| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Assistant Director in Research (ADR), Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, January-December 1978. 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-MARCH 1978
Notes on the meeting of the 'Strain Group' [Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge], 24 Feburary 1978; Alan G Smith, Department of Geology, Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge, England, advice on travelling to Greece, Ron Oxburgh's new appointment leaving a post open which may suit McKenzie, 2 March 1978;
APRIL 1978
Dr Alexander D Stewart, Sedimentology Research Laboratory, Department of Geology, University of Reading, England, invites McKenzie to speak at a proposed Geological Society meeting 'Expanding Earth', 20 March 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie expressing his surprise at the topic as in the last ten years research has shown that the theory is out of date, refuses the offer as does not want to publicly oppose Professor Samuel Carey (who is still an advocate of the concept) as he has too much respect for him, 17 April 1978; Dr Søren Tuxen, Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, wishes to use some of McKenzie's published figures, finds it difficult to keep up to date with drift literature and wants to know if anything of note in relation to the evolution of the Indian Ocean has derived from the GLOMAR CHALLENGER drilling project, 20 March 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie suggesting sources and briefly describing the origins of the Mascarene Plateau, 18 April 1978; Sandy G Smith, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, England, arrangements for filming television programmes for the Oceanography modules for the OU, with contract, 20 April 1978; signed BBC contract for use of an interview with McKenzie for the programme 'Jigsaw Continents' for the World Service, 22 May 1978;
MAY 1978
Copy letter from McKenzie to Professor Bernard Leake, Department of Geology, University of Glasgow Scotland, and Publications Secretary of the Geological Society, suggesting that the Society establish an American office for the 'Journal of the Geological Society' which he believes would be very popular, 2 May 1978, with reply from Leake, does not see how McKenzie's idea would work under current financial constraints but will use his letter as leverage to push for expansion of the JGS, 10 May 1978; Miles Osmaston, Woking, Surrey, England, forwards McKenzie an offprint of his latest paper on plate tectonics [Osmaston, M F, "Some fundamental aspects of plate tectonics bearing on hydrocarbon location", in Hobson, G D (ed), 'Developments in Petroleum Geology I' (1977), pp1-52] which he believes is markedly different to the model which McKenzie has been pursuing, 27 April 1978, with detailed copy reply from McKenzie disagreeing with many of the assertions in the paper but agreeing with his views on ophiolite emplacement, 10 May 1978, with a further reply from Osmaston defending his points, 30 May 1978;
JUNE 1978
Anthony 'Tony' Watts, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA, discusses their joint proposal for a seismic study of the Pacific Ocean, 9 June 1978; Colin Brown, Department of Geophysics, School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, asking for further information and pointing out an error in an equation in McKenzie's and Carl Bowin's paper ["The relationship between bathymetry and gravity in the Atlantic Ocean", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 81 (1976), pp1903-1915], 6 June 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie agreeing that he had miscopied the error in the paper and bibiographic references for papers which demonstrate that ridges are compensated by Pratt's mechanism, 14 June 1978; 'Report on grant to D P McKenzie for the investigation of aftershocks of large earthquakes using microearthquake seismographs', typescript grant report to the Royal Society by McKenzie detailing the problems incurred during his proposed seismological project in Iran which initially began in the summer of 1976, [June 1978]; typescript report, by McKenzie, submitted to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) review for geophysics, recording his opinion on the state of the subject in comparison to that in the US based on his experiences during his recent sabbatical, [June 1978]; Jeremy Smith, NERC, London, England, inviting McKenzie to serve again as a member of the NERC's Geological Sciences Research Grants Committee, 20 June 1978, with brief copy reply from McKenzie joking that he thought he'd escaped too easily [during his sabbatical] but agreeing to rejoin, 23 June 1978;
JULY 1978
