| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Reader in Tectonics, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, January-December 1984. The contents principally comprise various invitations and 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, or with fellow academics/scientists seeking McKenzie's opinion on their works, but also:
JANUARY 1984
Duncan Tamsett, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, details some of his ideas for postdoctoral studies with McKenzie at Cambridge under the title 'Studies of the spectra of magnetic profiles over seafloor spreading centres', 5 January 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie, would be pleased for Tamsett to join as a post-doc but believes he may have an inflated view of his enterprises, is not impressed with Tamsett's ideas, 18 January 1984; letters concerning Daniel R Moore's request for access to the University of London's CRAY 1S system, with letter of support from McKenzie, 21 December 1983-24 January 1984;
FEBRUARY 1984
Anthony 'Tony' Hallam, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Birmingham, England, has just read McKenzie's published paper on epeirogeny [McKenzie, D, "A possible mechanism for epeirogenic uplift", 'Nature', vol 307 (1984), pp616-618] which reminded Hallam of an earlier idea on 'underplating' which he had toyed with some years back, 23 February 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that he was aware of previous discussions on underplating, and explains why he doesn't believe in the concept of the expansion of the Earth, 27 February 1984;
MARCH 1984
Celal Sengor, Faculty of Mines, Instanbul Technical University, Turkey, is pleased that McKenzie will be at President's Evening of the Geological Society, when Sengor will receive the President's Award, his current research on the Triassic of Malaysia, delighted that Haluk [?Eyidogan] and James Jackson are doing so well, 1 March 1984; Robert 'Bob' Liebermann, Visiting Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, apologises for failing to see McKenzie at Christmas as he was too busy sightseeing, 8 March 1984; Kenneth 'Ken' Creer', Department of Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, edits to the Royal Astronomical Society's enquiry about the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), 19-21 March 1984; Tom Lennie, Department of Applied and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, England, forwarding a complaint he has made about CRAY computer service run by the University of London Computing Centre, 23 March [1984]; Greg Houseman, Research School of Earth Sciences, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia, now that he is settled in Canberra is thinking about doing work on convection, wonders if McKenzie would like to visit ANU the following year, 23 March 1984; letters concerning arrangements for the Royal Society's exchange visit to China, February-March 1984; copy of a NERC Studentship quota grant application for McKenzie's project "Generation and compaction of partially molten rocks" [probably relating to LDGSL/1107/B/6/1], [n.d.];
APRIL 1984
Philip England, Department of Geological Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, clears the air following an apparent problematic project the previous year, expresses his gratitude for McKenzie's generosity in their work together at Cambridge on continental deformation, despite the danger of spreading himself too thinly would like to keep in contact with the partial melting problem, especially Turcotte's and Ahern's problem, 12 March [1984], with manuscript copy reply from McKenzie stating that there is a limit to the amount of projects one can work on at once and he is happy that England is covering the theoretical side of continental deformation whilst James Jackson the observational, is happy to move onto new things and cannot stop others working on topics related to his findings, his reluctance to publish until he understands an area properly, 2 April [1984]; copy letters from McKenzie to Philip England and Greg Houseman providing detailed feedback on their latest paper, 4 April 1984; typescript abstract of the talk "The formation of sedimentary basins by extension of the lithosphere" McKenzie planned to give in Stavanger, Norway as part of conditions of the Alfred Wegener Medal awarded by the EGU, 16 April 1984; brief copy letter to Robert 'Bob' Parker, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, La Jolla Laboratories, University of California, San Diego, USA, is having problems running SUPERMAP on his new computing system, 17 April 1984; two letters concerning McKenzie's election to Council of the Geological Society and appointment to serve on the Awards Committee, 11 & 19 April 1984; photocopy of letter from Robert B Smith, Professor of Geophysics, Director, University of Utah Seismograph Stations, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, to James Jackson, Bullard Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, has been working along similar lines in interpreting normal faults in the Western United States and details his findings so far, is planning some sabbatical leave the following year and is interested in visiting Cambridge, 19 April 1984; copy of letter from Derk Jongsma, Instituut Voor Aardwetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Robert 'Bob' White, Bullard Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, listing the arrangements for their cooperative project in measuring the heat flow in the northern Banda Sea, 9 April, 1984, with further copy letter from White to Keith O'Nions, seeking help with travel expenses for the project, 25 April 1984; Stanley 'Stan' White, Department of Geology, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, has been looking at the pattern of fundamental faults in Australia and includes a rough thumbnail sketch, 16 March 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie, will be pleased to talk with White about faults in Australia but believes the fault plane solutions will be poor, 26 April 1984;
MAY 1984
Photocopy of a referee report for Hellinger, S J & J G Sclater "Permo-Triassic Extensions: a major feature in the subsidence of the North Sea basin?", by Dr Rosy Wood, 15 May 1984, with copy letter to John Sclater from Penny Barton, expressing surprise that one of the figures used was hers but credited to another author, 29 May 1984;
JUNE 1984
