PLATE TECTONICS


The Dan McKenzie archive

Project Background

The Geological Society of London, a learned society and not-for-profit membership organisation serving the Earth sciences community in the UK and overseas, has been privileged to receive the archive of one of Britain’s greatest living scientists, geophysicist Dan McKenzie.

Professor Dan McKenzie was central to formulating the ideas that led to the theory of plate tectonics which, in 1967, represented a paradigm shift in what is now referred to as Earth science. He and other key protagonists offered a unifying context for almost all disciplines of geology and physical science.

Through storytelling, and illustrated by the papers and photographs McKenzie kept throughout his career as well as recorded interviews, this website acknowledges his unique contribution in the most important discovery in the Earth sciences of the 20th century, documents his interactions with many collaborators and co-workers and includes work which continues today.

The ‘Plate Tectonics: the Dan McKenzie Archive’ website will appeal to a broad audience from the layperson interested in geology to the professional passionate about the development of science and scientific ideas.

The Geological Society wishes to express its deep gratitude to Sue Bowler, Rob Butler, Mike Daly, Gareth Roberts, Jonathan Turner and Tony Watts for their scientific expertise, support and patience throughout this project.

Sue Bowler

Sue Bowler is an editor and writer with a particular interest in planets, especially the Earth. She has worked as a university researcher and teacher in earth sciences, physics and astronomy. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in structural geology from the University of Leeds.

She currently edits the magazine Astronomy & Geophysics for the Royal Astronomical Society and has worked for science magazines including New Scientist, the Geological Society’s fellowship magazine GeoscientistGeology Today and Focus.

Rob Butler

Rob holds the chair in Tectonics at Aberdeen University, having previously held positions at Durham University, the Open University and the University of Leeds. Although his best-known research is from the Western Alps and Scottish Highlands, he has worked extensively in Italy, where he has held various honorary positions, the Middle East, Pakistan and New Zealand. This has focused on studying the deformation of continental lithosphere, especially the structure of thrust belts and the controls of inherited structures. He specializes in integrating structural geology with other earth science disciplines. Much of his current research is directed at understanding the structural geology of submarine slopes, from shear fabrics developed in the sea bed beneath turbidity currents right up to the evolution of deep-water fold and thrust belts and their influence on sediment routing through basins.

Since 1980 Rob has been Junior Associate, then Fellow of the Society and has been honoured with a President’s Award (1986) and the Wollaston Fund (1995). He has served on Council (2010-2014), External Relations (2010-2014) and Awards (2009-2013) committees, chairing the Society’s Geoconservation Committee (2013-2015) and the Tectonic Studies Group (1995-6). He is Director of the Virtual Seismic Atlas – an open-access community internet resource that, while sharing the geological interpretation of seismic data, showcases remarkable subsurface imagery.

Mike Daly

Mike Daly is a Professor at Oxford University with research interests in continental tectonics and stratigraphy; the evolution of rift and cratonic basins; and resource systems. He works mostly in Africa, Latin America and the UK. He also serves as a Board Director of Tullow Oil and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG).

Mike started his working life as a structural geologist in the Geological Survey of Zambia. This was followed by a career with BP in various research, geoscience and exploration leadership roles. He retired from BP in 2014 after almost a decade as their Global Exploration Executive.

Gareth Roberts

Gareth Roberts is a Lecturer in Earth Science at Imperial College London. He works to develop observational and theoretical constraints for evolution of Earth’s surface and its mantle. From 2006-2013 he was a PhD student and then postdoctoral research worker at Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge. He has a BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner is a Chartered Geologist with a PhD from the University of Bristol and some 30 years subsequent experience as a petroleum geologist. His career has been split between industry (Shell, BG Group) and the University of Birmingham, where he taught and carried out research applying structural geology to petroleum exploration. Like all geologists of his age group, Jonathan was educated in the post-plate tectonics era, and immediately following the advent of the ‘McKenzie rift model’, and remembers vividly the excitement generated by these new ideas.

