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Frances WilliamsEarth 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.
Members and visitors are warmly invited to attend.
For further information visit: www.fieldgeologyclubsa.org.au
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Event Venue
Mawson Lecture Theatre, Adelaide,SA,Australia
Tickets
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