Doctor John Lindsay

Recently I had a discussion with Gordon Smith who has a wonderful photoblog on the New England. Gordon was curious about some conglomerate that he and a well-known bushwalking writer, Bob Harden had come across in the Oxley Wild Rivers and Carrai National Parks. During the discussion, it became apparent that most of the understanding of the geology of the area was established in the early 1960's by a student named John Lindsay. Later, Bob informed me that John Lindsay was well-known for his later work for NASA. 

Photo of John Lindsay obtained from the Luna and Planetary Institute

On occasions I've posted short blogs on individual geologists and given John Lindsay's background I thought it worth doing the same for him.

John was born in the middle of World War 2 in January 1941. I don't know where he was born or what schools he attended but his tertiary education was in sedimenary geology with a solid background in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and statistics, earning his Bachelor of Science Degree (with Honours) in 1962 and Master of Science degree in 1964 from the University of New England.

During his time at UNE, John completed mapping and research projects which identified anomalous terrestrial rocks in a terrain that was mainly of marine origin. He worked in an area that was very difficult to understand because it was so broken up into different blocks by numerous faults. This is the area that is the gorge country between Kempsey and Walcha which includes the Oxley Wild Rivers and Carrai National Parks. To the best of my knowledge this day the geology of the area has not advanced much since John's work. This area was the subject of my discussion with Gordon Smith and Bob Harden.

Following his UNE study, John moved to the United States where he studied for his PhD at Ohio State University. Following his PhD John obtained a position with NASA in the Apollo Program where he was involved in Luna mission planning and the training of astronauts. John’s other professional background also included positions as Research Scientist at the Marine Science Institute of the University of Texas, Program Manager at Exxon Production Research, Adjunct Professor at Oxford University, and NRC Senior Research Associate at the Astrobiology Institute at NASA Johnson Space Center. While he was at NASA John studied extreme environments on Earth as analogues for extra-terrestrial environments. This lead him to become an authority on aspects of Antarctic geology.

John also maintained contact with Australia and held an academic position at La Trobe University in Victoria in the 1970's and joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra in 1984. He spent much of his time developing a deep understanding of the inland Australian sedimentary basins and the ancient sedimentary rocks of the Pilbara. His works on the Pilbara rocks in particular helped us to learn about the very earliest life on earth.

John contributed not just to our present understanding of geology but also to life on earth and even the search for life in the universe. From what I have read he also was held in high regard with those that worked with him.

John died in the United States from cancer in June 2008.

References/bibliography:

Much of the information I have about John Lindsay was obtained from his Luna and Planetary Institue Obituary and the dedication of the book Earliest Life on Earth: Habitats, Environments and Methods of Detection by Golding& Glickson (2011). However, I've used a few internet sources that I seem to have misplaced.

*Golding, S., Glickson, M. 2011. Earliest Life on Earth: Habitats, Environments and Methods of Detection. Springer.

A list of John's published papers, conference proceedings etc. can be found at this Luna and Planetary Institute webpage:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/lindsay/papers/lp_papers/

A list of his most recent papers can be found here:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/lindsay/papers/

Geologists at the University of New England

The first geology class at UNE 1939 (from Voisey 1964)
L to R: Mary Hindmarsh, Catherine Miller, Rae Anthony,
Frank Wickwood, Sylvia Willoughby & Joan Bates.
Rae Anthony and Joan Bates became the first geology graduates in 1943

I obtained a copy of an interesting publication about the first 25 years of the geology department at the University of New England (UNE), (Voisey 1964) from a fellow member of the Geological Society of Australia. This book was published back in 1964 by Alan Voisey who was then head of the department. Voisey (1964) mentioned many names that are now synonymous with UNE geology, for instance, Bruce Chappell, Barrie McKelvey, Raymond Binns, J Wilkinson and others. In addition, I was surprised to find a wonderful picture of the first 'Geology I' class from 1939. It may surprise many others too that in 1939 the first geology class has only one man in it and five women. in 1940 the class was neatly balanced with four women and four men.

