2007 ® GSA Medals & Awards Presented at the of the 119th Annual Meeting Geological Society of America S 27 October 2007 Denver, Colorado 2007 MEDALS & AWARDS PENROSE MEDAL Kevin’s contributions to geology since including his own most cherished views, the late sixties are great in range, including: and his sincerity and generosity in Presented to Kevin Burke models of the birth of rift valleys; ocean communicating his knowledge, have been the basins; vast areas of collision-related best lessons for a budding researcher. basement reactivation; influence of oceanic I must say honestly that I do not have the plateaus on the evolution of oceans and capacity to judge Kevin as a geologist or as continental margins; the nature of the an intellectual. He towers far too high above Archean and Proterozoic tectonics and related me in brains and in knowledge. I have been environments; the tectonic controls of basaltic both a student of geology and of its history. volcanicity; the nature of mantle plumes Three giants of geology remind me of Kevin and their relations to hot spots; how tectonic most by their character and the nature of their processes interact and control the hydrosphere accomplishments and by their love for what and the atmosphere and how they act on other Kevin calls “our beloved planet”: Alexander rocky planets such as Mars and Venus; and, von Humboldt, Sir Charles Lyell and Eduard how extraterrestrial intervention in terrestrial Suess. Giving Kevin the Penrose Medal affairs influence geological and biological honors not only Kevin Burke, but also the processes. Geological Society of America, and will add Ladies and gentlemen, trying to further luster to its already illustrious annals. Kevin Burke list Kevin’s contributions is impossible; That this honor comes to Kevin (and to the Professor impossible even if one keeps only to the Society) at this stage in Kevin’s career is I University of Houston general topics he has tackled throughout his think the best testimony to his being so much professional life. This is so, not only because further ahead than most. Its bestowal reflects the large numbers prevent us from doing so on us all as members of the international in a short time, but also because of the ways geological community comprehended under Citation by Celâl S¸engör Kevin contributed to science. In addition to the celebrated umbrella of the GSA and we, his published books, papers and abstracts, he the recipients of Kevin’s light, all bask in I appear before you today to undertake a has always been a great debater in meetings the glory that Kevin Burke has added to the task that marks one of the happiest occasions and an enthusiastic conversationalist. During attainments of our wonderful science. of my entire life: to present to you Professor his numerous conversations he has generously Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Kevin Burke as this year’s Penrose medalist. given ideas and data to many a future author. I consider it as one of the most wonderful A simple way of presenting him would have He purposefully annoyed many to drive them moments in my life to present to you this been to say that Kevin Burke has massively to produce better arguments and more data to year’s Penrose medalist, Professor Kevin furthered geology during his lifetime. In support their positions and thus to enrich our Charles Antony Burke, geologist. Kevin’s case, “furthering geology” must be understanding of the problems under debate. taken at its literal sense, implying furthering His memory is unequalled; his knowledge of the entire earth sciences taken at one embrace, world regional geology is truly staggering. Response by Kevin Burke as, for example, did Sir Charles Lyell in his I have not yet met a geologist anywhere time, or Eduard Suess in his, for I am unable The Penrose medal is an overwhelming more knowledgeable in the entire sweep of to think of any branch of geology, taken at its honor. The humbling terms of the endowment the earth sciences, i.e., geology in the old, Lyellian breadth, that Kevin has not furthered. say: Lyellian, that is to say, proper sense, than Kevin’s contributions start in the fifties Kevin Burke. His incredible quickness of “The award shall be made in recognition with field descriptions in his Ph.D. area in mind and the speed with which he can review of outstanding original contributions western Ireland and continue, till the mid- and bring to bear upon whatever may be at or achievements which mark a decided sixties, through his field papers concerning hand the relevant information, are a wonder to advance in the science of geology.” the geology of Africa and the Caribbean. watch. Equally wonderful are his generosity Already, in these early years, through the I make little claim to “contributions or and selflessness in sharing his ideas, his data, problems tackled (such as granite problems in achievements” but I do confess to having his time. Ireland, marine geology in Jamaica, beryllium