| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Assistant Director in Research (ADR), Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, January-March 1977. The contents principally comprise various invitations or arrangements for McKenzie to attend symposia, give talks or write articles, requests for preprints, or permission to republish his papers, correspondence with publishers submitting papers, or with fellow academics/scientists seeking McKenzie's opinion on their works, but also:
JANUARY 1977
Eric Simpson, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, National Research Institute for Oceanology, Stellenbosch, South Africa, thanks McKenzie for sending him offprints which he used for his Alexander du Toit Memorial Lecture, 4 January 1977; Christopher Calladine, Fellow of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, England, details his thoughts on Gaussian curvature in relation to the 'cracking up' of Pangaea, 23 December 1976, with copy reply from McKenzie describing what is currently known on plate tectonic theory, 17 January 1977; Jacob Shaham, Theoretical Physics, Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, has been following the correspondence between his co-author David Pines and McKenzie [see LDGSL/1107/A/1/16] and wishes to discuss their approach to quadrupolar isostasy, 5 December 1976, with copy reply from McKenzie disagreeing with one of the calculations and generally on the lack of geophysical input, keen to discuss the matter with both Shaham and Pines, 17 January 1977; Tania Prigorowsky, Royal Society, London, England, sends travel schedule for McKenzie's trip to China as part of the Royal Society Delegation, 12 January 1977, with copy letter from McKenzie slightly changing the arrangements, 17 January 1977; R J Monaghan, Director, Defence Science 5, Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London, England, may be able to accommodate McKenzie's request for RAF assistance in his research but there are likely to be limitations and doubtful anything can be done at 'really short notice', 20 December 1976, with copy reply from McKenzie explaining that 'really short notice' means the aftershock of an earthquake which lasts around two weeks, asks what equipment is carried on board aircraft, 17 January 1977; Jean Aubouin, Société Géologique de France, Paris, France, pleased to announce that McKenzie has been made an Associate Member [Honorary Member] of their society [in French], 27 October 1976, with copy reply from McKenzie honoured to accept, 24 January 1977;
FEBRUARY 1977
Sir Edward 'Teddy' Bullard, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, La Jolla Laboratories, University of California, San Diego, California, USA, encourages McKenzie to spend some time at La Jolla perhaps as a Green Scholar, 14 January 1977, with copy letter from McKenzie keen to come, possibly in the summer of 1979, 8 February 1977; Thomas 'Tom' J Ahrens, Professor of Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, although written nearly a decade before, Ahrens is having trouble understanding parts of McKenzie's early paper "Some remarks on heat flow and gravity anomalies" ['Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 72 (1967), pp6261-6273], praises an undergraduate student of McKenzie's, Susan Raikes, 8 February 1977; Christopher Calladine, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, sends further calculations on Gaussian curvature in relation to the 'cracking up' of Pangaea, 1 February 1977, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, reporting that his calculations give a different result, 9 February 1977; Tania Prigorowsky, Royal Society, further arrangements for McKenzie's trip to China, including the subjects of two lectures requested by the Chinese Academy, 7 February 1977, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, 15 February 1977; Anthony 'Tony' Watts, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA, does not know what the 'mistake' is in McKenzie's paper ["The initiation of trenches: a finite amplitude instability", American Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1, pp57-61 (1977)] which Pete Molnar referred to, 23 February 1977;
MARCH 1977
Roland Schlich, Laboratoire de Geophysique Marine, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Saint-Maur-des-Fosses, France, forwards a volume to McKenzie, 21 January 1977, with copy letter from McKenzie comparing Schlich's paper on the Indian Ocean with his own [with John Sclater], 4 March 1977; copy letter from McKenzie to Peter 'Pete' Molnar, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, points out errors in draft of Molnar's latest paper [Chen, W-P & P Molnar, "Seismic moments of major earthquakes and the average rate of slip in Central Asia", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 82 (1977), pp2945-2969], 4 March 1977. |
| Administrative History | From April 1977-April 1978, McKenzie had taken sabbatical leave from his post at the University of Cambridge and was primarily based in the US. The file therefore only covers the months of January-March.
Between 17 April-7 May 1977, McKenzie was part of the Royal Society's delegation (of geophysicists) visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In a letter dated 14 March 1977, McKenzie stated that he would be based at the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, until July 1977, then Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Massachusetts, USA, until 1 September 1977 and finally Lamont-Doherty Geological Laboratory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA, until 28 February 1978. |