| Description | Correspondence covering the period when Dan McKenzie was employed as Assistant Research Geophysicist II at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, USA, July-November 1967. Includes an earlier letter from c.1965, relating to McKenzie's first visit to the US.
Correspondents and subjects include:
[SUMMER 1965]
McKenzie to David 'Dai' Davies, Department of Geodesy & Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, expressing his pleasure at being at IGGP and learning to compute using FORTRAN, Edward 'Teddy' Bullard is also there discovering a method of compensating for electric currents induced in the oceans, [n.d.]* [note: the letter is annotated at the top by Dai Davies]
JULY 1967
McKenzie's employment and registration form* for the University of California, San Diego, USA, June-July 1967; William Hung Kan Lee, National Center for Earthquake Research, US Geological Survey, thanking McKenzie for a preprint of his paper "Some remarks on heat flow and gravity anomalies" and requesting copies of his other papers, 6 July 1967; copy letter from McKenzie to the executive secretary of the Royal Society briefly describing his papers which are currently in press, 7 July 1967; Julian Hunt, Research Associate at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, New York, USA, arranging to meet McKenzie at the end of August, 10 July 1967; Fred Vine, [assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA], Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada, giving his opinion on McKenzie's latest paper, 18 July 1967; Orson LaMar Anderson, editor of the 'Journal of Geophysical Research', providing editorial comments on McKenzie's submitted paper "Some remarks on heat flow and gravity anomalies" but accepting it for publication, 28 July 1967;
AUGUST 1967
Julian Hunt, Research Associate at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, New York, more arrangements to meet McKenzie at the end of August, McKenzie's boredom with fluid mechanics, Hunt's opinion on Americans, [August 1967]; Nigel Weiss, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, England, on a fluid mechanics problem, 4 August 1967; copy letter from McKenzie to Orson LaMar Anderson, editor of the 'Journal of Geophysical Research', on revising his manuscript and the problems which typesetters may have with his use of Greek mathematical symbols, 10 August 1967;
SEPTEMBER 1967
Alan Smith, Department of Geology, University of Cambridge, comments on McKenzie's latest paper, thinks that McKenzie is on the right track with his ideas about forced convection at the continent/ocean boundary, 8 September 1967; postcard from Fred Vine, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Princeton University, whereabouts of Ron Oxburgh [Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, now Baron Oxburgh], 14 September 1967; copy letter from McKenzie to Lynn R Sykes, Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA, requesting data that he may have concerning heat flow and hypocentres around ocean trenches for a planned paper by McKenzie and John Sclater, 22 September 1967; 'Kit' Harrison, teaching fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, asking McKenzie's opinion on the 'tenets of [continental] drift', 28 September 1967;
OCTOBER 1967
Markus G Langseth, Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, praises McKenzie's paper "Some remarks on heat flow and gravity anomalies" ['Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 72 (1967) pp6261-6273] which has inspired Langseth to research heat flow anomalies over ocean ridges and test a hypothesis that there is a linear relation between spreading rate and the half width of the ridge heat flow anomaly, 6 October 1967, also copy reply from McKenzie, interested in Langseth's findings that the temperature anomalies of the Pacific Ocean Ridges are different to those of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Ridges, 9 October 1967; Robert A Phinney, professor of geophysics, Princeton University, suggesting corrections and edits to McKenzie's paper ["The geophysical importance of high-temperature creep", given at the conference 'History of the Earth's Crust', held at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 10-11 November, 1966] in view of publication, 20 & 25 October 1967; Orson LaMar Anderson, Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, on arrangements for McKenzie to join Lamont as a member of staff, 23 October 1967, with copy reply from McKenzie to on his forthcoming tenure, and suggesting equations to express anharmonic lattices, 26 October 1967;
NOVEMBER 1967
Leon Knopoff, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, inviting McKenzie to take part in a Pan-American Symposium on the Upper Mantle, to be held in Mexico City, March 1968, organised by the Upper Mantle Committees of Mexico, United States and Canada, 8 November 1967; short, copy letter from McKenzie to the editor of 'Nature' submitting a paper for publication [McKenzie, D & R L Parker, "The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere", 'Nature', vol 216 (1967), pp1276-1280] and urging that it be published without delay, 10 November 1967*; copy letter from Thomas Ahrens, Associate Professor of Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, to Professor George Backus, [Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics], University of California, San Diego, USA, recommending publications on high pressure data relating to the transport properties of the Earth's core, 16 October 1967; copy letter from McKenzie to Fred Vine, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Princeton University, asking if Vine could forward a preprint of McKenzie's paper ["The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere", ibid] to Jason Morgan as he has just discovered through Bill Menard that Morgan has submitted a paper to the 'Journal of Geophysical Research' on the same topic [plate tectonics], 14 November 1967*; Michael S Marlow, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, USA, wishing to discuss his PhD research with McKenzie when next at La Jolla, 18 November 1967; copy letter to William Stauder, Saint Louis University, Missouri, USA, forwarding a copy of his latest paper [likely to be "The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere", ibid] as the fundamentals are based on the fault plane solutions which Stauder obtained for the North Pacific, 20 November 1967*; copy letter from McKenzie to Professor Michael James Lighthill, Royal Society Research Professor, Imperial College of Science and Technology, confirming McKenzie's desire to take up a research fellowship at the London university, 22 November 1967. |
| Administrative History | On graduating with a PhD from the University of Cambridge in November 1966, McKenzie spent periods of the next three years as visiting fellow or associate at a number of American universities. Between July to November 1967, McKenzie was employed as Assistant Research Geophysicist II at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, [Scripps], University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, San Diego, USA.
In 1965, McKenzie was keen to take a break from Cambridge University and persuaded Freeman Gilbert to invite him to the IGGP at Scripps for six months. He stayed during the summer and left in the autumn. |