spouted “new ideas” as a result of spotting I have been Kevin’s student in Albany prospecting and the gases in the African unfamiliar, or overlooked, relationships. But for 6½ years. I have admired him as a lakes in the Great Rift Valley, classical field “new ideas” rarely prove to be original and great teacher not only in geology, but also descriptions, geomorphological problems are eventually always proved wrong so I am in literature, music, history, philosophy, ranging from processes of tropical erosion both delighted and astonished by the award. geography, and many subjects pertaining to pedology, and gravity studies), one sees Luck and career diversity have helped in the to general culture. The atmosphere he and the inclination to diversify and a predilection path I have followed. John Dewey created in Albany was the best to put forward explanations in the form of I spent time in greenstone belts in academic and research atmosphere I have ever daring, but testable hypotheses in the best my first two jobs, at a University in Ghana breathed anywhere in the world. The most Popperian spirit. In those days this was not (1953–56) and with the British Geological valuable thing I learned from him was how common among field geologists. When plate Survey traveling in Africa (1956-61). While to think in and about science. His boldness in tectonics came about in the mid-sixties, Kevin teaching at the University in Jamaica (1961– generating hypotheses and his mercilessness was therefore one of the readiest geologists to 1965) I realized that the Cretaceous rocks of and unbending honesty in testing them, receive it. the Greater Antilles and greenstone belt rocks THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2007 MEDALS & AWARDS were the same—but I did not know why. It of Toronto BUT Tuzo Wilson was principal geology of parts of all the continents except was not till the plate tectonics thunderbolt hit of that college. Tuzo showed me that tectonics Antarctica. that I understood. is “The large scale evolution of planetary South Africans invited me to give their Plate tectonics struck me in a 1967 paper lithospheres.” He encouraged my interest in Du Toit lecture in 1994. There is no greater by Lynn Sykes on earthquake mechanisms in hot spots and mantle plumes and together honor for a student of Africa. Realizing that the equatorial Atlantic. Lynn demonstrated we related the unique topography of Africa my audiences knew all about the Precambrian that the sense of ridge to ridge transform to arrest over shallow mantle convection. I chose to review (in 50,000 words) what had motion was as had been predicted by Tuzo Canada was great for learning more about the happened on the African plate during the past Wilson in 1965. I read Sykes because I was Precambrian especially from Paul Hoffman. 30 My. Many of my present interests stem teaching at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria I abandoned Tuzo because John Dewey, from writing that review. Yanni Gunnell, and thinking about the structure of the Guinea to whom I am eternally grateful, arranged Bill Bosworth, Nick Cameron and Duncan coast I ran to the nearest library and read a tenured job for me at Albany. There for MacGregor have guided me in the study of Wilson’s paper. Geology changed for me. ten years (1973-83) with Dewey, Bill Kidd, coupled African uplift and erosion on land My experience in Africa and the Caribbean Celal Sengor and other outstanding graduate and deep-water deposition offshore. The idea immediately showed me that the record of students we wrote papers based on Tuzo’s that Africa’s present topography is related to Earth history was likely to be the record of recognition that you cannot know too much shallow mantle convection rather than to the ocean opening and closing by plate tectonic regional geology and geophysics and that the underlying Large Low Shear Wave Velocity processes. Reading Nature and the JGR kept oceans and continents must be considered province at the core mantle boundary led me, me from isolation and in Cambridge during together. I got back into Caribbean geology with Trond Torsvik, to discover that although the fall of 1969 John Dewey rounded out my where I made my first contact with a Large Africa’s topography is very young the education in plate tectonics. Igneous Province. underlying deep structure has been unchanged To avoid unrest in eastern Nigeria we did A NASA project: “Basaltic Volcanism for at least 300 My. field work in the Benue rift and took a student on Terrestrial Planets” introduced me to the The second half of my life spent in field class to my old haunts in Ghana where solar system and by 1983 I found myself America has given me opportunities of I found that I had lived on a suture marking a director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute working with an exceptional and diverse group Precambrian continental collision (later with and a professor at the University of Houston.