| Description | Correspondence mainly between Dan McKenzie and Edward 'Ted' Irving, but including some from Fred Vine, on the context, individuals and scientific theories which influenced the formation of plate tectonic theory, April 1999-September 2013, including: continental drift; polar wander; palaeogeography; Vine-Matthews hypothesis; Alfred Wegener; Allan Cox; Tuzo Wilson; Ron Girdler; Jan Hospers; magnetic field reversals; overprinting; Harry Hess; discussions on the content and editorial decision making for Frankel's and Oreskes' books; earlier use of Euler's theorem by Keith Runcorn and Eugene Wegmann; modern copy photographs of Irving and Hospers taken during 1951/1952, when they were both at Cambridge University, with letter from Irving dated 18 June 2003.
Within the file are also typescript drafts of:
McKenzie, "The oceanic tape recorder: Magnetic anomalies in the oceans", [2001], published in Garwin, et al (eds) 'Seminal Nature', Tokyo (2002) pp117-127;
Irving, "Apparent polar wander and the new paleogeography", [2001], incomplete but which was written for inclusion in Oreskes' book and later withdrawn;
Irving, drafts of his biographical notes for the Royal Society, [2001, 2006];
Irving, "The confirmation of continental drift, paleomagnetism 1951-1960", April 1987, originally written for the AAAS symposium on 'What Happened after Wegener', 1981;
Irving, incomplete notes on the 'keysteps in 20th century tectonics and paleogeography', with letter from 16 January 2003;
Irving, "Continental drift, organic evolution and moral courage", 'Eos', vol 81 (2000), p546 [annotated offprint, sent 22 December 2004].
Second file contains letter from Holly Hodder, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, USA, enclosing figures and images borrowed from McKenzie which were used in Naomi Oreskes' book, 22 February 2002. |
| Administrative History | Dan McKenzie and Edward 'Ted' Irving, (and to a certain extent Fred Vine) were heavily involved in helping the author Henry 'Hank' Frankel research his book on the history of plate tectonics ['The Continental Drift Controversy. Evolution into Plate Tectonics', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012)]. All had previously written chapters for inclusion in Naomi Oreskes' book 'Plate tectonics: an insider's history of the modern theory of the Earth', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Westview Press (2001). |