| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, January-December 1987. 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:
Maurice K Wells, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, is looking forward to McKenzie's talk with R H Hunter to the VSG [?Volcanic Studies Group], description of the metamorphic petrology of north Norway and Ardnamurchan, Scotland, 9 February 1987; letters between McKenzie and Bernard Célérier, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin (UTIG), USA, disagreeing over interpretations of isostatic calculations of the Exmouth and Rockall plateaus, 24 November 1986-10 February 1987; copy letter from McKenzie to Dr O'Reilly, School of Physics, University of Newcastle, England, Dave Gubbins' recent paper has been rejected from the journal 'Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors', but McKenzie has read it and found it to be sound and recommends that it should be published, 13 Feburary 1987; Eileen George, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Swindon, England, encloses two apparently contradictory referees' comments on McKenzie's latest research report for his project grant for "Numerical and Laboratory Studies of Mantle Convection", 6 February 1987, with brief copy reply from McKenzie unsuprised as these differences bedevil the subject of mantle convection, 13 February 1987; John Sclater, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, final edits to their joint paper, sends McKenzie a copy of a review on sedimentary basins written with Bernard Célérier which will form the basis of his talk as an AAPG [American Association of Petroleum Geologists] disinguished lecturer, seeks comments on his paper on depth and age, changes at the UTIG, wonders if James Jackson would be interested in spending a year-long sabbatical there, 5 February 1987, with copy reply from McKenzie commenting on both of Sclater's papers, thinks it unlikely James Jackson will agree, 17 Feburary 1987;
Gillian Foulger, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Durham, England, regarding the UK Neotectonic GPS Co-op, 7 May 1987, with copy reply from McKenzie suggesting that the GPS surveys should be carried out by professional geodesists and that she should not seek joint project funding but instead submit individual proposals, 15 May 1987, letter from Foulger to Edmund Nickless, [NERC], seeking funding advice, 8 June 1987; letters between Lawrence A Lawver, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, and the Geological Society of London, regarding Lawver's complaint that he has not been receiving any copies of the 'Journal of the Geological Society', 11 April 1986-17 June 1987;
John Sclater, UTIG, describes his latest NASA proposal to examine the seismicity of the Gulf of California, 28 July 1987;
Frances G Marcantonio, Royal Society, London, England, wanting to arrange a visit for Professor Rashad Mohamed Kabeasy, President of the Helwan Institute, as part of an exchange programme with the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, 6 June 1987, with brief copy reply from McKenzie stating that the seismic station at Helwan was one of the worst run in the international network and therefore has no interest in taking part, 27 August 1987;
Letters between McKenzie, Henry 'Hank' Frankel, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA, and Edward 'Ted' Irving, Pacific Geoscience Centre, Energy Mines and Resources Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, concerning Frankel's research and published papers on the history of continental drift and plate tectonics, 19 May-1 September 1987; Peter Warren, Executive Secretary, Royal Society, London, England, arrangements for McKenzie's 1988 Rutherford Memorial Lecture programme, 8 July 1987, with brief copy letter from McKenzie, 3 September 1987; Mary Colwell, Researcher, Natural History Unit, BBC, Bristol, England, is working on a tv series 'The Birth of Europe' and is seeking help and advice from experts, 17 September 1987, with draft manuscript reply from McKenzie expressing his interest and explaining his current research on earthquakes in Greece, the Aegean and Western Turkey, suggests that the deformation of central Greece controlled the land access to Athens, influencing the ancient battle of Thermopylae, [n.d];
John Sclater, UTIG, fundamental problems with staff recruitment at the university, with disagreements between the Institute and the Department as the former has no mandate or funding for teaching, proposes to set up organisational centres at the Institute to deal with graduate education, is tempted by an approach to apply for Director of Institute of Marine Resources at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 4 October 1987; copy letter from Peter 'Pete' Molnar, BP, France, to Dr Frank Press, National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, USA, expressing his concern at the way in which research in Earth Sciences is funded, particularly the emphasis on 'big is best' projects, 19 October 1987;
Thomas W C Hilde, College of Geosciences, Texas A & M University, USA, seeking completed manuscripts from the previous year's Geodynamics Silver Anniversary of Plate Tectonics Symposium to be published in a special issue of 'Tectonics', 6 October 1987, with brief copy reply from McKenzie stating that he will not be able to produce a paper as he has been totally absorbed in abstract problems of bifurcation theory, 11 November 1987, stapled at the back is a typescript abstract of McKenzie's paper, "Continental Tectonics: Plate Tectonics with Fuzzy Edges", [n.d.]; Karl Fuchs, Universitat Karlsruhe, Geophysikalisches Institut, Karlsruhe, F R Germany and President of the Inter-Union Commission of the Lithosphere (ICL), seeking McKenzie's advice in designing the program of the ICL for the next decade, enclosing a list of current projects and committee members, 3 November 1987, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that the new area opening up is the relationship between the composition and volume of magma, rifting plate destruction and mantle convection, although he believes that the rift story is now understood but little is known about island arcs, comments that the list of people are all older than him and that to have any impact the younger scientists who actually do the work need to be included, 11 November 1987. |