While I'm on the subject of the history of the UNE geology department I came across this interview with one of UNEs most well known geologists, Dr Richard Stanton. It is an interesting read as it demonstrates how little we knew of much of our geological history until relatively recently. In paricular the interview demonstrates how even the concepts that we now take for granted as geologists were only developed in the last generation or so. This includes such fundamental concepts such as plate tectonics and the ideas that arrived from it. The interview can be found on the Australian Academy of Sciences page here. Dr Stanton obtained his undergraduate geology degree from UNE and is still an Emeritus Professor there.

Recently I've also been in contact with a couple of undergraduate geology students and some of my fellow students from UNE which reminded me of the awesome geology alumni that UNE has and what seems a bright future with dedicated students with a love of the subject. I'm so pleased that the department still has excellent staff including Dr Nancy Vickery who with her collegues has recently demonstrated that the 'Basalts' of the Inverell and Glen Innes area are quite different or Dr. John Paterson who has made some incredible palaeontological discoveries in South Australia and Associate Professor Paul Ashley with an inexhaustible knowledge of  geochemistry and metallic mineral deposits. There is a couple of other geology staff now at UNE who I've not met but given the history of the department I'm sure they will continue be a great source of research into our region and examples to their students.

While I'm still on the topic it is worth mentioning that some geologists from UNE have gone to become important drivers of political change such as Professor Peter Flood, or some controversial ones such as Professor Ian Plimer.

References/bibliography:

Voisey, A.H. 1964. Twenty Years of Geology in New England - The first twenty-five years of geology in he New England University College and in the University of New England. L.A. Cotton School of Geology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

Professor Bruce Chappell

Prof. Chappell at Macquarie University
(X-ray fluorescence laboratory) - photo from Macquarie University

Just a quick post following news that Professor Bruce Chappell from Macquarie University died in Canberra on the 22nd of April.

Prof. Bruce Chappell was a well known and respected member of the geological community. He undertook a great deal of geology and geochemistry research on many areas of Eastern Australia, but particularly igneous, metamorphic and volcanic terrains. He even had a symposium named after him in 1998! You know you've made a contribution when that happens!

Prof. Bruce Chappell was born in Armidale, New England in 1936. There he was educated including attendance at the University of New England. During his time at UNE he obtained the university medal, an honours degree in science and a masters degree. He was responsible for mapping a large portion of the Palaeozoic aged New England Orogen. Later he obtained a PhD from the Australian National University. He worked in academic fields for the remainder of his life at the ANU and at Macquarie University. He was also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Geological Society.

I met Bruce Chappell only once, but I have encountered his work again and again and it is clear Australia has lost a person that has contributed so much to our understanding of this country.

I understand that an obituary will be published by the Geological Society of Australia in the coming month. I will post a link to this once it is published.

Rocks and Landscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland

Since rocks tend not to follow political boundaries but our understanding of them often does it is good to know about what is north of the Northern Rivers/New England Border in southern Queensland. Last year I was going to do a post on the Focal Peak Volcano but then I remembered that the Queensland Division of the Geological Society had produced some excellent publications on the subject and recommended one in particular, so the post was essentially a recommendation for the Book the Rocks and Landscapes of the National Parks of Southern Queensland. But I deliberately omitted from the post comments on another brilliant book that had recently been fully revised so that I could deal with is separately.

The other book is called Rocks and Landscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland by Warwick Willmott. I enjoy this book very much because it is simple to understand but goes into a good amount of detail. It also shows you exactly where to go to see a feature of interest just like a self guided tour.

However, the detailed knowledge of the northern part of the Tweed Volcano may have skewed research and our understanding of the volcano in general. For instance, although the Tweed Volcano has been assumed to be centred around the site of present day Mount Warning in New South Wales most of our understanding including the detailed research of PhD and MSc level on the volcano actually comes from the University of Queensland. The University of Queensland has been the driving institution for decades in research on these northern flanks by exceptional researchers like Professor Anthony Ewart and Dr Jan Knutson.

