| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Assistant Director in Research (ADR), Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, January-December 1975. The contents principally comprise various invitations for McKenzie to attend symposia, give talks or write articles, requests for preprints, correspondence with publishers, or fellow academics/scientists seeking McKenzie's opinion on their works, but also:
JANUARY 1975
Photocopy of press cutting "Las 'Placas' Que Ayudan a Explicar Nuestro Planeta" [The 'plates' that help explain our Earth], from the Spanish publication 'Panorama', 30 December 1973, sent to McKenzie by the Central Office of Information, Cambridge, England, as it contains reference to his scientific activities, January 1975; Dr F W B van Eysinga, Geo-Sciences Section, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, seeking McKenzie's opinion on a proposed new publication 'Journal of Volcanology and Geothermics', with a detailed questionnaire, 7 January 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie, 15 January 1975; photocopy of letter from Nigel Weiss, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, England, to George Backus, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, La Jolla Laboratories, University of California, San Diego, California, USA, thanking Backus for his offer to sponsor an unnamed paper by Weiss & McKenzie for the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences', but it has been accepted after some revision by the 'Journal of Fluid Mechanics', 9 January 1975; David E Smith, Head, Geodynamics Branch, Earth Survey Applications Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, USA, has added McKenzie to NASA's distribution list at the suggestion of Desmond King-Hele, 18 October 1974, with copy reply from McKenzie explaining that he and Kurt Lambeck are going to make considerable use of NASA's gravity field models from the Radar Altimeter, 13 January 1975; Willem V R Malkus, Department of Mathematics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA, looking forward to McKenzie's visit to WHOI the following year and arrangements for the summer program, 19 December 1974, with copy reply from McKenzie asking if he can bring one of his students, John Skilbeck, 13 January 1975; Rob Van der Voo, Department of Geology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, responding to McKenzie's criticisms of Van der Voo's joint paper with Donna Jurdy [which was eventually published as: McKenzie, D, "Comments on ‘A method of separation of true polar wander and continental drift, including results of the last 55 m.y.’ by D M Jurdy and R Van der Voo", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 80 (1975), pp3371–3372], 27 January 1975; short copy letter from McKenzie to Carl Bowin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, asking for feedback on their joint paper [McKenzie, D & C Bowin, "The relationship between bathymetry and gravity in the Atlantic Ocean", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 81 (1976), pp1903-1915], 31 January 1975;
FEBRUARY 1975
Barry Parsons, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, asking McKenzie for a reference for a temporary junior staff post at Woods Hole so he can attend the summer program, wants to stay permanently at MIT but needs to apply for a work visa but in case it doesn't work out would like McKenzie's opinion if there would be any similar opportunities in England and Europe, discusses the new theory of an elastic plate transmitting the effects of small-scale convection which he has heard at Lamont, Parson's current research in high Rayleigh high Prandtl number convection, 8 February 1975; copy letter from McKenzie to David Headley Green, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia, differences in adiabatic cooling of rock and magma, with manuscript plot, 14 February 1975; John Sclater, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, sending details of a program proposal, with chart and schedule, of the ATLANTIS II cruise survey to study the Indian Ocean triple junction [McKenzie was scheduled as particpating in the second leg], 21 February 1975*;
MARCH 1975
Wayne Thatcher, Dar es Salaam [Tanzania], would like to visit McKenzie in Cambridge, 8 March 1975; David Headley Green, Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU, responds to McKenzie's questioning of Green's apparently different modelling of convection of the upper mantle, 11 March 1975; Roger Bilham, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA, Dave Smith will send McKenzie one of his plastic relief maps of a geoid, 13 March 1975; John Sclater, MIT, is planning to go to South Africa the following month and will travel through Britain on his return, 17 March 1975; copy letter from McKenzie to D J H Griffiths, Ordnance Survey Committee, Royal Society, London, England, is concerned to hear through Desmond King-Hele that the future of the Malvern Camera [sited at Sheriffs Lench near Evesham, Worcestershire] operated by the Ordnance Survey is in doubt, just when satellite geodesy as a subject is becoming popular in the UK, 19 March 1975;
APRIL 1975
Geof King, [Tehran, Iran], setting up of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), his colleague [Mansour] Niazi's irritation with Nick Ambraseys and John Tchalenko, as the latter has published a map in an Iranian journal but did not provide the fundamental accompanying epicentral data but is selling copies to members of the AEOI, King has had his Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant halved, sends apologies to Drum Matthews as he has not drawn the promised fault plane solution diagrams for him, 2 April 1975; Dallas Abbott, Research Assistant to John Sclater, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, is using the rotations in McKenzie's & Sclater's 1971 paper ["The evolution of the Indian Ocean since the late Cretaceous", 'Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society', vol 24 (1971), pp437-528] to determine the palaeobathymetry of the Indian Ocean but has discovered that the poles for the Southwest India Ridge earthquakes are incorrect and sends the revised coordinates, is working with Pete Molnar on revising the 45-53 MY time period, 7 April 1975; copy letter to Frank Richter, Department of Geodesy & Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, from Dennis Flanagan, editor of 'Scientific American', New York, USA, has been in contact with Jason Morgan and Kenneth Deffeyes who are also writing a paper for the journal on the same subject as McKenzie and Richter but not only do the pair see no conflict between the two articles, but urge McKenzie and Richter to publish [McKenzie, D & F Richter, "Convection currents in the Earth’s mantle", 'Scientific American', Nov 1976], 15 April 1975;
