Mervyn Paterson: The Berkeley Connection

Mervyn had a long history with Berkeley, beginning with Frank Turner in connection with the Griggs-Turner Yule marble project, then with Lionel Weiss who spent in 1962 a year in Canberra with a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1974 Lionel and Rudy Wenk were a month in the Musgraves and Mervyn joined them to climb Mt. Woodrooffe. Several important papers resulted from these interactions and the world would be different without the Paterson rig.

Paterson MS, Weiss LE (1962) Experimental folding in rocks. Nature 195, 1046.

Paterson MS, Weiss LE (1966) Experimental deformation and folding in phyllite. GSA Bull. 77, 343. Barber DJ, Heard HC, Paterson MS, Wenk HR (1977) Stacking faults in dolomite. Nature 269, 789.

Barber DJ, Wenk HR, Gomez-Barreiro et al. (2007) Basal slip in calcite. PCM 34, 73.

Wenk HR, Armann M, Burlini L et al. (2009) Large strain shearing of halite. EPSL 280, 205.

Below some pictures in memory of Mervyn:

1965 in Canberra: Mervin with Frank and Esme Turner (left) and Mervyn and Frank with Barry Raleigh in the background…always with a glass of wine.

1974 in Pitjantjatjara land. Mervyn climbing Mt. Woodrooffe and passionately burning spinifex. Then, after a month in the wilds a first contact with civilization in Alice Springs. Turning on TV: Nixon resigned and Mervyn, Lionel and Rudy were celebrating.