OBITUARY — Vaino Ronka

A key figure in the development of geophysical systems, Vaino Ronka, has died.

A native of Finland, Ronka studied communications engineering and later geophysics at a university in Helsinki. After graduating, he worked for the Geological Survey of Finland and, in the early 1950s, was hired by Aeromagnetic Surveys, a division of Hunting Survey Corp., then based in Toronto.

It was while he was with the Finnish survey that Ronka, Maunu Puranen and Aarno Kahma pioneered a dual-frequency airborne EM (electromagnetic induction) system designed for fixed-wing aircraft. An improved system later earned Hunting Survey the industry’s Blue Ribbon award.

In 1955, Ronka and Alex Herz began work on a new helicopter EM system. The pair, employed at the time by Hunting’s Aeromagnetic Surveys division, also developed lightweight horizontal loop EM instruments and a scintillometer. By 1962, Ronka and Herz had incorporated their own company, Geonics. During this period, Ronka designed and patented the model EM-16 VLF EM, which became an industry standard in ground VLF instrumentation. Induced polarization (IP) is another area where Ronka left his creative mark.