| Description | General correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, January-December 1989. 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:
Simon Lamb, Hertfordshire, England, currently employed on a temporary basis with John Dewey at the University of Oxford working on the tectonics of the Andes, asks if McKenzie will support his various applications for more permanent posts, 12 January 1989; Dr M J Tricker, University Liaison, BP Research International, Sudbury Research Centre, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, England, renewal of McKenzie's consultancy agreement, 12 January 1989; copy letter from Robert 'Bob' White, Bullard Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, to Jonathan Piel, 'Scientific American', New York, USA, seeking information on the publication status of White's and McKenzie's joint paper "Magmatism at Rifts" and threatening to withdraw it if there is any further delay, 16 January 1989; John Sclater, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin (UTIG), USA, further deterioration of relations between the Institute and Department at the University of Texas, has been offered a post at Scripps Institution of Oceanography which he is seriously considering, 19 January [1988];
Akel Winn-Nielsen, President, European Geophysical Society, informing McKenzie on his election as an Honorary Member, 16-17 March 1989; Raymond E Arvidson, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA, and Editor of 'Geology', replying to McKenzie's complaints about the Geological Society of America's publications, principally that they are ceasing to be major geoscience journals, 21 March 1989;
Xia Kan-Yuan, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology Academia Sinica, Kwangchwo, China, detailing a proposed collaborative research project to study the structural characteristics of the continental margin of the northern South China Sea, 28 March 1989, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that whilst he is in favour of collaborative working, his department consists of a number of people working on their own independent projects, suggests others who may be interested, 6 April 1989; letters concerning McKenzie's nomination for the Japan Prize, 23 March-24 April 1989;
Chris Chapman, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics (ITG) at Cambridge is moving away from theoretical seismology towards mechanics, Chapman is keen to establish some kind of arrangement for theoretical seismology with Cambridge, 10 May 1987; letters between Colin Graham, Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and McKenzie concerning Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding for the Grant Institute, 3 February-17 May 1989; copy letter from David T Sandwell, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, to Dr Joseph Boyce, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC, USA, on the recommendation of McKenzie is applying as a guest investigator on the Magellan radar mapping mission to Venus, 30 May 1989;
Jonathan Piel, Editor, 'Scientific American', New York, USA, McKenzie's paper with Robert S White will be published presently ["Volcanism and rifting", 'Scientific American', vol 261 (July 1989), pp62-71], 9 June 1989; Adam Dziewonski, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, following John Woodhouse's acceptance of a professorship at Oxford, Harvard is looking for two recent PhD graduate seismologists, 8 June 1989, with copy reply from McKenzie recommending Richard Coates, 19 June 1989;
Mark T Brandon, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, is working on the idea of declination anomalies in palaeomagnetic data being related to the vorticity of continental deformation to account for Tertiary palaeomagnetic data acquired by Ted Irving and himself, thinks there may be an error an earlier paper by McKenzie and James Jackson, 10 August 1989; Gregg Wilkerson, District Geologist, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, Bakersfield, California, USA, is currently engaged in a published discussion with the scientific creationist Robert V Gentry about the origin of Polonium pleochroic halos, and as Gentry has challenged geologists to synthesize a hand-size piece of granite containing Po radio halos he would like information on the artificial synthesis of igneous rocks which he read in the paper White, R & D McKenzie,"Volcanism and rifting" [ibid], 3 August 1989, with copy reply from McKenzie unclear why Wilkerson gained that impression as neither White nor he are experimental petrologists, 14 August 1989;
Manouchehr 'Manooch' Takin, OPEC, Vienna, Austria, enclosing two photographs of McKenzie and Takin's family taken on a recent trip to Cambridge, 8 September 1989;
Richard T Haworth, Chief Geophysicist, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, England, thanking McKenzie for his input to the report "NERC Strategy for Advanced Research Computing - Earth Sciences Input" [included], 27 October 1989;
Letters concerning the arrangements for the presentation of the Arthur L Day Medal to McKenzie at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, 6 November 1989, including copies of the medal citations, 8 May-21 November 1989; Steve C Roberts, Essex, England, resigning as director of G-Squared Cambridge, 27 November 1989; two letters from Stephen Moorbath, Reader in Geology, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, England, enjoyed reading McKenzie's paper "Some remarks on the movement of small melt fractions in the mantle" ['Earth and Planetary Science Letters', vol 95 (1989), pp53-72] as it clearly explains the mechanism for mantle metasomatism, which is connected to his own research on the contribution of lower crustal melts to asthenospherically derived continental magmas, 6 & 28 November 1989;
John Sclater, UTIG, noticed that they have both been invited to participate in an International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) symposium in honour of Harold Jeffreys but is reluctant to go, has sold his house in Texas and is preparing to move to Scripps but is worried as Tom Jordan has warned Sclater that he is unlikely to have time to do much of his own research due to the lack of leadership at the institution, appreciates McKenzie's comments on climate and global change which he has started to integrate into the national ocean sciences program, is attempting to get a uniform policy on ocean science funding, 18 November 1989, with draft reply from McKenzie stating that he has no intention of attending any meetings organised by IUGG or the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) as they are unselective, plus he and Harold Jeffreys did not like each other, encourages Sclater to start at Scripps as soon as possible and states that he will enjoy the leadership role, comparing him to Teddy Bullard and Bill Menard, 15 December [1989]; letters concerning arrangements for Professor Li Yinting, Christian Albechts Universitat Zu Kile, Institut fur Geophysik, Germany, to visit McKenzie in Cambridge, 20 November-20 December 1989, with copies of Li's research proposals. |