earth sciences 6
E A R T H S C I E N C E S
geologist, was appointed and stayed until was one of the first people to teach modern
its closure, in 1999. He was joined by Dave concepts of plate tectonics in South Africa
Hobday who began modern sedimentolo- (much to the abhorrence of the ‘luddite‘
gy as an academic discipline in the country. King) and set a foundation for the struc-
The Pietermaritzburg department finally tural field which endures at UKZN till today.
reached maturity with the appointment The UKZN school of geological sciences is
of Don Hunter, an acclaimed Precambrian currently one of the larger departments in
specialist. He built the department into the country and is the strongest centre of
a very effective unit with limited staff, in- structural geology and geodynamics in the
cluding Allan Wilson, who succeeded him country, with a strong accent on Precam-
in 1993. Wilson, a globally recognised ig- brian terranes, led by Steve McCourt (cur-
neous petrologist and geochemist, joined rent department head since 2007) and Mike
the Wits geosciences school in 2007 after Watkeys. There is also a small yet effective
having succeeded Fred Bell as head of the marine geoscience section which collabo-
amalgamated Pietermaritzburg and Dur- rates with the local office of the Council for
ban departments. Geoscience.
In the meantime, the main branch in Dur- In 1978, geology was also launched at the
ban had continued to flourish, with Ron University of Durban-Westville (UDW) as a
Taverner-Smith (an experienced coal ge- subject, with a fully autonomous depart-
ologist and sedimentologist from Belfast) ment launched in 1983, headed by Ingo
replacing King in the Chair in 1972 (until Forster, a recognised ore petrologist. In
1989). A double major in geology intro- 1985, a noted invertebrate palaeontologist,
duced in King’s time later allowed the de- Michael Cooper, was appointed. He was
velopment of geology and applied geo- acting head following Forster’s retirement
logy streams, with a full Honours course in in 1991, until the arrival of Steve McCourt
engineering geology. This was initially led in 1995. The latter continued to build the
by Rodney Maud, and in later years by Allan UDW department until its amalgamation
Kerr and then Colin Jermy. Apart from the with the Durban department in 2004.
UP department, UKZN is the only other that
offers this specialisation field in South Afri- University of the Free State (UFS)
ca. The discipline was further strengthened Geology at UFS began in 1910. More re-
in 1990 with the appointment of the new cently, from 1967 to 1990, under the lead-
department head, Fred Bell, an engineering ership of Ben Botha and then Nick Grobler,
geologist of international repute. In 1989, the UFS department was built up into one
Ted Saggerson and Peter Matthews retired of the larger and more significant centres in
after long and very successful careers, hav- the country. Geochemistry (still a strength
ing become the doyens, respectively, of today) and hydrology were initiated, with
mineralogy-metamorphic petrology and the launch of the Institute of Groundwater
structural geology at UKZN and with wide Studies led by Frank Hodgson, marking an
South African reputations. Peter Matthews important milestone in the earth sciences in
175
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