| Description | Correspondence covering the period when Dan McKenzie returned to the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge, England, to take up the post of Senior Assistant in Research (SAR), September-December 1969.
Correspondents and subjects include:
SEPTEMBER 1969
Jack Zussman, Professor of Geology, University of Manchester, England, wants to meet up before McKenzie's scheduled visit to Manchester University in order to show him around the department, 9 September 1969, followed by another letter with detailed arrangements, 24 September 1969; John Sclater, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, USA, updates McKenzie on his work on the Indian Ocean, complaints about McKenzie's car which he wants to sell, 22 September, 1969; Nicola Kucza, Honorary Secretary of the Arthur Holmes Society, University of Durham, England, has not had a reply to her earlier invitation for McKenzie to give a talk to the society, 24 September 1969; typescript proceedings of the first and second ad hoc meetings to discuss the proposal to form a European Geophysical Union, convened by Keith Runcorn, with manuscript notes by McKenzie, recording his thoughts on the second meeting which took place in Madrid, Spain, September 1969; Mrs B G Crawford, Secretary to the Editors of 'Endeavour', Millbank, London, England, thanking McKenzie for submitting his paper [published as: McKenzie, D, "Plate tectonics and continental drift", 'Endeavour', vol 29 (1970), pp 39-44], 29 September 1969; cutting from an unknown US publication advertising the availability of Earthquake Data Cards from the ESSA [Environmental Science Services Administration], Maryland, US, which has been ringed and annotated by McKenzie "get", [1969]; Robert 'Bob' Parker, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, La Jolla Laboratories, University of California, San Diego, USA, has just come back from the Bedford Institute where his signal processing technique used on the Reykjanes Ridge is being applied to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge profiles which previously had been at odds with the Vine-Matthews patterns [sea-floor spreading], is not keen on McKenzie's idea for a plate tectonics paper, suggests instead they look at the self-consistency of present pole patterns and spreading rates, 30 September 1969;
OCTOBER 1969
John Sclater, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sending McKenzie material, 2 October 1969; copy letter from McKenzie to Dr Peter Smith, Oliver Lodge Laboratory, University of Liverpool, England, declining the offer to write for 'Comments on Geophysics' but stating he will ask David 'Dai' Davies instead, 8 October 1969, [at the bottom of the letter is a short note from McKenzie asking Davies if he is interested who replies 'NO!']; copy letter from McKenzie to Edward 'Teddy' Bullard, head of the Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge, England, agreeing to go along with the earlier suggestion of asking for a minimum required salary as an SAR as he had been offered higher paying posts, 10 October 1969; Nicola Kucza, Honorary Secretary of the Arthur Holmes Society, University of Durham, detailing arrangements for McKenzie's forthcoming visit, 12 October 1969; copy letter from McKenzie to Professor Peter Berners Fellgett, Department of Applied Physical Sciences, University of Reading, England, wishing to read his paper on 'Bubble Convection', 13 October 1969; John Sclater, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sending McKenzie a draft of his heat flow paper for comments, and asking it to be forwarded to Teddy Bullard, currently working on Indian Ocean magnetics and bathymetry, Bob Fisher is attempting to get a fully computerised system working at sea which will help pull all the Scripps geophysicists together, Fisher is unhappy that McKenzie and Sclater have 'stolen' the magnetic data from an area he was working on, but once compared the magnetic and topographical fracture zones agree, so suggests both should publish the papers together, 13 October 1969; William Mansfield Cooper, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, informing McKenzie that the appointing committee unanimously voted to appoint McKenzie the new chair of geophysics at the University, 30 September 1969, with two letters from William 'Bill' Fyfe, Royal Society Professor of Geochemistry, University of Manchester, and Leon Mestel, Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, encouraging McKenzie to accept, 2 & 7 October 1969*, with copy reply from McKenzie turning down the appointment as he is happy at Cambridge and it is where his loyalties lie, 16 October 1969; 'Jack' [possibly John 'Jack' M Bird], Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, New York, USA, thanking McKenzie for the hospitality during his visit to Cambridge and inviting him for a reciprocal visit, departmental developments at SUNY, is interested in plate tectonics, 17 October 1969; Ken Hsu, Professor of Geology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, organising a colloquium series at his institution and following recommendations of his colleagues at Scripps and Caltech, invites McKenzie to visit, 21 October 1969; William 'Bill' Sowerbutts, School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, currently writing his PhD on gravity anomalies at the East Africa Rift System and would like a preprint of McKenzie paper which he gave at the Royal Society ["The development of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in relation to plate tectonics"], 21 October 1969; Orson LaMar Anderson, convenor of the International Symposium on 