ISSN 0126-5539 PERSATUAN GEOLOGI MALAYSIA NEWSLETTER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF MALAYSIA KANDUNGAN (Contents) CATATAN GEOLOGI (Geological Notes) Charles S. Hutchison: Some early recollections of geology at the University 85 of Malaya: I, Singapore days PERTEMUAN PERSATUAN (Meetings of the Society) Andrew Malone: Understanding slope movements and the failure process 95 Robert East: The uses of surface area data obtained on reservoir core samples 96 Malam Geologis Muda II 98 Ken McClay: 1999 AAPG Distinguished Lecture - 4-D analysis of 98 extensional fault systems in rift basins Persidangan Tahunan Geologi 1999 - Laporan 101 Laporan Kerjalapangan Pra-Persidangan 102 Ucapan Pengerusi Panganjur 105 Ucapan YA.B. Menteri Besar Johor di Majlis Perasmian Persidangan 107 Tahunan Geologi 1999 Programme 113 Abstracts of Papers 118 Abstracts of Posters 166 BERITA-BERITA PERSATUAN (News of the Society) Pertukaran Alamat (Change of Address) 177 Pertambahan Baru Perpustakaan (New Library Additions) 178 BERITA-BERITA LAIN (Other News) Local News 179 Kalendar (Calendar) 185 Majlis (Council) 1999/2000 Presiden (President) Ibrahim Komoo Naib Presiden (Vice-President) Abdul Ghani Rafek Setiausaha (Secretary) Ahmad Tajuddin Ibrahim Penolong Setiausaha (Asst. Secretary) Mazlan Madon Bendahari (Treasurer) Lee Chai Peng Pengarang (Editor) TehGuanHoe Presiden Yang Dahulu (Immediate Past President) : KhalidNgah Ahli~Ahli Majli$'(Counciliors) 1999-2001 1999-2000 Liew Kit Kong M. Selvarajah Tan Boon Kong Tajul Anuar Jamaluddin Mogana Sundaram Muhinder Singh Hamdan Hassan vacant Jawatankuasa Kecil Pengarang (Editorial Subcommittee) Teh Guan Hoe (PengerusilChairman) Fan Ah Kwai Ng Tham Fatt J.J. Pereira Lembaga Penasihat Pengo rang (Editorial Advisory Board) Aw Peck Chin FooWahYang Mazlan Madon Tan Boon Kong Azhar Hj. Hussin C.A. Foss Ian Metcalfe Tan Teong Hing K.R. Chakraborty N.S. Haile S. Paramananthan Teoh Lay Hock Choo Mun Keong C.S. Hutchison Senathi Rajah H.D. Tjia Chu Leng Heng Lee Chai Peng Shu Yeoh Khoon Wan Hasiah Abd. Denis N.K. Tan Leong Lap Sau P .H. Stauffer Yeap Cheng Hock About the Society The Society was founded in 1967 with the aim of promoting the advancement of earth sciences particularly in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region. The Society has a membership of about 600 earth scientists interested in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian regions. The membership is worldwide in distribution. Published by the Geological Society of Malaysia, Department of Geology, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 603-757 7036 Fax: 603-756 3900 E-mail: [email protected] Printed bV Art Printing Works Sdn. Bhd.. 29 Jalan Riong, 59700 Kuala Lumpur. Some early recollections of geology at the University of Malaya: I, Singapore days CHARLES S. HUTCHISON 10 Lorong 5/19A 46000 Petaling J aya By the time I arrived in Singapore in the After a few weeks in Scotland, I sailed from middle of 1957, the geology department was Southampton on the magnificent P & 0 s.s. already over a year old. It had been established Canton to Singapore. The Suez Canal was because of the requirement that civil engineering closed, so the voyage took a wonderful 5 weeks students must have the principles of geology via Cape Town. It may be hard to believe, but included in their syllabus. Professor Charles my salary at the university was actually an S. Pichamuthu (Fig. 1) had been appointed to improvement on what I had been earning in the first chair from his home in Bangalore and the oil industry, and certainly the university he had the foresight to insist that, in addition conditions of service were considerably more to servicing the engineering faculty, geology be favourable. Half salary was paid during travel. fully established as a department in its own Upon arrival early one morning at Keppel right within the science faculty. Harbour, Professor Pichamuthu, Anthony Henry, Initially occupying temporary space in the who was the secretary, and Tengku Ismail, main science faculty buildings of the Bukit Timah Road campus, the department was transferred to a two-storey colonial-style house within Dalvey Estate (Fig. 2), on a bluff overlooking the N assim road entrance to the campus. It had an uninterrupted view down a well-trimmed grassy slope towards Raffles residential college. The house had its own garden, meticulously maintained by the peon Mr. K. Krishnan, who had previously worked in the nearby botanical gardens. He had been sent by the Japanese army of occupation to work on the 'death railway' in Thailand, and upon return after the war had never been able to trace his wife and family. I was working as an oil company geologist in Trinidad when the offer of an assistant lectureship came with a request from the registrar Mr. Lewis that my services were urgently needed. Urgency in those