World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Earth Science

D-Index
59
Citations
16284
World Ranking
1985
National Ranking
862

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2002 - Penrose Medal, The Geological Society of America
  • 1993 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1991 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 1989 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • 1983 - Fellow of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • Fellow of the Geological Society of America
  • Fellow of the Geological Society of America

Overview

Walter Alvarez is affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley in the United States. Their research primarily focuses on Earth and Planetary Sciences, with a particular emphasis across several specialized subfields including Geophysics, Mechanics of Materials, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Oceanography, and Atmospheric Science.

The scientist's work covers a variety of main topics such as earthquake and tectonic studies, rock mechanics and modeling, geological and geochemical analysis, marine and environmental studies, geology and paleoclimatology research, transboundary water resource management, and geophysical methods and applications.

Recent publications demonstrate the scope of their research interests and collaborations. Notable papers include:

  • "MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY OF THE SCAGLIA ROSSA: IMPLICATIONS FOR SYNDEPOSITIONAL TECTONICS OF THE UMBRIA-MARCHE BASIN" (2020), RIVISTA ITALIANA DI PALEONTOLOGIA E STRATIGRAFIA
  • "An enormous Pliocene or Quaternary Megalake Sudd on the River Nile in the Sudan Basin? A review of the dilemma, and a possible solution" (2023), Journal of African Earth Sciences
  • "Natural explosion structures in rocks" (2023), Journal of Structural Geology
  • "Table of Contents and Masthead" (2020), AMWA Journal
  • "Chemistry of sediment-dispersed chrome spinel grains from the Early Cretaceous (Albian/Aptian) Calera Limestone, Pacifica Quarry, California" (2020), Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data (PANGAEA) (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research)

Frequent co-authors working with Walter Alvarez include Lung S. Chan, Ellinor Martin, Birger Schmitz, Fredrik Terfelt, and Luís Erick Aguirre-Palafox. Collaborative efforts have contributed to diverse research venues such as:

  • Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America
  • Journal of African Earth Sciences
  • Journal of Structural Geology
  • RIVISTA ITALIANA DI PALEONTOLOGIA E STRATIGRAFIA
  • AMWA Journal

Walter Alvarez has received several recognitions from prominent organizations over the years. These include being named Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 1989, Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1983, and Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1991. Further distinctions include Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993, Fellowship of the Geological Society of America, and the Penrose Medal awarded by The Geological Society of America in 2002.

Best Publications

  • Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction

    Luis W. Alvarez;Walter Alvarez;Frank Asaro;Helen V. Michel

  • Fragmentation of the Alpine orogenic belt by microplate dispersal

    Walter Alvarez;Tommaso Cocozza;Forese C. Wezel

  • T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

    Walter Alvarez

  • Coeval 40Ar/39Ar Ages of 65.0 Million Years Ago from Chicxulub Crater Melt Rock and Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Tektites.

    Carl C. Swisher;José M. Grajales-Nishimura;Alessandro Montanari;Stanley V. Margolis

  • Comet showers as a cause of mass extinctions

    Piet Hut;Walter Alvarez;William P. Elder;Thor Hansen

  • Rotation of the Corsica–Sardinia Microplate

    Walter Alvarez

  • One hundred million years of geomagnetic polarity history

    William Lowrie;Walter Alvarez

  • Upper Cretaceous–Paleocene magnetic stratigraphy at Gubbio, Italy V. Type section for the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene geomagnetic reversal time scale

    Walter Alvarez;Michael A. Arthur;Alfred G. Fischer;William Lowrie

  • Tektite-bearing, deep-water clastic unit at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in northeastern Mexico.

    Jan Smit;Alessandro Montanari;Nicola H.M. Swinburne;Walter Alvarez

  • Coarse-grained, clastic sandstone complex at the K/T boundary around the Gulf of Mexico: Deposition by tsunami waves induced by the Chicxulub impact?

    J. Smit;T. B. Roep;W. Alvarez;A. Montanari

  • Evidence from crater ages for periodic impacts on the Earth

    Walter Alvarez;Richard A. Muller

  • Paleogene magnetic stratigraphy in Umbrian pelagic carbonate rocks: The Contessa sections, Gubbio

    William Lowrie;Walter Alvarez;Giovanni Napoleone;Katharina Perch-Nielsen

  • Classification of solution cleavage in pelagic limestones

    Walter Alvarez;Terry Engelder;Peter A. Geiser

  • Spheroids at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary are altered impact droplets of basaltic composition

    Alessandro Montanari;Richard L. Hay;Walter Alvarez;Frank Asaro

  • Distribution of Chicxulub ejecta at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary

    Philippe Claeys;Wolfgang Kiessling;Walter Alvarez

  • Impact Theory of Mass Extinctions and the Invertebrate Fossil Record

    Walter Alvarez;Erle G. Kauffman;Finn Surlyk;Luis W. Alvarez

  • Triggering of the largest Deccan eruptions by the Chicxulub impact

    Mark A. Richards;Walter Alvarez;Stephen Self;Leif Karlstrom

  • Proximal impact deposits at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in the Gulf of Mexico: a restudy of DSDP Leg 77 Sites 536 and 540.

    Walter Alvarez;Jan Smit;William Lowrie;Frank Asaro

  • Emplacement of Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Shocked Quartz from Chicxulub Crater

    Walter Alvarez;Philippe Claeys;Susan W. Kieffer

  • Iridium Anomaly Approximately Synchronous with Terminal Eocene Extinctions

    Walter Alvarez;Frank Asaro;Helen V. Michel;Luis W. Alvarez

  • Upper Cretaceous–Paleocene magnetic stratigraphy at Gubbio, Italy III. Upper Cretaceous magnetic stratigraphy

    William Lowrie;Walter Alvarez

Frequent Co-Authors

William Lowrie
William Lowrie ETH Zurich
Frank Asaro
Frank Asaro Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Alessandro Montanari
Alessandro Montanari Mines ParisTech
Philippe Claeys
Philippe Claeys Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Miriam Kastner
Miriam Kastner University of California, San Diego
Mark A. Richards
Mark A. Richards University of California, Berkeley
Paul R. Renne
Paul R. Renne Berkeley Geochronology Center
Birger Schmitz
Birger Schmitz Lund University
Isabella Premoli Silva
Isabella Premoli Silva University of Milan
Massimiliano Rinaldo Barchi
Massimiliano Rinaldo Barchi University of Perugia

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