'Mechanical Properties and Processes of the Mantle', International Upper Mantle Committee, on arrangements for the conference and asking McKenzie to supply the names of 'bright Englishmen', 22 October 1969; William Mansfield Cooper, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, disappointed that McKenzie has turned down the offer of a professorship at Manchester, 23 October 1969; David T Griggs, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA, has just read McKenzie's latest paper and finds that it covers the same subject as one which Griggs has just written, but thinks it is still sufficiently different to be published, 29 October 1969; Jack Zussman, Professor of Geology, University of Manchester, disappointed that McKenzie has turned down the chair of geophysics at the university but will consider Fred Vine if he is interested, 30 October 1969; Ian G Gass, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Buckinghamshire, England, requesting offprints of two of McKenzie's papers on plate tectonics, 30 October 1969;
NOVEMBER 1969
Laurie John, Producer, Science Talks (Radio), BBC, London, England, enquiring if McKenzie is still interested in doing a 20 minute talk on continental drift in the series 'Primitive Earth', 5 November 1969; Ken Hsu, Professor of Geology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, arrangements for McKenzie to visit his institution, 3 November 1969; brief letter from Seiya Uyeda, Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan, pleased that McKenzie will produce a paper for a symposium proceedings, 4 November 1969; Ken Hsu, Professor of Geology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, further arrangements for McKenzie to visit his institution, and Hsu's recent appointment to the Mediterranean panel of JOIDES which he hopes may be able to test McKenzie's theories on plate tectonics, 12 November 1969; Ian G Gass, Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, thanks McKenzie for offprints and stating that the Earth Sciences component of the OU first year course is now plate tectonics orientated, 10 November 1969; H Frank, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands, proposing a new publication on global tectonics which will collate together the most important papers on the subject and asking McKenzie if he will send him a list, 18 November 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that he would only do it if the final publication was cheap and widely available, but Gordon Gastil from San Diego State College is working on something very similar, 25 November 1969; Bruce Julian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, finally sending McKenzie his paper on the Pacific northwest, is beginning to play around with surface waves and free oscillations in regionally varying earth models, 18 November 1969; Ronald 'Ron' Girdler, Department of Physics and Planetary Physics, School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, wanting to check the Nubia/Somalia pole as he thinks it is not far enough south, 20 November 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie explaining his reasoning, 25 November 1969; Dr Stanley 'Stan' Murrell, Department of Geology, University College London, England, attempting to arrange a working colloquium to consider the petrological, chemical and physical nature of the zones of the crust and mantle of the Earth in light of plate tectonics and inviting McKenzie to take part, includes list of proposed participants, 21 November 1969; William Daniel Gill, Professor of Oil Technology, Department of Geology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, inviting McKenzie to give a 'Link Lecture' to students and staff on plate tectonics, 21 November 1969;
DECEMBER 1969
Leon Kovisars, Research and Development Department, Continental Oil Company, Oklahoma, USA, puzzled by some aspects of McKenzie's and Morgan's paper "The Evolution of Triple Junctions" [published in 'Nature', vol 224 (1969), pp125-133], 2 December 1969; John L Rosenfeld, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA, discusses his thoughts on McKenzie's paper "Speculations on the Consequences and Causes of Plate Motions" [published in: 'Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society', vol 18 (1969), pp1-32] and thinks that there should be more interaction between geology and geophysics, and wondering if he might suggest McKenzie's name as a possible member of staff at his university, 8 December 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie thanking Rosenfeld but is happy in his current situation, 12 December 1969; Orson LaMar Anderson, Editor, 'Journal of Geophysical Research', asking if McKenzie would referee his paper, 11 December 1969; letter of rejection for David 'Dai' Davies' NERC grant application in which the title is incorrectly spelled 'Investigation: Seismology and Plant Tectonics', 17 December 1969; Martin Bott, Professor of Geophysics, Department of Geology, University of Durham, England, requesting permission to reuse one of McKenzie's figures for his publication, 31 December 1969; John Tuzo Wilson, Principal, Erindale College, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, inviting McKenzie to speak at a symposium on global tectonics and sea-floor spreading which he is convening, praises McKenzie's and Morgan's paper "The Evolution of Triple Junctions" [1969, ibid] as he was just about to write on a similar account on the landward aspect of the East Pacific Rise, 15 December 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie keen to come but his attendance will depend on finding travel funds, 31 December 1969*. |