alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
alive and well - Geological Society of Australia
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As <strong>well</strong> as speaking at the 34th International <strong>Geological</strong> Congress, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Iain Stewart undertook anational public lecture tour. Iain Stewart <strong>and</strong> Sue Fletcher at Sydney University.South <strong>Australia</strong>n members John Foden, Kevin Wills <strong>and</strong> Katherine Howard enjoying themselves.Mawson Lecture<strong>Australia</strong>n Academy<strong>of</strong> Science 2012Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Gordon S Lister, The <strong>Australia</strong>nNational University, winner <strong>of</strong> the MawsonMedal for research into the Earth Sciencesgave the Mawson Lecture as part <strong>of</strong> the IGCat the GSA Awards function.Abstract — Whither themountains: an odysseyAs a young geologist, in 1975, I was transplantedto The Netherl<strong>and</strong>s. There the writings<strong>of</strong> Van Bemmelen in Geologie en Mijnbouwcaught my eye. Unwittingly I began a journeythat was to lead me on the same paths as mypredecessors, tied my life to a fascination withMediterranean geology, <strong>and</strong> to endeavoursthat inexorably lead towards a substantialmodification <strong>of</strong> the plate tectonics paradigm.Before the theory <strong>of</strong> plate tectonics assumeddominance, Sam Warren Carey <strong>and</strong> ReinoutWillem Van Bemmelen, both pre-eminenttectonicists <strong>of</strong> the day, were hot on the trail interms <strong>of</strong> developing an underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>of</strong> theenigmatic curved mountain belts we nowroutinely refer to as ‘oroclines’ [a term used byCarey in 1955]. Van Bemmelen in particularrecognized a paradoxical aspect in the impliedpatterns <strong>of</strong> uplift <strong>and</strong> subsidence associatedwith the cores <strong>of</strong> these structures. Hesuggested that gravity drove nappes northward<strong>and</strong> southward, on either side <strong>of</strong> the AlboranSea. His Undation Hypothesis was set out toexplain how this could have happened,requiring first a massive uplift <strong>and</strong> then evengreater subsidence in the orocline core.Here, in the 2012 Mawson Lecture, I will resolvethis paradox, in modern geodynamic terms,discussing the tectonic evolution <strong>of</strong> four famousoroclines: a) the arc <strong>of</strong> the western Alps,between France <strong>and</strong> Italy; b) the Carpathian Arc,in Pol<strong>and</strong>, Ukraine <strong>and</strong> Romania; c) the B<strong>and</strong>aArc in Indonesia; <strong>and</strong> d) the Gibraltar Arcbetween Spain <strong>and</strong> Morocco.GORDON LISTERRaymond Twist with his family at the Awards function.38 |TAG September 2012
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