Peter Wyllie, Professor of Geology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, thanks McKenzie for his congratulations on his election to the Royal Society, 1 June 1984; copy letter from McKenzie to Dr H Rai, Wadia Institute of Geology, Dehra Dun, India, has never worked on ophiolites but is convinced they have very little to do with the destruction of major ocean basins, 7 June 1984; copy letter from McKenzie to Terry L Stahl, Fiscal Officer, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC, USA, containing a technical report on the project 'Tectonic Studies in Eastern Europe' funded by H O Wood grant, 7 June 1984; Euan Nisbet and Mary Fowler, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, thanks McKenzie for the feedback on their paper on the Williston basin, Isa Asudeh was recently interviewed for a post but gave a terrible lecture which seems to be symptomatic of the UK candidates generally, 14 June [1984]; copy letters between James Jackson, Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge, and Z X Ouyang, Seismological Brigade, Beijing, China, regarding arrangements for the Royal Society exchange visit, 30 March-18 June 1984;
JULY 1984
Kurt Feigl, undergraduate student, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, impressed by McKenie's work on geophysics and wants to pursue graduate studies under his direction at Cambridge, 14 June 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie advising Feigl to first obtain a postgraduate qualification, 16 July 1984; BBC contract for interview with McKenzie for 'Topic Tapes', 27 July 1984;
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1984
Copy letter from McKenzie to Catharine Donovan, Royal Society, London, England, McKenzie and James Jackson are leaving for China the following day [as part of a Royal Society exchange trip] but both have considerable misgivings about the poor communication and arrangements for the trip, 14 August 1984; Roger Scrutton, Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, is currently working on a detailed analysis of porosities, sediment decompaction and backstripping in the Viking Graben area of the North Sea, and would like a copy of McKenzie's computer program to calculate initial subsidence during rifting, 19 September 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie describing the methodology used and instructions, 28 September 1984; copy letter from McKenzie to Arthur Lachenbruch, US Geological Survey, California, USA, thanks Lachenbruch for a preprint of his paper [probably Lachenbruch, et al, "Heat flow in southernmost California and the origin of the Salton Trough", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 90 (1985), pp6709–6736] and discusses its contents, some of which disagrees with one of McKenzie's earlier papers [Houseman, G A & D McKenzie and P Molnar, "Convective instability of a thickened boundary layer and its relevance for the thermal evolution of continental convergent belts", 'Journal of Geophysical Research', vol 86 (1981), pp6115-6132]; Dale Issler, PhD student, Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada, seeking more information on McKenzie's cooling sill model and the determination of kinetic parameters involved in vitrinite reflection, 8 August 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that he has done less on the vitrinite problem than Issler believes, and describes his research on the Whin Sill in the north of England, 26 September 1984;
OCTOBER 1984
Referee reports and revision notes relating to the paper: Watts, A B and D McKenzie, B Parsons & M Roufosse, "The relationship between gravity and bathymetry in the Pacific Ocean", 'Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society', vol 83 (1985), pp263-298, 15 August-9 October 1984; P M White, Acting Registrar, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, inviting McKenzie to accept a position as a Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences for the following year, 20 August 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie pleased to accept, 9 October 1984; letters concerning programme suggestions by McKenzie for the BBC Science Consultative Group, 15-22 October 1984; Frank L Campbell, Vice President, Exploration Research Department, Chevron Oil Field Research Company, La Habra, California, USA, arrangements for McKenzie's visit, 25 October 1984; George E Claypool, 1984 Chairman, Organic Geochemistry Division, The Geochemical Society, USA, notifying McKenzie and his fellow author Andrew S Mackenzie that their paper "Isomerization and aromatization of hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins formed by extension" ['Geological Magazine', vol 120 (1983), pp417-470] has been selected as best paper of the year, 25 October 1984*; Michael John Le Bas, Department of Geology, University of Leicester, England and Chief Editor of the 'Journal of the Geological Society', regrets that the JGS let Mackenzie's & McKenzie's paper slip through their hands as none of the referees could understand it, 26 October 1984*;
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1984
Copy letter from McKenzie to Dr S L Bragg, Wolfson Cambridge Industrial Unit, Cambridge, England, explaining his research on the formation of sedimentary basins and the simple FORTRAN computer programmes that he wrote to predict the subsidence rate and heat flux, which calculates the maturity of the organic material in the basins which itself is one of the factors in determining the amount of oil generated, whilst most oil companies use McKenzie's model as a basis for their research the computer programmes they utilise are very complicated, wonders if there is a way to exploit his own simpler programmes, 20 November 1984*; J J P Deverill, Royal Society, London, England, asking if his department will host a visit for Dr Rashid Kebeasy of the Helwan Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, under the Royal Society's exchange programme with the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research, 30 October 1984, with copy reply from McKenzie accepting but suggesting that Kebeasy spend his time with James Jackson instead, 20 November 1984; copy letter from Andrew S Mackenzie, Geochemistry Branch, B P Research Centre, Middlesex, England, enclosing copies of his acceptance speeches for the F W Clarke Medal and the Organic Chemistry Best Paper 1983 award delivered before the Geochemical Society, 3 December 1984*. |