Tony Watts

Tony Watts is a Marine Geologist and Geophysicist with a Ph.D from the University of Durham He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Halifax, Candad and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. When he arrived at Lamont-Doherty, Walter Pitman and Manik Talwani were putting the finishing touches to their seminal paper entitled “Sea-floor in the North Atlantic” and he recalls the excitement of working with some of the architects of plate tectonics and the challenges that the new paradigm posed for the next generation of Earth scientists. In 1990, Tony returned to the UK and with help from BP and collaborators at the Universities of Birmingham and Durham he set up a marine group in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Current research is focused on rifted continental margins, seamounts and oceanic islands, deep-sea trenches and sedimentary basins. Tony is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, Academia Europaea and The Royal Society.

Sponsors

The Geological Society of London would like to thank BP, BG Group (now Royal Dutch Shell), Hess and BHP Billiton for sponsoring the plate tectonics archive project.

We are also grateful to the American Geophysical Union, Elsevier, the Geological Society of America, Oxford University Press, the Royal Astronomical Society and Wiley for their assistance in making key articles to the plate tectonics story freely available for this website.

Project Background

The Geological Society of London, a learned society and not-for-profit membership organisation serving the Earth sciences community in the UK and overseas, has been privileged to receive the archive of one of Britain’s greatest living scientists, geophysicist Dan McKenzie.

Professor Dan McKenzie was central to formulating the ideas that led to the theory of plate tectonics which, in 1967, represented a paradigm shift in what is now referred to as Earth science. He and other key protagonists offered a unifying context for almost all disciplines of geology and physical science.

Through storytelling, and illustrated by the papers and photographs McKenzie kept throughout his career as well as recorded interviews, this website acknowledges his unique contribution in the most important discovery in the Earth sciences of the 20th century, documents his interactions with many collaborators and co-workers and includes work which continues today.

The ‘Plate Tectonics: the Dan McKenzie Archive’ website will appeal to a broad audience from the layperson interested in geology to the professional passionate about the development of science and scientific ideas.

The Geological Society wishes to express its deep gratitude to Sue Bowler, Rob Butler, Mike Daly, Gareth Roberts, Jonathan Turner and Tony Watts for their scientific expertise, support and patience throughout this project.

Sue Bowler

Sue Bowler is an editor and writer with a particular interest in planets, especially the Earth. She has worked as a university researcher and teacher in earth sciences, physics and astronomy. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in structural geology from the University of Leeds.

She currently edits the magazine Astronomy & Geophysics for the Royal Astronomical Society and has worked for science magazines including New Scientist, the Geological Society’s fellowship magazine GeoscientistGeology Today and Focus.

Rob Butler

Rob holds the chair in Tectonics at Aberdeen University, having previously held positions at Durham University, the Open University and the University of Leeds. Although his best-known research is from the Western Alps and Scottish Highlands, he has worked extensively in Italy, where he has held various honorary positions, the Middle East, Pakistan and New Zealand. This has focused on studying the deformation of continental lithosphere, especially the structure of thrust belts and the controls of inherited structures. He specializes in integrating structural geology with other earth science disciplines. Much of his current research is directed at understanding the structural geology of submarine slopes, from shear fabrics developed in the sea bed beneath turbidity currents right up to the evolution of deep-water fold and thrust belts and their influence on sediment routing through basins.

Since 1980 Rob has been Junior Associate, then Fellow of the Society and has been honoured with a President’s Award (1986) and the Wollaston Fund (1995). He has served on Council (2010-2014), External Relations (2010-2014) and Awards (2009-2013) committees, chairing the Society’s Geoconservation Committee (2013-2015) and the Tectonic Studies Group (1995-6). He is Director of the Virtual Seismic Atlas – an open-access community internet resource that, while sharing the geological interpretation of seismic data, showcases remarkable subsurface imagery.

Mike Daly

Mike Daly is a Professor at Oxford University with research interests in continental tectonics and stratigraphy; the evolution of rift and cratonic basins; and resource systems. He works mostly in Africa, Latin America and the UK. He also serves as a Board Director of Tullow Oil and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG).

