AL du Toit Lecture Series

The Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture takes the form of a biennial lecture tour by an invited speaker.  The subject of the lecture should be related to the geology or natural history of southern Africa, or on a topic that contributes to our understanding of southern African geology. Ideally, the lecture should be framed in the context of A L du Toit’s seminal text “Our Wandering Continents”. The intention of the series is to recognise world-class research in the Earth Sciences and to give the GSSA membership access to both the work and the champions through a series of lectures to be delivered at the main centres, branches and divisions of the Society and, where possible, its associated societies.

 

The Alex L du Toit Lecture Series

Year	No.	Lecturer	Title of Lecture
2024	36	C Heubeck	Eight boreholes and three tunnels: ICDP Project BASE probes the Moodies Group of the Barberton Greenstone Belt
2018	35	L Ashwal	Wandering continents of the Indian Ocean
2016	34	C Hawksworth	Geological Cycles and the Generation of the Continental Crust
2014	33	NJ Beukes	Genesis and paleo-environmental significance of Pre-Cambrian sedimentary iron and manganese deposits with special reference to the history of free oxygen in the ocean and atmosphere.
2012	32	N Arndt	Barberton komatiites: creation and crystallization of the world’s hottest magmas
2010	31	T McCarthy	The Okavango Delta and its place in the geomorphological evolution of southern Africa
2008	30	T Naldrett	From the Mantle to the Bank – the life of some Ni-sulphide Deposits
2006	29	U Reimold	Revolutions in the Earth Sciences: Of Continental Drift, Impact and other Catastrophes
2004	28	P Hoffman	Neo-Proterozoic Snowball Earth: Exercising the Imaginative Muscle
2002	27	B Rubidge	Re-uniting lost continents – fossil reptiles from the ancient Karoo and their wanderlust.
1999	26	A Kröner	The Mozambique Belt of East Africa and Madagascar: Significance of zircon and Nd model ages for Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinent formation and dispersal.
1997	25	T Partridge	Of diamonds, dinosaurs and diastrophism: 150 million years of landscape evolution in southern Africa.
1995	24	KCA Burke	Africa: The past 25 million years.
1993	23	DR Hunter	Southern African earth sciences in Antarctica: the third decade.
1992	22	G Gaàl	Global Proterozoic tectonic cycles and early Proterozoic metallogeny.
1989	21	JJ Gurney	The diamondiferous roots of our wandering continents.
1987	20	HS Yoder Jr	The great basalt floods.
1985	19	LO Nicolaysen	On the physical basis for the extended Wilson Cycle, in which most continents coalesce and then disperse again.
1983	18	JC Crowell	Ice ages on Gondwanan continents.
1981	17	CK Brain	The evolution of man in Africa -was it a consequence of Cainozoic cooling?
1979	16	BJ Skinner	The frequency of mineral deposits.
1977	15	ESW Simpson	Evolution of the South Atlantic.
1976	14	P Cloud	Major features of crustal evolution.
1972	13	DA Pretorius	The crustal architecture of Southern Africa.
1971	12	SK Runcorn	Our wandering continents –the key to modern geoscience.
1969	11	EP Plumstead	Three thousand million years of plant life in Africa.
1967	10	WR Judd	Geotechnical communication problems.
1965	9	LC King	Geological relationships between South Africa and Antarctica.
1963	8	CE Wegmann	Tectonic patterns at different levels.
1961	7	HM Martin	The hypothesis of continental drift in the light of recent advances of geological knowledge in Brazil and in South West Africa.
1959	6	P H Keunen	Sand -its origin, transportation, abrasion and accumulation.
1957	5	HBS Cooke	Observations relating to Quaternary environments in East and Southern Africa.
1955	4	F Dixey	Some aspects of the geomorphology of Central and Southern Africa.
1953	3	EH Haughton	Gondwanaland and the distribution of early reptiles.
1951	2	HH Read	Metamorphism and granitisation.
1949	1	TW Gevers	The life and work of A L du Toit.