The Sverdrup unit is tolerated because Harald Sverdrup made many key contributions to the science of Oceanography. He was also a high-level administrator who h

The Sverdrup unit is tolerated because Harald Sverdrup made many key contributions to the science of Oceanography. He was also a high-level administrator who had a super-power that few administrators have: he understood science as well as people. And, to top it all off, the book he coauthored with Johnson and Fleming is widely regarded as the foundational document in the field of modern Oceanography. There is so much to say about Harald Sverdrup that students quickly become comfortable with the occasional use of "Sv" as an abbreviation for 10^6m^3/s.