From matching coastlines to moving plates: a scientific detective story 

Frances Williams
FGC / Department of Earth Sciences,
Adelaide University

Abstract: Forget Sherlock Holmes, Poirot and the rest! For a truly exciting detective story, that of the elucidation of Plate Tectonics takes a lot to beat. Today the term “Plate” is mentioned in just about any news report of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. and Plate Tectonics is almost universally accepted as the basic explanation of how the earth works. But behind it lies a fascinating story, beginning with 16th Century cartographers who noted the match of coastlines across the Atlantic Ocean, and moving to the 1960s and 70s when detailed studies of the ocean floor culminated in the “Eureka” moment when everything came together. It is a story full of clues: clues that were ignored or misinterpreted, clues that led up wrong tracks or to dead ends and those, sometimes stumbled across by accident, that eventually led to the solution. In this talk I will take you through this story and introduce some of the “detectives” along the way.

Bio: Frances Williams graduated, in times long gone, with a BSc in Physics from the University of London, and MSc in Geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In between these periods of study she worked for two years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, at just the time when new discoveries about the sea floor were pouring in and the ideas leading to the concept of Plate Tectonics were beginning to fall into place. Having obtained her MSc Frances moved to Ethiopia where she taught geology for 7 years at Addis Ababa University. This was also an exciting time in the story of Plate Tectonics, for it turned out that Ethiopia is in the very latest stage of the current Plate Tectonic cycle. Frances is currently an Honorary Research Associate in Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide and a long-time member of the FGC.
 
University policy is to close doors at 7.00 pm, so arrive punctually! The door may be monitored for latecomers until the main lecture starts (around 7.10 to 7.15 pm). 
Refreshments will be served in the tea room following the meeting.
The meeting will be zoomed. The link will be distributed to members by email a day or two before the meeting,





 

EXTRUSIVE IGNEOUS ROCKS TUTORIAL 

This 10 min tutorial follows on from last meeting tutorial on Intrusive Igneous Rocks. In this tutorial we will look how and where Extrusive Igneous Rocks form, their characteristics and the landforms they produce. 

​​​​​​​

We meet in the Mawson Lecture Theatre and start at 6:40. For those who would like to attend the tutorial, try to arrive before 6:40 and sit more towards the left-hand side of the theatre (as viewed from an audience perspective). 

Peter Briggs