated hypotheses. Japanese researchers were the first to consider that modern reefs are growing on limestone platforms exposed to sub-aerial weathering during lower sea level periods of the Pleistocene (Asano, 1942; Yabe, 1942; Tayama, 1952). Their papers, however, were largely ignored or dismissed (e.g., Umbgrove, 1947) until the ideas were redeveloped in the American literature. Initially Stearns (1946) believed that variations in sea level were major factors in producing the relief of atolls and in particular, internal unconformities where the reef limestone was eroded or exposed during low sea levels.