Pål Wessel

Open source mapping tools and data In the 1980s, Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith created Generic Mapping Tools (GMT), an open-source collection of computer software tools for processing and displaying geographic and Cartesian datasets. They later supplemented this with the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline Database (GSHHS) that they constructed from two public domain data sets, the World Data Bank II (WDB), also known as CIA Data Bank, and the World Vector Shoreline (WVS) data set.

Geological and geophysical research Areas in which Wessel conducted research included:

Periodic co-pulsing of volcanic hot spots, including Hawaii, Yellowstone, Iceland, Easter Island, La Réunion, Tristan, the Galápagos, Samoa, Ontong Java, Tasmantid, the Society Islands, the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, St. Helena, Afar-Kenya, and others Plate Tectonic Reconstructions and Hot Spot Fixity Improvement of marine geophysical data sets via data analysis Thermo-mechanical Evolution and Properties of Oceanic Lithosphere Flexural Deformation of Lithosphere at Seamounts, Fracture Zones, and Trenches