Mike started his working life as a structural geologist in the Geological Survey of Zambia. This was followed by a career with BP in various research, geoscience and exploration leadership roles. He retired from BP in 2014 after almost a decade as their Global Exploration Executive.

Gareth Roberts

Gareth Roberts is a Lecturer in Earth Science at Imperial College London. He works to develop observational and theoretical constraints for evolution of Earth’s surface and its mantle. From 2006-2013 he was a PhD student and then postdoctoral research worker at Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge. He has a BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner is a Chartered Geologist with a PhD from the University of Bristol and some 30 years subsequent experience as a petroleum geologist. His career has been split between industry (Shell, BG Group) and the University of Birmingham, where he taught and carried out research applying structural geology to petroleum exploration. Like all geologists of his age group, Jonathan was educated in the post-plate tectonics era, and immediately following the advent of the ‘McKenzie rift model’, and remembers vividly the excitement generated by these new ideas.

Tony Watts

Tony Watts is a Marine Geologist and Geophysicist with a Ph.D from the University of Durham He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Halifax, Candad and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. When he arrived at Lamont-Doherty, Walter Pitman and Manik Talwani were putting the finishing touches to their seminal paper entitled “Sea-floor in the North Atlantic” and he recalls the excitement of working with some of the architects of plate tectonics and the challenges that the new paradigm posed for the next generation of Earth scientists. In 1990, Tony returned to the UK and with help from BP and collaborators at the Universities of Birmingham and Durham he set up a marine group in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Current research is focused on rifted continental margins, seamounts and oceanic islands, deep-sea trenches and sedimentary basins. Tony is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, Academia Europaea and The Royal Society.

Sponsors

The Geological Society of London would like to thank BP, BG Group (now Royal Dutch Shell), Hess and BHP Billiton for sponsoring the plate tectonics archive project.

We are also grateful to the American Geophysical Union, Elsevier, the Geological Society of America, Oxford University Press, the Royal Astronomical Society and Wiley for their assistance in making key articles to the plate tectonics story freely available for this website.

Project Background

The Geological Society of London, a learned society and not-for-profit membership organisation serving the Earth sciences community in the UK and overseas, has been privileged to receive the archive of one of Britain’s greatest living scientists, geophysicist Dan McKenzie.

Professor Dan McKenzie was central to formulating the ideas that led to the theory of plate tectonics which, in 1967, represented a paradigm shift in what is now referred to as Earth science. He and other key protagonists offered a unifying context for almost all disciplines of geology and physical science.

Through storytelling, and illustrated by the papers and photographs McKenzie kept throughout his career as well as recorded interviews, this website acknowledges his unique contribution in the most important discovery in the Earth sciences of the 20th century, documents his interactions with many collaborators and co-workers and includes work which continues today.

The ‘Plate Tectonics: the Dan McKenzie Archive’ website will appeal to a broad audience from the layperson interested in geology to the professional passionate about the development of science and scientific ideas.

The Geological Society wishes to express its deep gratitude to Sue Bowler, Rob Butler, Mike Daly, Gareth Roberts, Jonathan Turner and Tony Watts for their scientific expertise, support and patience throughout this project.

Sponsors

The Geological Society of London would like to thank BP, BG Group (now Royal Dutch Shell), Hess and BHP Billiton for sponsoring the plate tectonics archive project.

We are also grateful to the American Geophysical Union, Elsevier, the Geological Society of America, Oxford University Press, the Royal Astronomical Society and Wiley for their assistance in making key articles to the plate tectonics story freely available for this website.

Sue Bowler

Sue Bowler is an editor and writer with a particular interest in planets, especially the Earth. She has worked as a university researcher and teacher in earth sciences, physics and astronomy. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in structural geology from the University of Leeds.

She currently edits the magazine Astronomy & Geophysics for the Royal Astronomical Society and has worked for science magazines including New Scientist, the Geological Society’s fellowship magazine GeoscientistGeology Today and Focus.

