Russell Raitt; Scripps Oceanographer Studied Sea Floor

Russell Raitt, 87, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography for half a century who did pioneering research on the sea floor. He made the first measurements of the thickness of the crust beneath the Pacific Ocean and discovered the structure of the ocean’s largest topographical feature, the East Pacific Rise. His study of underwater acoustics improved the Navy’s submarine detection methods during World War II. He also made critical findings in the field of plate tectonics that helped to explain the occurrence of earthquakes. In 1950, Raitt led his first Scripps expedition to the Central Pacific, where he made seismic recordings of 1,200 miles of sea floor. On Monday in La Jolla of heart failure.