Events & Courses

On the 50th anniversary of the advent of the paradigm of plate tectonics, this three day meeting was convened to examine the state of the art and scope out new directions. The conference was then brought to a close by the 2017 William Smith lecture, delivered by Dan McKenzie.

Photos from William Smith Meeting

Plate Tectonics: The Dan McKenzie Archive

Through storytelling, and illustrated by the papers and photographs McKenzie kept throughout his career as well as recorded interviews, the new Plate Tectonics website acknowledges Dan McKenzie’s unique contribution in the most important discovery in the Earth sciences of the 20^th century, documents his interactions with many collaborators and co-workers and includes work which continues today.

Invited Speakers were:

Nick Christie-Blick Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, USA

John Dewey University of Oxford, UK

Tony Doré Statoil, UK

Cindy Ebinger Tulane University, USA

Hank Frankel University of Missouri, Kansas City. USA

Catherine Johnson University of British Columbia, Canada

Peter van Keken Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC USA

Mike Kendall University of Bristol, UK

Xavier Le Pichon Collège de France

Peter Molnar University of Colorado Boulder, USA

Christopher Scotese, Northwestern University, USA

Chris Hawkesworth, University of Bristol and University of St Andrews, UK

Opening remarks by

Tony Watts University of Oxford, UK

Closing remarks and introduction of the William Smith lecturer

James Jackson University of Cambridge, UK

William Smith lecturer

Dan McKenzie University of Cambridge, UK

Convenors for the meeting included:

Rob Butler University of Aberdeen

Mike Daly University of Oxford

Gareth Roberts Imperial College London

Jonathan Turner Radioactive Waste Management

Tony Watts University of Oxford

PRESENTATIONS

SESSION 1

This first session from the conference looks at the history of scientific developments leading up to the plate tectonics paradigm. After the opening welcome by Malcom Brown (President of the Geological Society) the session is chaired by Rob Butler (University of Aberdeen). Tony Watts’ (University of Oxford)  introduction covers the history of tectonic concepts leading up to the 1960s and what happened next. This leads to Hank Frenkel (University of Missouri) looking at the parallel approaches taken by Jason Morgan and Dan McKenzie and the events leading up and following the Spring Meeting of AGU in 1967. Wolf Jacoby (Johannes Gutenberg University) ponders on why Alfred Wegener missed plate tectonics a century ago. Xavier Le Pichon (College de France) provides testimony from the 1960s, how he tested and then summarised plate tectonics concepts and then presents new ideas on the eastern Mediterranean. The discussion period looks at why other evidence, especially palaeomagnetism, was overlooked and then how quickly plate tectonics was adopted, taught and communicated. 

SESSION 3

These talks look at active tectonics, in a session chaired by Nicky White (University of Cambridge).  Cindy Ebinger (Tulane University) considers strain localization and magmatism and their impact on the stability of continental interiors with specific reference to rifting. Richard Walker (Oxford University) looks at active tectonics in Turkmenistan and the south Caspian before Tim Wright (University of Leeds) overviews the datasets from GPS and InSAR that chart active deformation in the continents. Bob White (University of Cambridge) presents seismological and geodetic data to track active volcanic and rifting processes on Iceland before Nick Kusznir (University of Liverpool) looks at plate boundary reorganizations in the Indian ocean.

SESSION 4

Gareth Roberts (Imperial College) chairs this session on mantle convection and plate properties, which kicks off with Peter van Keken (Carnegie Institute) who looks at the subduction dynamics, thermal structure and mantle convection.  Nicky White (University of Cambridge) looks at complex upper mantle circulation and its control on surface movements.  Lara Kalnins (University of Edinburgh) looks at anisotropy of the lithosphere below the oceans. John Casey (University of Houston) looks at the role of ophiolites in subduction initiation and arc plate growth. 

This session deals with slabs and subduction zones, chaired by Karin Sigloch (University of Oxford). The first speaker is Mike Kendall (Bristol University) who looks at subduction zone dynamics through the methods of seismic anisotropy. Saskia Goes (Imperial College) looks at how slabs interact with the mantle transition zone, a theme followed up by Teh Ru Alex Song (University College London) who addresses mantle mixing. The distribution of subducted slabs in the deep earth is explored by Douwe van der Meer (Utrecht University).  Discussions look at the interpretation of seismic tomography images, the role of slab weakening in influencing slab geometry and dynamics, the impact of slab geometries on plate reconstructions, and the broader the implications for mantle convection models. 

SESSION 6

The theme here is plate boundary processes in a session chaired by Lidia Lonergan (Imperial College). The first talk, by John Dewey (University of Oxford), looks at plate boundary processes in the ancient (Caledonides of Connemara) and modern (California). It is followed by Richard Gordon (Rice University) examining non-rigid plate behavior, Andrew Long develops the case of transform development on the East Africa margin. The general discussion opens up the issue of ophiolite emplacement together with the stress state and earthquakes in the Indian plate.