MAY-AUGUST 1975
Notice of award of a NERC grant for McKenzie's project 'Seismotectonics of Iran (Seismicity and Microstructure), 17 April 1975, with copy letter of acceptance, 2 May 1975; David J Mallard, Civil Engineering Branch, Station Design Department, Central Electricity Generating Board, Gloucester, England, thanking McKenzie for his input into their discussions on the seismic design of nuclear power stations, 21 May 1975, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, 4 June 1975; J D D Smith, NERC, London, England, inviting McKenzie to serve as a member of the Council's Geological Sciences Research Grants Committee, 3 June 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie accepting, 5 June 1975; Alan Cook, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, England, invites McKenzie to take part in two Royal Society discussion meetings on the use of satellite laser ranging in tectonics, and creep processes & geophysical applications, 15 July 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie happy to talk about the former, but not the latter as not much is known although there has been some interesting findings of late, 24 July 1975;
SEPTEMBER 1975
Copy letter from McKenzie, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, to Anthony 'Tony' Watts, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, New York, USA, providing detailed comments on Watt's latest paper on the Pacific, 8 September 1976;
OCTOBER 1975
Kurt Lambeck, Laboratoire de Geochemie et Cosmochimie, Départment des Sciences de la Terr, Institut de Physique du Globe, Universités de Paris, France, would like a preprint of McKenzie's paper with Frank Richter, no news on acquiring the GEOS 3 altimetry data, 24 September 1975, with brief copy reply from McKenzie stating no-one he met in the US has the GEOS 3 data either, 13 October 1975; Peter Berners Fellgett, Professor of Cybernetics, Department of Engineering and Cybernetics, University of Reading, England, discusses his misunderstanding of McKenzie's advocacy of a "hot" origin of the Earth as the term has quite a different meaning to an astronomer, is still not completely convinced about current theories on plate motion and is keen to resubmit his hypothesis on "bubble convection" in the mantle, 29 September 1975, with detailed copy reply from McKenzie, 14 October 1975; Robert Broun Whitmarsh, National Institute of Oceanography, Godalming, Surrey, England, wants to submit his "Proposal for Crustal Stress Measurements in the Oceanic Crust Using D V Glomar Challenger", to the IPOD Downhole Measurements Panel and is seeking McKenzie's opinion, 23 September 1975, with a positive, brief copy reply from McKenzie, 14 October 1975; C A Lang, Publishing Division, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, asking McKenzie's advice on Keith Bullen's proposed revisions to the third edition of his 'Introduction to the Theory of Seismology', 7 October 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie happy to help with the revision, 14 October 1975; Anton Ziolkowski, Orpington, Kent, England, is currently unemployed but is hopeful of being appointed to a new post at the Coal Board which will use geophysics and seismic techniques for future coalmines as the present mines will be exhausted by 1985, 15 October 1975; David Martin, Executive Secretary, Royal Society, London, England, sending an official invitation to McKenzie to present a paper on tectonic studies using laser ranging observations at a discussion meeting the following February, 10 October 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that he agreed to talk about mantle convection and the external gravity field, and actually knows nothing about the application of laser ranging to measure plate velocities, would therefore like to withdraw but still attend some of the meeting, 17 October 1975;
NOVEMBER 1975
Charlotte J Mehrtens, graduate student, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, seeking McKenzie's detailed advice on whether her proposed PhD topic of correlating the rate of spreading of the South Atlantic in the Tertiary with the provincial development of the fauna is worth pursuing, 21 October 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie with recommendations, 5 November 1975; Tom Fitch, Research School of Earth Sciences, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, belatedly replies to McKenzie's request for earthquake location programs, 6 November 1975, with copy reply from McKenzie, has had comparitively disappointing results on Middle Eastern shocks and is still keen for Fitch's program, 13 November 1975; Frank Richter, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, status and contents of their joint papers, 24 November 1975; Keith Louden, [PhD student, MIT], Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, on thermal problems, 19 September [1975], with copy letter from McKenzie sending him the solution on fracture zones, 26 November 1975 [note this letter is not in reply]; copy letter from McKenzie to Barry Parsons, MIT, enclosing an abstract of his paper "The initiation of trenches: a finite amplitude instability" [American Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1, (1977) 57-61] for Manik Talwani's symposium in memory of Maurice Ewing, 28 November 1975;
DECEMBER 1975
Photocopy of a letter from Dr J D Brunton, Science and Technology Unit, British Council, London, England, to Nick Ambraseys, Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, on the Columbian Geophysical Institution's request for help in interpreting a large quantity of data on Columbian earthquakes, 18 November 1975, with copy letter from McKenzie to Brunton seeking further information on the data, 1 December 1975; copy letter from McKenzie to Dr Hari Narain, National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, India, gives advice to Narain whose son is considering applying for a PhD in economics, 1 December 1975; Donald T Lauer, Acting Chief, Applications Assistance, US Geological Survey, EROS Data Center, South Dakota, USA, McKenzie's inquiry about mosaicking of Landsat imagery, 3 December 1975; letters and referee reports for the paper Simpson, R W, "Comment on a Comment by McKenzie Regarding a Paper by Jurdy and Van der Voo" [published in the 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 81 (1976), p2579], written in response to McKenzie's paper "Comments on ‘A method of separation of true polar wander and continental drift, including results of the last 55 m.y.’ by D M Jurdy and R Van der Voo" [ibid], 18 September-3 December 1975; letters concerning revisions to McKenzie, D & C Bowin, "The relationship between bathymetry and gravity in the Atlantic Ocean" [ibid], 5 November-17 December 1975. |