Back to Huddersfield University 24 years on from when I graduated from there...
Back then of course, it was a Polytechnic: the mills along the canal were all empty and the union building was an old school. Now the mills are part of the university and are very smartly renovated, there's a brand new union building and the old construction block has been clad in timber... There's also sadly no longer a Geography degree course offered by the University.
Went back to attend a meeting of the GA Huddersfield and Halifax branch, and there was a good turnout of over 40 people to hear Professor Lynne Frostick from the University of Hull (somewhere I else I studied) who was talking about Plate Tectonics and landscape evolution.
Below are some notes I took during the talk, which was followed by a lot of interesting questions.
· “the fundamental part / process of science”
· Before plate tectonics, no underpinning theory which explained location of mountains, rivers, rocks and seas.
· Taught the geosynclines concept: James Hall and James Dwight Dana: miogeosynclines...
· 1970: Robert Dietz: plate tectonics: combination of continental drift and sea floor spreading
· No proven theory as to the movement of plates: 6 possible theories – you choose !
· Cycling of sea water through the sediment system adds minerals to sea water : not dead oceans
· Rift valleys: rift in N. Sea – oil and gas found there
· Red Sea a linear sea
· Arabian Plate – range of landscapes arranged by plate tectonics
· Radial drainage patterns inherited from earlier stage - e.g. around Sao Paulo – and similarly across the Atlantic - Afar
· Rift not all pulling apart along a line – border fault swaps from one side to the other
· Rift compartmentalisation – swaps from one side to the other – no axial rivers e.g. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Turkana – no swapping of sediment – fans forming along rift – areas for oil exploration
· Formation of Kerio Delta
· Active uplift: work in Iran: Dezful Embayment (wonder if Mark Beaumont passed through that area)
· Karun diverted due to Sardarabad Anticline – changing form of river from braided to more rapid flow with asymmetric meanders – character of river changing...
· Oil exploration on opposites sides of the rift: oil, no oil, oil, no oil etc.
· Before plate tectonics, no underpinning theory which explained location of mountains, rivers, rocks and seas.
· Taught the geosynclines concept: James Hall and James Dwight Dana: miogeosynclines...
· 1970: Robert Dietz: plate tectonics: combination of continental drift and sea floor spreading
· No proven theory as to the movement of plates: 6 possible theories – you choose !
· Cycling of sea water through the sediment system adds minerals to sea water : not dead oceans
· Rift valleys: rift in N. Sea – oil and gas found there
· Red Sea a linear sea
· Arabian Plate – range of landscapes arranged by plate tectonics
· Radial drainage patterns inherited from earlier stage - e.g. around Sao Paulo – and similarly across the Atlantic - Afar
· Rift not all pulling apart along a line – border fault swaps from one side to the other
· Rift compartmentalisation – swaps from one side to the other – no axial rivers e.g. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Turkana – no swapping of sediment – fans forming along rift – areas for oil exploration
· Formation of Kerio Delta
· Active uplift: work in Iran: Dezful Embayment (wonder if Mark Beaumont passed through that area)
· Karun diverted due to Sardarabad Anticline – changing form of river from braided to more rapid flow with asymmetric meanders – character of river changing...
· Oil exploration on opposites sides of the rift: oil, no oil, oil, no oil etc.
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