Robert Millner Shackleton
Encyclopedia
Robert Millner Shackleton FRS
(30 December 1909 - 3 May 2001) was a British
field geologist who developed an interest in the geology of East Africa
. He initiated structural studies across orogenic belts in Tanzania
-Zambia
-Malawi
(in the late 1960s), major studies across the Limpopo Belt
and adjacent Archaean greenstone belt
s of Zimbabwe
-Botswana
-South Africa
(in the 1970s) and projects across the orogenic systems of Egypt
, Sudan
and Kenya
(in the early 1980s). Just prior to his death he was working on a detailed compilation of the Precambrian
geology of East Africa. At the age of 75 he led a Royal Society
geological traverse across Tibet
, in collaboration with the Academica Sinica, Beijing
.
Born in Purley
, Surrey
, he was educated at the Quakers' Sidcot School
in Somerset
and the University of Liverpool
, graduating B.Sc. Geology with First Class Honours in 1930. He went on to research at Liverpool under P.G.H. Boswell on the geology of the Moel Hebog
area of Snowdonia
in North Wales
(Ph.D. 1934), then won a Beit Fellowship at Imperial College, London
, 1932-1934. The next year he was appointed Chief Geologist to Whitehall Exploration Ltd in Fiji
but returned to Imperial College as Lecturer in Geology in 1936.
In 1940 he was appointed a geologist in the Mining and Geological Department of Kenya, as part of the wartime strategic planning programme. He surveyed widely throughout Kenya producing reports for the Geological Survey of Kenya on the areas of Malikisi, North Kavirondo
, Nyeri
, the Migori
Gold Belt, and Nanyuki
and Maralal
. His studies extended into the geometry of the orogenic belts of East Africa and the volcanism that produced the Rift System. In 1942 the archaeologist Mary Leakey
discovered prehistoric human artefacts at Olorgesailie
, a lower Palaeolithic site southwest of Nairobi
. In the mid-1940s she and Louis Leakey
excavated the site and Shackleton collaborated with the investigations, preparing geological maps of the area around the Olorgesailie site and the area between Olorgesailie and Ngong
.
Shackleton returned to Imperial College in 1945 and was offered a professorship there. However, he thought the department too unmanageable and in 1948 returned to Liverpool as the Herdman Professor of Geology. In his time in the Herdman chair, he re-organised the Liverpool geology department and put it at the forefront of geological research in Britain. In 1962, in order to increase his opportunities for research in Africa, he took up a chair in the University of Leeds
and joined the staff of the Research Institute of African Geology (serving as Director from 1965 until retirement). 1970-1971 he was Royal Society Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Geology at the Haile Selassie University, Addis Ababa
, Ethiopia. He formally retired in 1975 but was Research Fellow at the Open University
from 1977 until his death and remained active in field geology.
His achievements were recognized by the award of the Silver Medal
of the Liverpool Geological Society (1957) and the Murchison Medal
of the Geological Society of London
(1970), and his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (1971). His Royal Society citation recorded that he was "well-known for his contributions to the study of crystalline rocks, more particularly of rock deformation and large scale tectonics."
Of particular importance have been his work on Tertiary volcanics in Kenya, his understanding of the Pre-Cambrian of eastern and central Africa and his accounts of Dalradian structures and deposits".
Shackleton married three times and had five children, including geoscientist Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton
(1937-2006).
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(30 December 1909 - 3 May 2001) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
field geologist who developed an interest in the geology of East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. He initiated structural studies across orogenic belts in Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
-Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
-Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
(in the late 1960s), major studies across the Limpopo Belt
Limpopo Belt
The Limpopo Belt is located in South Africa and Zimbabwe, runs E-NE, and joins the Kaapvaal craton to the south with the Zimbabwe craton to the north. The belt is of high-grade metamorphic rocks that have undergone a long cycle of metamorphism and deformation that ended 2.0 billion years ago, after...
and adjacent Archaean greenstone belt
Greenstone belt
Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies....
s of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
-Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
-South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
(in the 1970s) and projects across the orogenic systems of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
(in the early 1980s). Just prior to his death he was working on a detailed compilation of the Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
geology of East Africa. At the age of 75 he led a Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
geological traverse across Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, in collaboration with the Academica Sinica, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
Born in Purley
Purley
- in England :*Purley, London**Purley Way, out-of-town retail area*Purley-on-Thames, in Berkshire- People :*David Purley , British race driver*Purley, several members of a fictional family in 1996's Secrets & Lies...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, he was educated at the Quakers' Sidcot School
Sidcot School
Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England....