Rob Butler

Rob holds the chair in Tectonics at Aberdeen University, having previously held positions at Durham University, the Open University and the University of Leeds. Although his best-known research is from the Western Alps and Scottish Highlands, he has worked extensively in Italy, where he has held various honorary positions, the Middle East, Pakistan and New Zealand. This has focused on studying the deformation of continental lithosphere, especially the structure of thrust belts and the controls of inherited structures. He specializes in integrating structural geology with other earth science disciplines. Much of his current research is directed at understanding the structural geology of submarine slopes, from shear fabrics developed in the sea bed beneath turbidity currents right up to the evolution of deep-water fold and thrust belts and their influence on sediment routing through basins.

Since 1980 Rob has been Junior Associate, then Fellow of the Society and has been honoured with a President’s Award (1986) and the Wollaston Fund (1995). He has served on Council (2010-2014), External Relations (2010-2014) and Awards (2009-2013) committees, chairing the Society’s Geoconservation Committee (2013-2015) and the Tectonic Studies Group (1995-6). He is Director of the Virtual Seismic Atlas – an open-access community internet resource that, while sharing the geological interpretation of seismic data, showcases remarkable subsurface imagery.

Mike Daly

Mike Daly is a Professor at Oxford University with research interests in continental tectonics and stratigraphy; the evolution of rift and cratonic basins; and resource systems. He works mostly in Africa, Latin America and the UK. He also serves as a Board Director of Tullow Oil and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG).

Mike started his working life as a structural geologist in the Geological Survey of Zambia. This was followed by a career with BP in various research, geoscience and exploration leadership roles. He retired from BP in 2014 after almost a decade as their Global Exploration Executive.

Gareth Roberts

Gareth Roberts is a Lecturer in Earth Science at Imperial College London. He works to develop observational and theoretical constraints for evolution of Earth’s surface and its mantle. From 2006-2013 he was a PhD student and then postdoctoral research worker at Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge. He has a BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner is a Chartered Geologist with a PhD from the University of Bristol and some 30 years subsequent experience as a petroleum geologist. His career has been split between industry (Shell, BG Group) and the University of Birmingham, where he taught and carried out research applying structural geology to petroleum exploration. Like all geologists of his age group, Jonathan was educated in the post-plate tectonics era, and immediately following the advent of the ‘McKenzie rift model’, and remembers vividly the excitement generated by these new ideas.

Tony Watts

Tony Watts is a Marine Geologist and Geophysicist with a Ph.D from the University of Durham He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Halifax, Candad and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. When he arrived at Lamont-Doherty, Walter Pitman and Manik Talwani were putting the finishing touches to their seminal paper entitled “Sea-floor in the North Atlantic” and he recalls the excitement of working with some of the architects of plate tectonics and the challenges that the new paradigm posed for the next generation of Earth scientists. In 1990, Tony returned to the UK and with help from BP and collaborators at the Universities of Birmingham and Durham he set up a marine group in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Current research is focused on rifted continental margins, seamounts and oceanic islands, deep-sea trenches and sedimentary basins. Tony is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, Academia Europaea and The Royal Society.

Project Background

The Geological Society of London, a learned society and not-for-profit membership organisation serving the Earth sciences community in the UK and overseas, has been privileged to receive the archive of one of Britain’s greatest living scientists, geophysicist Dan McKenzie.

Professor Dan McKenzie was central to formulating the ideas that led to the theory of plate tectonics which, in 1967, represented a paradigm shift in what is now referred to as Earth science. He and other key protagonists offered a unifying context for almost all disciplines of geology and physical science.

Through storytelling, and illustrated by the papers and photographs McKenzie kept throughout his career as well as recorded interviews, this website acknowledges his unique contribution in the most important discovery in the Earth sciences of the 20th century, documents his interactions with many collaborators and co-workers and includes work which continues today.

The ‘Plate Tectonics: the Dan McKenzie Archive’ website will appeal to a broad audience from the layperson interested in geology to the professional passionate about the development of science and scientific ideas.

The Geological Society wishes to express its deep gratitude to Sue Bowler, Rob Butler, Mike Daly, Gareth Roberts, Jonathan Turner and Tony Watts for their scientific expertise, support and patience throughout this project.