As I have discussed in numerous other posts on the Tweed Volcano, the model of what the volcano looked like and how it was formed has recently been questioned by authors such as Cotter (1998). In my mind this raises some questions about elaborating the northern side of the volcano to the remainder in New South Wales. While I have nothing to question the good work on the northern side of the border, including the wonderful books produced by the Australian Geological Society's Queensland Division, it appears that the model of volcanism of the Tweed Volcano has been interpreted to fit into a Queensland model. This has occurred ever since authors like Duggan & Mason (1978) and continued to Stevens et al (1989) and most recently by Howden (2009). I do not question to model of rock formation to the north of the border (it works for what is there) but according to Cotter (1998) south of the border pre-volcanic geological conditions seemed to be different and this had a significant effect on the mode of volcanism in the area. This however, does not mean that the Rocks and Landscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland is incorrect in any way on its description of Queensland geology, it is just important to note that interpreting the geology south of the border can sometimes be problematic even if a cursory look means that it appears reasonable.

But I have digressed a great deal. Back to the Book! The Rocks and Landscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland is formatted in a way that makes it a geological tour. If you end up traveling through the Gold Coast area, do get a copy of this book. It is only about $12 including postage and is quite large and detailed for its price. In fact I'm surprised that the cost is so low, but I think that all the time that Warwick Willmott has put into writing it has been for free. As I have said in other posts, Warwick is one of the great science educators in Australia, and the book really helps understand the Gold Coast area a lot.

References/Bibliography:

*Cotter, S. 1998. A Geochemical, Palaeomagnetic and Geomorphological Investigation of the Tertiary Volcanic Sequence of North Eastern New South Wales. Masters Thesis, Southern Cross University.
*Duggan, P.B., Mason, D.R. 1978. Stratigraphy of the Lamington Volcanics in Far Northeastern New South Wales. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences V25.
*Howden, S. 2009. An Evaluation of Mafic Extrusives Spatially Assoicated with the South-Western Aspect of the Tweed Shield Volcano, BSc(Hons.) thesis, University of New England, Armidale.
*Stevens, N.C., Knutson, J., Ewart, A. & Duggan, M.B. 1989. Tweed. In Johnson, R.W. (ed). Intraplate Volcanism in Eastern Australia and New Zealand. Cambridge University Press.

The volcano of the Border Ranges - Focal Peak

I was going to do a blog on the Focal Peak Volcano and the Cenozoic aged volcanic rocks associated with it in the Northern Rivers/New England NSW but to get an understanding of these rocks on the southern side of the dotted line you really have to know a bit, or a lot about the geology across the border. With that in mind I was going to write this blog but then I remembered that the wonderful Queensland branch of the Geological Society of Australia have some excellent information sheets on Mount Barney and Mount Barlow that would do just the trick. So instead of starting from scratch I thought I'd just link directly to the PDF. Here it is.

The authors of this information sheet are Neville Stevens and Warwick Willmott who in my view are/were some of the best science educators in the country and happen to be geologists! I have enjoyed some of their presentations (and many others) at the Theodore Club in Brisbane when I lived there and it is one of the things I do miss about living away from that city. Alas, Neville passed away earlier this year.

While I'm talking about Queensland I should recommend a couple of books which gives an excellent account of the geology of Southern Queensland these are Rocks and Landscapes of the National Parks of Southern Queensland by Warwick Willmott and Rocks and Lanscapes of the Gold Coast Hinterland by the same author. I understand this Gold Coast one has just been revised and expanded. You can get a copy of the Southern Queensland one for less than $25 and the Gold Coast one for less than $15 including postage from the Queensland Division of the Geological Society of Australia. For details on ordering these books click here.