days meant Figure 1. Charles S. Pichamuthu, travel by first class sea. So I sailed on the s.s. the inaugural professor of geology at Reina del Mar from Port of Spain to Plymouth. the University of Malaya. lSSN 0126-5539 Warta Geologi, Vol. 25, No.3, May-fun 1999, pp. 85-94 86 CHARLES S. HUTCHISON who was the laboratory assistant, met me. over the garden, forming a porch over the Tengku and his family lived in an out-house entrance driveway. Its side and front walls adjacent to the department. were of wooden louvers and hinged windows, held open during the day by brass hooks, closed Pichamuthu was not tall and of rather only at night and to keep any heavy rain out. frail stature, bespectacled and always well The front entrance led directly to the left into dressed. He usually wore a tie, long-sleeved the museum. My very first addition to it was shirt and well pressed starched long trousers. to have made a five-sided rotatable wooden He was always of distinguished appearance. prism, standing over 6 feet tall - the geological Academically he had an immaculate reputation, column that stands today in the geology was the world's foremost authority on department museum in Pantai Valley (Fig. 3). charnockites, held a D.Sc. and Ph.D. from Tengku Ismail and I found a company in North Glasgow University and was a fellow of the Bridge Road that made billboards for cinemas. Royal Society of Edinburgh. I did not have a Details on all five faces were meticulously scribed Ph.D. in those early days and was somewhat in paint. The design was modified after a overawed by his academic status. I carefully similar column to be found in the geological maintained the gap between us by always museum in London. addressing him as 'sir', which I thought to be the most appropriate address. He always, Lecturing in the upstairs room, with its somewhat condescendingly addressed me as window wide open onto the garden, had its 'my dear Charles'; but we had a good friendly problems. One afternoon my class and I had to relationship and occasionally he invited me to rapidly vacate as a swarm of bees came in tea with his wife and son in the nearby Dalvey through the window. They eventually built Road flats. Pichamuthu walked daily from the their nest on the window frame. The lecture flats along a shaded footpath, with steps up room and my adjacent staff room could not be the final approach to the department garden. used for 3 days, while staff from the estate office devised a scheme to safely remove them. A wooden staircase spiralled up from the entrance to what had been the main upstairs My staff room was unproductive for private lounge area, now the general office, run very research. I invariably fell asleep at my desk in efficiently by Anthony Henry. It jutted out the afternoon heat and humidity. I moved my Figure 2. The first geology department ofthe University of Malaya, a converted house at 5 Dalvey Estate. The secretary's office jutted out to form a porch over the main entrance. Warta Geologi, Vol. 25, No . 3, May-filII 1999 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF GEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA: SINGAPORE DAYS 87 Swift microscope into the nearby small Frequent visitors to the department were Mr. photographic darkroom, and used it as a private Toukof of Schmidt Scientific and several staff laboratory. There was no objection since I was from Motiwalla, who supplied all the stationery. also in charge of departmental photography. They also printed Wulff and Schmidt nets for my crystallography classes. The rock During his first year, Pichamuthu had preparation room had been well set up for sawing very efficiently equipped the department with and grinding, and Tengku Ismail became quite a good stock of teaching aids. There was a proficient at making thin sections. With complete rock and mineral collection from Wards Tengku's help, I designed and made a wall­ in USA, housed in locally constructed and mounted rotating Wulff net for class work. imported display and storage cabinets. There was a reasonable selection of fossils, real and Professor Pichamuthu introduced me to a plaster casts from Dr. Krantz in Germany, a most valuable collection of Singapore rocks wonderful collection of wooden crystal models collected by Mrs. F.E.S. Alexander, which she from Alminrock in India, and an amazing solid had bequeathed to the department upon her wood model ofthe biaxial indicatrix which could departure for Nigeria. Mrs. Alexander was a be dismantled to show the circular sections. qualified geologist, married to a lecturer in the Most ofthese are still in the department. There physics department. Her collection, map and were several Leitz, Zeiss and Swift research accompanying field notes offered me the ideal and teaching microscopes and a complete set introduction to the local geology. After of Cargill immersion liquids.