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
and the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
, graduating B.Sc. Geology with First Class Honours in 1930. He went on to research at Liverpool under P.G.H. Boswell on the geology of the Moel Hebog
Moel Hebog
Moel Hebog is a mountain in Snowdonia, north Wales which dominates the view west from the village of Beddgelert...
area of Snowdonia
Snowdonia
Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...
in North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
(Ph.D. 1934), then won a Beit Fellowship at Imperial College, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 1932-1934. The next year he was appointed Chief Geologist to Whitehall Exploration Ltd in Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
but returned to Imperial College as Lecturer in Geology in 1936.
In 1940 he was appointed a geologist in the Mining and Geological Department of Kenya, as part of the wartime strategic planning programme. He surveyed widely throughout Kenya producing reports for the Geological Survey of Kenya on the areas of Malikisi, North Kavirondo
Kavirondo
Kavirondo is the former name of the region surrounding Kavirondo Gulf as well as of two native peoples living there under the regime of British East Africa...
, Nyeri
Nyeri
Nyeri is a town in situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya Kenya, which was the administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province...
, the Migori
Migori
Migori is a town in Nyanza Province of Kenya. Migori is capital of the Migori District. The town is located 63 km south of Kisii and 22 km north of the Tanzanian border. The town has an urban population of 31,644 and total population of 46,576 ....
Gold Belt, and Nanyuki
Nanyuki
Nanyuki is a market town in central-east Rift Valley region of Kenya lying northwest of Mount Kenya along the A2 road and at the terminus of the branch railway from Nairobi. It is situated just north of the Equator . It was founded in 1907 by British settlers, some of whose descendants still live...
and Maralal
Maralal
Maralal is a small hillside market town in northern Kenya, lying east of the Loroghi Plateau within the Samburu District. It is the administrative headquarters of the Samburu people. The town has an urban population of 16,281 . The market was pioneered by some Somali settlers in the 1920s.Nearby...
. His studies extended into the geometry of the orogenic belts of East Africa and the volcanism that produced the Rift System. In 1942 the archaeologist Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge,...
discovered prehistoric human artefacts at Olorgesailie
Olorgesailie
Olorgesailie is a geological formation in East Africa containing a group of Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites. It is on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley in southern Kenya, southwest of Nairobi along the road to Lake Magadi. Olorgesailie is noted for the large number of Acheulean hand...
, a lower Palaeolithic site southwest of Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
. In the mid-1940s she and Louis Leakey
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a British archaeologist and naturalist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there...
excavated the site and Shackleton collaborated with the investigations, preparing geological maps of the area around the Olorgesailie site and the area between Olorgesailie and Ngong
Ngong, Kenya
Ngong is a town near the Ngong Hills along the Great Rift Valley, located in the southwest of Nairobi, in southern Kenya. The word "Ngong" is a Maasai word meaning "knuckles"...
.
Shackleton returned to Imperial College in 1945 and was offered a professorship there. However, he thought the department too unmanageable and in 1948 returned to Liverpool as the Herdman Professor of Geology. In his time in the Herdman chair, he re-organised the Liverpool geology department and put it at the forefront of geological research in Britain. In 1962, in order to increase his opportunities for research in Africa, he took up a chair in the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
and joined the staff of the Research Institute of African Geology (serving as Director from 1965 until retirement). 1970-1971 he was Royal Society Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Geology at the Haile Selassie University, Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, Ethiopia. He formally retired in 1975 but was Research Fellow at the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
from 1977 until his death and remained active in field geology.
His achievements were recognized by the award of the Silver Medal
Silver medal
A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
of the Liverpool Geological Society (1957) and the Murchison Medal
Murchison Medal
An award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. One of the closing public acts of Murchison’s life was the founding of a chair of geology and mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. Under his will there was established the Murchison Medal and geological fund to be awarded annually...
of the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
(1970), and his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (1971). His Royal Society citation recorded that he was "well-known for his contributions to the study of crystalline rocks, more particularly of rock deformation and large scale tectonics."
Of particular importance have been his work on Tertiary volcanics in Kenya, his understanding of the Pre-Cambrian of eastern and central Africa and his accounts of Dalradian structures and deposits".
Shackleton married three times and had five children, including geoscientist Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton
Nicholas Shackleton
Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS was a British geologist and climatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period...
(1937-2006).
External links
- The Shackleton papers have just been processed by the NCUACS, Bath, England http://www.bath.ac.uk/ncuacs/. They can be consulted in the Archives of the Geological Society of London.
- Catalogue of the Papers and Correspondence of Robert Millner Shackleton FRS (1909-2001), by Timothy E. Powell and Peter Harper, NCUACS catalogue no. 158/1/08