Copy letter from McKenzie to Anthony Mayer, NERC, passing on a suggestion made by Claude Allegre, Director of the Institute of the Physics of the Earth in Paris, for the establishment of a European grants committee for Earth Sciences, 23 June 1978, with reply from Mayer, 5 July 1978, and a further letter from McKenzie to Allegre forwarding the NERC's opinion on the matter, 4 July 1978; Stanislaw Vincenz, Professor of Geophysics, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, is working on palaeomagnetic studies of microplates on the margins of tectonic plates in the eastern Mediterranean but finds ambiguities in McKenzie's earlier paper [" Active tectonics of the Mediterranean region", 'Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society', vol 30 (1972), pp109-185] and asks for McKenzie's opinion whether palaeomagnetic studies of ophiolites would be of use, 16 June 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie advising the use of limestone instead, 14 July 1978; Keith Runcorn, Head of School and Professor of Physics, School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, seeking McKenzie's support in proposing Ted Irving again for election to the Royal Society, which is being seconded by Sir Edward 'Teddy' Bullard, 29 June 1978, with brief copy reply from McKenzie agreeing, 14 July 1978; Xavier Le Pichon, CNEXO, Paris, France, forwarding a preprint of his latest paper, 16 June 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie providing detailed comments [the paper which is not included is likely to be, Le Pichon, X & J Angelier, "The hellenic arc and trench system: A key to the neotectonic evolution of the eastern mediterranean area", 'Tectonophysics', vol 60 (1979), pp1-42], 26 July 1978;
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1978
Peter 'Pete' Molnar, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, is planning on visiting Europe in October and wants to meet up with McKenzie, James Jackson, Geof King and Dave Gubbins, 24 August 1976, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, 11 September 1978, [includes typescript statement of proposed research by Molnar, which was sent to McKenzie found loose in the file]; Manuel Berberian, [Tehran, Iran], update on the delivery of scientific equipment and staffing for McKenize's seismological project in Iran, 25 September 1978;
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1978
Copy letter from McKenzie to Robert 'Bob' Parker, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, La Jolla Laboratories, University of California, San Diego, USA, wondering if Teddy Bullard's invitation for McKenzie to spend some time at IGGP is still open, concern at Teddy Bullard's deteriorating health, recommends one of his postdoctoral students, Charles Carrigan, 20 October 1978, with reply from Parker stating that funds from the Green Foundation have been set aside for McKenzie's visit, Teddy Bullard's health, 1 November 1978; Professor Martin H P Bott, Professor of Geophysics, Department of Geology, University of Durham, England, in his role as a member of the Hooke Committee of the Royal Society, asks if McKenzie has any ideas for future topics for meetings or lectures, 23 October 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie suggesting debates over the driving mechanism of plate tectonics, which seems to fall into two main camps, 8 November 1978; correspondence and referee reports relating to the paper Skilbeck, J N & D McKenzie, "An approximate method for determining the stability of two-scale flow in the mantle" [eventually published in 'Pure and Applied Geophysics', vol 117 (1979), pp958-987], February-13 November 1978; correspondence and referee reports relating to the joint paper with Gary T Jarvis "Infinite Prandtl Number Compressible Convection" [eventually published as Jarvis, G T & D McKenzie, "Convection in a compressible fluid with infinite Prandtl number", 'Journal of Fluid Mechanics', vol 96 (1980), pp515-583], December 1977-23 November 1978;
DECEMBER 1978
Sia Nemat-Nasser, Professor of Civil Engineering and Applied Mathematics, The Technological Institute, Department of Civil Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, explanation of his formulae for estimating peak acceleration in Iran, 13 December 1978; copy letter from McKenzie to Winthrop 'Win' Means, Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York, Albany, New York, USA, is having problems understanding the formulae in Means' paper as he is a fluid dynamicist at heart, 13 December 1978.
Also, file of correspondence relating to arrangements for McKenzie's & James Jackson's summer field trip marked 'Greece and Turkey Trip 1978', March-August 1978, notably including grant application to the Carnegie Institution of Washington with project proposal, 2 May 1978. |