Magnetism, Planetary Rotation, and Convection in the Solar System: Retrospect and Prospect: In Honour of Prof. S.K. Runcorn

ISBN-13: 9789401088862 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 280 str.

W. O'Reilly

Opis

On the 6th, 7th' and 8th April 1983, a conference entitled "Magnetism, planetary rotation and convection in the Solar System" was held in the School of Physics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The purpose of the meeting was to celebrate the 60th birthday of Prof. Stanley Keith Runcorn and his, and his students' and associates', several decades of scientific achievement. The social programme, which consisted of excursions in Northumberland and Durham with visits to ancient castles and churches, to Hexham Abbey and Durham Cathedral, and dinners in Newcastle and Durham, was greatly enjoyed by those attending the meeting and by their guests. The success ofthe scientific programme can be judged by this special edition of Geophysical Surveys which is derived mainly from the papers given at the meeting. The story starts in the late 1940s when the question of the origin of the magnetic field of the Earth and such other heavenly bodies as had at that time been discovered as having a magnetic field, was exercising the minds of several scientists; notably P. M. S. Blackett at Manchester, W. M. Elsasser at the University of Pennsylvania and E. C. Bullard at Cambridge. Two alternative mechanisms were proposed. In one the magnetic field was in some way connected with the distributed angular momentum of a rotating body; in the other, electric currents in conducting parts within the body were proposed as the source of magnetic field.

Spis treści

Paleomagnetism of Gabbros of the Early Proterozoic Blanchford Lake Intrusive Suite and the Easter Island Dyke, Great Slave Lake, NWT: Possible Evidence for the Earliest Continental Drift.- A Systematic Approach to Radiometric and Paleomagnetic Studies in a Mobile Orogenic Belt: I. The Waning Phase of Activity in the Southern Appalachians of South Carolina.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Past and Present Magnetism of the Moon.- On the Grain Size Dependence of the Behaviour of Fine Magnetic Particles in Rocks.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- The Geomagnetic Dynamo — Elementary Energetics and Thermodynamics.- The Contribution of Laboratory Dynamo Experiments to Our Understanding of the Mechanism of Generation of Planetary Magnetic Fields.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Review of Lake Sediment Palaeomagnetic Data (Part I).- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- On the Excitation of Short-Term Variations in the Length of the Day and Polar Motion.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Planetary Rotation and Invertebrate Skeletal Patterns: Prospects for Extant Taxa.- Growth Rhythms, Evolution of the Earth’s Interior, and Origin of the Metazoa.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Non-Tidal Changes in the Length of the Day: 700 BC to AD 1982.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Heat Transfer and Planetary Evolution.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Geophysics 2001.- S.K. Runcorn’s Commentary.- Epiloque.