Geoscientist Online

Peter Bowden, Jean-Paul Liégeois, Aberra Mogessie, Bernard Bonin and Jean-Yves Cottin pay tribute to Russell Black (1930-2009), African geologist and gifted artist.

Geoscientist 19.9 September 2009

After obtaining his Scottish Higher Leaving Certificate in 1946, Russell Black hesitated between going to Art School or University. He went for interview at the University of Aberdeen where he met the then Head of Geology T.C. Phemister who persuaded him that art and geology are intertwined. Russell accepted the challenge admiring Phemister not only for his earth science but also his ability as an excellent painter.

As part of his BSc degree training, Professor Phemister encouraged Russell to undertake three months fieldwork on the Jos Plateau, northern Nigeria, for his final year Honours mapping project. This experience so impressed him that he applied immediately on graduating for a post as Geologist in the British Overseas Geological Survey and returned to Nigeria based at Headquarters in Kaduna (fig 1). His main scientific interest culminated with the Survey’s mapping of the Jurassic tin-zinc mineralized alkaline ring complexes on the Jos plateau in Nigeria. This led to the publication of the very first Memoir of the Geological Society of London in 1958. For this Memoir, all figures, and maps were drawn by Russell in a manner which combined both his artistic and scientific talents.

 

Following a few months in Dahomey (now Benin) during 1959, Russell was promoted in charge of BRGM-sponsored geological mapping of the ring complexes in the Damagaram region in southern Niger. During this period he painted extensively, and fell in love with the people and the scenery returning frequently during his African career to Zinder (fig 2) and Agadez (figs 3 & 4) en route for research work in the Aïr, Niger, and Adrar des Iforas, Mali.

He spent the following three years from October 1960 until June 1963 surveying the Aïr massif, covering a surface area of 60,000 km² to the north of the Damagaram, constructing a geological map of the region with the aid of aerial photographs, and measured field sections.

 

 

Then Russell undertook in 1970 a 4yr period as Overseas Professor of Geology in the Institute of African Geology, University of Leeds, seconded to the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to his former students he painted regularly early in the morning before fieldwork for a better light. Unfortunately none of his Ethiopian paintings appear to have survived.

From 1974 until 1980 he was Head of a CNRS African geological research group in Montpellier at ‘Centre Géologique et Géophysique’ CGG. It was here that he focused the CGG on geological mapping of the eastern margin of the West African craton in the Adrar des Iforas, northern Mali, accompanied by his constant field companion, a white-coated Pyrenean mountain dog, Joyce (fig 5) who went everywhere in West Africa with him. From 1990 onwards, while based at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, Russell went back regularly to his field areas in Aïr (fig 6), and the Proche-Ténéré (fig. 7) verifying his observations and writing major scientific papers. During this period he also painted extensively in France (fig 8 & 9), Italy (fig 10) for relaxation whilst on holiday with his wife, or in north Africa (fig 11) on his way back to France after a long winter field season examining the Tuareg Shield.

Read Russell Black's obituary