Walter Munk (left) with Director Harald Sverdrup in the George H. Scripps Memorial Marine Biological Laboratory building. Circa 1940.

Walter Munk (fourth from left) with the U.S. Navy at Bikini Atoll

Walter Munk (right) posing with mini-chargers near Bikini Atoll during the atomic testing. Circa 1940-1950.

Roger Revelle, Walter Heinrich Munk, and Gustaf Arrhenius from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, aboard the oil drillship CUSS I during Project Mohole, 1961.

Pollywog (first time Equator crosser) Walter H. Munk, kneeling to King Neptune’s Court, at an Equator Crossing the Line ceremony, on R/V Horizon. Capricorn Expedition, 1952

Fisherman and Walter H. Munk, Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands. Capricorn Expedition, 1952.

Crew and scientists aboard R/V Horizon during an equator Crossing the Line ceremony. King Neptune with beard, and her Highness Amphitrite to Neptune’s left. Capricorn Expedition, 1952

Beer and movie at the Back and Atom Club, Bikini Island, during Capricorn Expedition. November 4, 1952. Front: Willard Bascom, John MacFall, Walter Munk. Middle: Martin Johnson, Buddy King

Walter H. Munk (right) and two unidentified men lowering the camera into the water near Palmerston Island during the Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953). Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists studied the 35,400 foot deep Tonga Trench, the second deepest place in the ocean, and measured heat flow on the East Pacific Rise during this expedition.

Left to right: Robert Floyd Dill, Walter Heinrich Munk, Richard Blumberg preparing to lower a deep-sea camera enclosed in a watertight case into the ocean. Cut off from the top of this photo is the strobe unit in a similar turret above the camera, which supplies the light source for the camera. The flat disk at the very bottom of this devise is called the “shoe” which actually touches the sea-floor. This photo was taken during the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953). 1952.

Walter H. Munk (left) and John D. Isaacs (far right) observing an oceanographic instrument during the Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953). At this point of the expedition they are somewhere between Eniwetok and Tonga in the Pacific.

Walter H. Munk and native fisherman. Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands. Capricorn Expedition, 1952

Walter Munk and Robert B. Livingston reviewing the sandy ocean bottom near Tonga during the Capricorn Expedition, January 5, 1953.

Walter Munk said Willard N. Bascom took this picture in Bikini Lagoon when I was about to be devoured by a shark! I was standing on the bottom with a tsunami pressure gauge when I noticed Bascom taking a most unusual photographic interest in this operation. I puzzled about this for some minutes, and then had a sudden revelation that made me turn around. Capricorn Expedition, 1952

Walter Munk diving at 20 fathoms at Alexa Bank, December 1952.

Group socializing drinking beer. Walter Munk in back row on right. Capricorn Expedition, 1952

Diving on Alexia Bank. Left to right: William C. “Buddy” King, Robert Floyd Dill (tee shirt), Walter H. Munk, Robert Livingston, Philip E. Jackson, John B. MacFall, two unidentified. Capricorn Expedition, December 9, 1952

Group on the fantail of R/V Spencer F. Baird homeward bound from the Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953). Standing: Richard von Herzen; Roger Revelle; Willard N. Bascom; Theodore Robert Folsom; unidentified; Alan Churchill Jones; Gustaf Arrhenius; Henri Rotschi; Robert Livingston; Helen Raitt; and Russell W. Raitt; Seated: Philip E. Jackson; Richard E. Blumberg; Ronald Mason; Robert Floyd Dill; Arthur Eugene Maxwell; Winter Davis Horton; and Walter Munk. February 1953.

Scientists on the fantail of R/V Spencer F. Baird (ship) homeward bound from the Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953). Back row (left to right): Richard von Herzen; Roger Revelle; Willard N. Bascom; Theodore Robert Folsom; Alan Churchill Jones; Gustaf Arrhenius; Henri Rotschi; Robert Livingston; Russell Raitt. Seated (Left to right): Philip E. Jackson; Richard E. Blumberg; Ronald Mason; Robert Floyd Dill; Arthur Eugene Maxwell; Winter Davis Horton; Walter H. (Walter Heinrich) Munk; and Helen Raitt. February 1953.

Roger Revelle, Willard Bascom, Gustaf Arrhenius and Walter Munk on CUSS I during preliminary drilling for Project Mohole, December 1961

Walter Munk in American Samoa where he worked to track storm driven waves across the Pacific Ocean, 1963.

Walter Munk portrait, 1966.

Walter Munk, 1967.

Walter H. Munk. September 13, 1966

Walter Heinrich Munk (foreground), director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, viewing a recording system used in deep-ocean studies of internal waves with French dignitaries.

MidPac Capricorn Reunion. Left to right: H. William Menard, Helen Raitt, Roger Revelle and Walter Munk.

MidPac Capricorn Reunion, August 17, 1975. From left: Edward Barr, Robert L. Fisher, H. William Menard, unidentified, Gustaf Arrhenius, Walter Munk, unidentified, unidentified, Roger Revelle, Helen Raitt, Jeff Holter, unidentified, unidentified, Sam Scripps, Ted Folsom, unidentified, Russell Raitt, Alan Jones

MidPac-Capricorn Reunion. Walter Munk, Robert Huffer, Edward Crisp Bullard. August 17, 1975

Walter Munk with Roger Revelle

Walter Munk, 1984.

Walter H. Munk.

Walter Munk was honored May 11, 2010 by Majesty the King of Sweden with the 2010 Crafoord Prize during an award ceremony at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden.

Walter Munk talks with Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet, atthe Nimitz Marine Facility in Point Loma on Oct. 3, 2012.

Scripps Oceanography geophysicist Walter Munk during tour of R/V Sally Ride, Aug. 8, 2014

Five “generations” of ocean scientists came together Aug. 6, 2015 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. From left are Scripps geophysicist Walter Munk, who received his doctorate from Scripps in 1947; Munk’s student, oceanographer Charles “Chip” Cox, who received his PhD from Scripps in 1954; Cox’s student, oceanographer Michael Gregg, who received his PhD at Scripps in 1971; Gregg’s student at University of Washington, oceanographer Jennifer Mackinnon, who received her PhD in 2002; and Mackinnon’s student at Scripps Caitlin Whalen, who will receive her oceanography PhD this year.

Walter Munk with participants in the May 2017 symposium on Internal Wave Breaking, Turbulence, and Ocean Mixing.

Dalai Lama hugs Walter Munk as Mary Munk looks on.