He made key contributions to the theory of plate tectonics, helping to show that the seafloor spreads from mid-ocean ridges with a symmetrical pattern of magnetic reversals in the basalt rocks on either side.

Vine was born in Chiswick,[1] London, and educated at Latymer Upper School and St John's College, Cambridge[2] where he studied Natural Sciences (BA, 1962) and marine geophysics (PhD, 1965).

Having met Harry Hess he was aware of sea floor spreading, where the ocean bed acts as a 'conveyor belt' moving away from the central ridge.

[5] Vine's work, with that of Drummond Matthews and Lawrence Morley of the Geological Survey of Canada, helped put the variations in the magnetic properties of the ocean crust into context in what is now known as the Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis.

[2] He worked on the electrical conductivity of rocks from the lower continental crust with R. G. Ross and P. W. J. Glover, which culminated in 1992 with measurements of the electrical conductivity of graphite-rich amphibolites and granulites at lower crustal temperatures and pressures with a full water saturation and pore fluid pressure[7] and graphite-free[8] In 1967, Vine became assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Princeton University.