Australian dictionary biography douglas mawson alone

National Library of Australia, The family moved to Rooty Hill, near Sydney, in At the University of Sydney in he studied mining engineering and graduated B. Next year he took six months leave to make a geological survey of the New Hebrides Vanuatu , under the auspices of Captain E. Rason, the British deputy commissioner there. This was Mawson's introduction to scientific exploration, carried out in rugged country with dense jungle and among hostile inhabitants.

His report, 'The geology of the New Hebrides', was one of the first major works on the geology of Melanesia. He returned to further studies in geology in B. Through the early influence of Professor Archibald Liversidge , Mawson became a pioneer in the chemical aspects of geology and geochemistry. But the dominant influence was that of Professor Sir Tannatt Edgeworth David , foremost among workers in the geological sciences in Australia.

In Mawson was appointed lecturer in mineralogy and petrology in the University of Adelaide. He immediately became interested in the glacial geology of South Australia. Also, continuing his interest in radioactivity, he identified and first described the mineral davidite, containing titanium and uranium, in specimens from the region now known as Radium Hill.

That deposit was the first major radioactive ore body discovered in Australia.

Mawson australia

The major work of his early South Australian period was his investigation of the highly mineralized Precambrian rocks of the Barrier Range, extending from the northern Flinders Ranges through Broken Hill, New South Wales. The country is a complex of metamorphosed, igneous and sedimentary rocks with varying degrees of mineralization.

This investigation led to publication of his 'Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area'; he had previously submitted the substance of this work to the University of Adelaide D.