| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Assistant Director in Research (ADR), later Reader in Tectonics, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, January-June 1979. The contents principally comprise various invitations or arrangements for McKenzie to attend symposia, serve on committees, 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 1979
Dr Vinod K Gaur, Professor of Geophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Roorkee, India, is visiting Britain in the Spring as part of an exchange programme sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy, would like to spend time at Cambridge, 29 December 1978, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, pleased to accommodate Gaur, 3 January 1979; Dr R F Gramende, Geo-science Section, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, inviting McKenzie to join the Advisory Editorial Board for the journal 'Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors', 3 November 1978, with brief copy reply from McKenzie agreeing as long as the number of papers he reviews is modest, 3 January 1979; Imperial Iranian Academy of Sciences, Tehran, Iran, sending guidance notes for authors for the forthcoming Symposium on Frontiers of Earthquake Research, 29 November 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie reluctantly withdrawing his paper due to the political situation in the country, 4 January 1979; Louis O Nicolaysen and Martin de Wit, Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, enclosing a their commentary, 'Geodynamics: Looking to the Future', on the proposed successor to the international Geodynamics Project, and asking for McKenzie's responses on the matter, 22 December 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie agreeing with their objections to the proposals but not their suggested solutions, believes that the old divisions pre-plate tectonics, between geologists and oceanographers is returning, 26 January 1979; Barry Atkinson, Geology Department, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, inviting McKenzie to take part in a videotaped series 'Plate Tectonics: from hypothesis to theory', in collaboration with the University of London Audio-Visual Centre, 14 December 1978, with copy reply from McKenzie suggesting arrangements, 29 January 1979;
FEBRUARY 1979
Gary Jarvis, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, forwards data to McKenzie, Dick Peltier encouraging Jarvis to investigate the possible 'feedback' between dissipative heating and temperature-dependent viscosity, 2 February 1979; letters between Gillian R Foulger, Science Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland, and McKenzie, concerning Foulger's plan to undertake postgraduate research at Cambridge and detailing her project on the seismology of Iceland, [December 1978]-16 February 1979;
MARCH-APRIL 1979
Two brief letters and a BBC contract relating to McKenzie's interview by John Maddox for the Radio 3 programme 'Scientifically Speaking', March 1979; copy letter from McKenzie to Dennis Flanagan, editor, 'Scientific American', New York, USA, enquiring if the journal would be interested in an article on the development of sedimentary basins in continental regions, describing the latest findings, 5 March 1979; Greg S Mountain, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA, has hastily submitted an abstract for the Spring AGU meeting but completely forgot to acknowledge McKenzie, explains his latest work and encloses the abstract, 9 March 1979;
MAY 1979
Malvin A Ruderman and Steven Marcus, Columbia University in the City of New York, USA, as members of Columbia University's Commission on Academic Priorities in the Arts & Sciences, are seeking external opinions on the Geology Department, sending McKenzie a short questionnaire, 19 February 1979, with detailed copy reply from McKenzie based on his seven months' worth of experience at Lamont the previous year, 7 May 1979; Jane Cliffe, Higher Education and Science Department, The British Council, London, England, as part of the Academic Interchange with Europe Scheme, the University of Paris VI would like McKenzie to visit them in the summer, 4 May 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie puzzled at the request as he discussed visiting the Institut de Physique du Globe in 1980, 23 May 1979; copy letter from McKenzie to Professor Anthony Hallam, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Birmingham, England, the role of new technology in the future studies of geology, 25 May 1979; Professor Fred Vine, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, inviting McKenzie to present a paper on the Aegean at a proposed Royal Society discussion meeting 'Extensional Tectonics Associated with Convergent Plate Boundaries', 11 May 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie refusing but suggesting that he 'act as spare' as long as he didn't have to submit a paper, 21 May 1979;
JUNE 1979
Mansour Niazi, School of Sciences, Ferdowsi University, Mashad Iran, the poor state of higher education following the Iranian Revolution, is therefore seeking a sabbatical year abroad, 9 April 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie willing to accommodate Niazi at Cambridge, Manuel Berberian has prior claim on the Tabas data, current research at Madingley, 30 April 1979, with formal invitation from Jack Jacobs, Head of Department, 1 June 1979; copy letter from McKenzie to Keith O'Nions, Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA, is applying for a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant to continue his convection project which will include convective thermal history calculations, wants to collaborate with O'Nions, 7 June 1979; Anthony Mayer, NERC, Swindon, England, seeking McKenzie's views on an Earth-orientated Research Programme being developed by the European Space Agency, 1 June 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that it would only be of interest if it collected different data than NASA, and also if it was properly funded, 7 June 1979; Satoru Honda, postgraduate student of Seiyo Uyeda, Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan, is currently working on the 'initiation of plate tectonics' and has found an error in the calculations in McKenzie's paper "The initiation of trenches: a finite amplitude instability" [American Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1 (1977), pp57-61], explains his belief that the main driving force of a plate is the slab pull 'active plate motion', 4 June 1979, with copy reply from McKenzie admitting the error which was spotted before publication, and disagreeing with Honda's theories, 13 June 1979.
OCTOBER 1979
Barry Parsons, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, is nearing completion on his paper on the conditions required to create new trenches, but wishes to ask McKenzie opinion on a few points, 31 October 1979. |
| Administrative History | McKenzie was due to spend June-September at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, USA. The correspondence, apart from a single letter, only covers the period January-June 1979. McKenzie was appointed to the newly established Readership in Tectonics of Cambridge University on 1 October 1979. |