Dr. Pierre St. Amand

This is the story of Dr. Pierre St. Amand, an American scientist, as told by himself and his elder son Gene. Born into an Alaskan pioneer family, Pierre spent his childhood years in a remote trading post on the Yukon River. It is about how a man of such humble origins became an internationally renowned geophysicist who made significant contributions in a range of earth science-related fields. Pierre grew into adulthood in Fairbanks, Alaska during the Great Depression, where he and his brother Loren hunted to feed their family and prospected for gold with their father during the summers. As a child, Pierre displayed an innate curiosity about the physical world and the processes underlying it, which evolved over time into a passion for scientific study and research. After serving in the US Army Air Force and helping to establish the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Pierre was accepted for PhD studies at the California Institute of Technology. While a graduate student he received national attention for identifying the fault responsible for the 1952 Tehachapi Earthquake, one of several major faults he identified during his career, including the Denali Fault in Alaska and Atacama Fault in Chile. Several years later, while a Fulbright Research Scholar in France, he was first to state the theory that the Pacific Basin is rotating in a counter-clockwise direction—a theory that was quite controversial at the time but is now widely accepted. While helping to establish a School of Geology in Santiago, he reported firsthand on the Chilean Earthquake of 1960 (the largest quake ever measured at that time) and later led an investigation of the 1964 Alaskan Earthquake. He was a strong advocate for earthquake proof construction and disaster preparedness and brought national attention to seismic issues in the siting of nuclear power plants. As a civilian scientist working for the Navy at China Lake, California Pierre and his group pioneered the development of modern weather modification science, including rain making, hail suppression, and fog dispersal. He partnered with the US Weather Bureau in the first ever attempts to lessen the destructive force of hurricanes, and led diplomatic-scientific missions abroad to help relieve droughts in India, the Philippines, Okinawa, and the Azores. Pierre also led Project Popeye in Vietnam training military pilots in cloud seeding methods to hamper enemy troop movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. His other work for the Navy included atmospheric studies, design of deep sea submersibles, research into porpoise language and behavior, tracking of the nation's first satellite (NOTSNIK), and explosion seismology. Pierre St. Amand was a remarkable man who lived a long and productive life, driven by his passion for scientific discovery in service to his country and humankind. This book is a record of his diverse contributions, many of which readers will find to be of general or particular historical interest.