December Challenge; fire. The Vital Spark

I’m clearing out my study and come across something that changed my life. This is The National Geographic January 1973. On page 30 is a picture of a man who influenced not only my choice of degree, but where I would study.

Back then I was in a dead end job and thinking about taking a journey into higher education. This man gave it direction. He provided the vital spark.

I had discovered an area of science I knew little about - the Earth and its attendant disciplines; geology, geophysics, geochemistry, geomorphology, hydrology, meteorology and oceanography. The big Wow moment for me came with plate-tectonics - the idea that the surface of the earth was not solid but behaved more like a liquid - it actually moved around.

Although the idea of plate-tectonics and sea-floor spreading had been around for sometime, no one had come up with a plausible mechanism. Part of the answer lay in ancient fires.

OK - very briefly; ancient man gets his mates round for a bbq. They build a fire pit with rocks containing the mineral magnetite. The rocks get hot in the fire and the mineral melts a little. Being highly magnetic (hint, magnetite) all the tiny little compasses in the molten rock align themselves in the direction of the north magnetic pole. After stuffing themselves on mammoth burgers, ancient man dies out and the rocks cool and harden.

Thousands of years later, geology field trips discover the remains of lots of bbqs and run various tests on the rocks. And discover something odd. In some years the little compasses point North and in other years the little compasses point South. Over time the rocks have moved around. Not ‘moved around’ as in picked up by ancient bbq man; they’re solidly fused to the landscape - so ‘moved around’ in the sense that the landscape containing them has itself moved around.

There’s a lot more to it than ancient bbqs and back in the 1970s this was cutting edge science. I was hooked. The article in National Geographic summarised the story so far and profiled the key players. Most were from North America, but the man in the bottom centre of the photo, Frederick J. Vine taught in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of East Anglia. So I applied there.

To my surprise - and it was a surprise because I had no A-levels and was 10 years older than the other applicants - I was accepted.

When I eventually met him, I found him to be modest, charming and a thoroughly great teacher. Which what we all need in our lives.