CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY
Geological Speculations
WAS NEW ZEALAND ONCE A PART OF AUSTRALIA?
The theory that in the course of ages the great continents gradually drift about the globe, and that perhaps in the remote past New Zealand was a part of Australia, but broke off and floated away, is seriously being considered by scientists. Dr. G. D. Osborne, who arrived in Wellington yesterday by the Awatea, said that he was studying this theory, but was unwilling to say whether he supported it. Dr. Osborne, who is on his way from Sydney University to Cambridge and Harvard, where he has been awarded a fellowship in structural geology, said that he was in New Zealand last January, studying the structural formation of Mount Egmont. He was still engaged on a work on the subject, which was to be published on completion. He said that he was deeply interested also in the geological relationship between New Zealand and Australia, in view of the modern theory of continental drift. This was one of the main lines of modern geological research, based on a theory postulated by an American scientist. It was, however, doubtful whether it applied to New Zealand’s severance from Australia; it was doubtful whether they were ever connected. “I wouldn’t like to say at this stage that New Zealand was once a part of Australia, but had drifted away,” he said. “I should prefer to sit on the fence.”
He said that he had a great admiration for the work of the New Zealand Geological Survey. New Zealand was to him a most interesting country, because of its many geological contrasts and differing aspects; it was second to no other country of the world for variety of geological formations.
He had studied the prospects of petroleum in the Egmont district, but was essentially an academic rather than a commerical geologist. The main activities in the search for petroleum in Australia were the explorations in New’ Guinea and Papua, where considerable developments had taken place in the past year, culminating in the recent formation of the Australasian Petroleum Company to exploit the resources of that territory.
Dr. Osborne, who was travelling with his wife and child, said that he expected to be abroad about a year.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19381213.2.72
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 68, 13 December 1938, Page 10
Word Count
374CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 68, 13 December 1938, Page 10
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