Rinus Wortel

Marinus Johannes Richardus "Rinus" Wortel (born 18 December 1947) is a Dutch geophysicist. He was professor of tectonophysics at Utrecht University between 1989 and 2012. Since 2013 he has been unpaid professor of geophysics at the same university.

Early life Wortel was born on 18 December 1947 in Amsterdam. He attended the gymnasium. In 1980 Wortel obtained his PhD at Utrecht University under N.J. (Nico) Vlaar with a thesis titled: Age-dependent subduction of oceanic lithosphere. In 1989 he was named professor of tectonophysics at the same university. In the early 2010s his research group expected that a new fault was forming between Europe and Africa, with the Eurasian Plate being thrust under the African Plate, which had been the reverse. He has also performed research into the dynamics and deformation of the lithosphere, seismic energy release and tectonic processes along convergent plate boundaries. He worked on integration of numerical models, with observations coming from geology, geophysics and geodesy. Wortel and his research group in 1992 developed an hypothesis on lateral migration of slab detachment. Early in his career he performed research in the Andes with his promotor, Vlaar.

In 2018, Wortel became head of the research programme DeepNL, of the Dutch Research Council, which was initiated to look into the long term consequences of the winning of gas in the Groningen gas field. Specific research projects included subsidence, risk analysis, and earthquake forecasting. Wortel called it a unique project, comparable with the Dutch efforts of protection from the sea.

In 1997, he was part of a commission initiated by six Dutch universities to look into a fifth academic year for scientific studies, which the commission ultimately recommended. He was editor of the Geophysical Journal. Wortel won the 2000 Stephan Mueller Medal of the European Geophysical Society, in "recognition of his fundamental contributions to modelling of subduction zone dynamics". In 2012 Wortel was made Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.