Sponsors

The Geological Society of London would like to thank BP, BG Group (now Royal Dutch Shell), Hess and BHP Billiton for sponsoring the plate tectonics archive project.

We are also grateful to the American Geophysical Union, Elsevier, the Geological Society of America, Oxford University Press, the Royal Astronomical Society and Wiley for their assistance in making key articles to the plate tectonics story freely available for this website.

Sue Bowler

Sue Bowler is an editor and writer with a particular interest in planets, especially the Earth. She has worked as a university researcher and teacher in earth sciences, physics and astronomy. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in structural geology from the University of Leeds.

She currently edits the magazine Astronomy & Geophysics for the Royal Astronomical Society and has worked for science magazines including New Scientist, the Geological Society’s fellowship magazine GeoscientistGeology Today and Focus.

Rob Butler

Rob holds the chair in Tectonics at Aberdeen University, having previously held positions at Durham University, the Open University and the University of Leeds. Although his best-known research is from the Western Alps and Scottish Highlands, he has worked extensively in Italy, where he has held various honorary positions, the Middle East, Pakistan and New Zealand. This has focused on studying the deformation of continental lithosphere, especially the structure of thrust belts and the controls of inherited structures. He specializes in integrating structural geology with other earth science disciplines. Much of his current research is directed at understanding the structural geology of submarine slopes, from shear fabrics developed in the sea bed beneath turbidity currents right up to the evolution of deep-water fold and thrust belts and their influence on sediment routing through basins.

Since 1980 Rob has been Junior Associate, then Fellow of the Society and has been honoured with a President’s Award (1986) and the Wollaston Fund (1995). He has served on Council (2010-2014), External Relations (2010-2014) and Awards (2009-2013) committees, chairing the Society’s Geoconservation Committee (2013-2015) and the Tectonic Studies Group (1995-6). He is Director of the Virtual Seismic Atlas – an open-access community internet resource that, while sharing the geological interpretation of seismic data, showcases remarkable subsurface imagery.

Mike Daly

Mike Daly is a Professor at Oxford University with research interests in continental tectonics and stratigraphy; the evolution of rift and cratonic basins; and resource systems. He works mostly in Africa, Latin America and the UK. He also serves as a Board Director of Tullow Oil and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG).

Mike started his working life as a structural geologist in the Geological Survey of Zambia. This was followed by a career with BP in various research, geoscience and exploration leadership roles. He retired from BP in 2014 after almost a decade as their Global Exploration Executive.

Gareth Roberts

Gareth Roberts is a Lecturer in Earth Science at Imperial College London. He works to develop observational and theoretical constraints for evolution of Earth’s surface and its mantle. From 2006-2013 he was a PhD student and then postdoctoral research worker at Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge. He has a BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner is a Chartered Geologist with a PhD from the University of Bristol and some 30 years subsequent experience as a petroleum geologist. His career has been split between industry (Shell, BG Group) and the University of Birmingham, where he taught and carried out research applying structural geology to petroleum exploration. Like all geologists of his age group, Jonathan was educated in the post-plate tectonics era, and immediately following the advent of the ‘McKenzie rift model’, and remembers vividly the excitement generated by these new ideas.

Tony Watts

Tony Watts is a Marine Geologist and Geophysicist with a Ph.D from the University of Durham He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Halifax, Candad and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. When he arrived at Lamont-Doherty, Walter Pitman and Manik Talwani were putting the finishing touches to their seminal paper entitled “Sea-floor in the North Atlantic” and he recalls the excitement of working with some of the architects of plate tectonics and the challenges that the new paradigm posed for the next generation of Earth scientists. In 1990, Tony returned to the UK and with help from BP and collaborators at the Universities of Birmingham and Durham he set up a marine group in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Current research is focused on rifted continental margins, seamounts and oceanic islands, deep-sea trenches and sedimentary basins. Tony is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, Academia Europaea and The Royal Society.

Story

Chapter

01

The Foundations pre and post WWII

Chapter

02

The paradigm 1966-67

Chapter

03

The implication for continents

Chapter

04

Melt production

Chapter

05

Continental lithospheric tomography