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Seminar

Metals, vapours, and volcanoes

  • Date

    May 12,2016

  • Time

    12:30PM

  • Venue

    JL104

  • Speaker

    Prof. A.E. William-Jones Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences McGill University

This presentation reviews the history of a crazy idea, namely that metals can be
transported by aqueous vapour (steam) in concentrations sufficient to form economic
metallic mineral deposits. It starts with the work of Agricola in the 16th century,
continues with the fight in the early part of the 20th century between the fathers of
modern Economic Geology (USGS) and experimentalists, examines Krauskopf's nail in
the coffin in the 1950s, and culminates with the rise of the phoenix in the 1990s and
ongoing work to try and make sense out of insanity.