George P. L. Walker facts for kids

George Patrick Leonard Walker (March 2, 1926 – January 17, 2005) was a British geologist. He started his career studying mineralogy, which is the study of minerals. Later, he became very important in volcanology, the study of volcanoes. Many people saw him as a leader in using numbers and measurements to understand volcanoes.

About George Walker

Walker was born in Harlesden, London, in 1926. He was the only child of Leonard Walker, an insurance salesman, and Evelyn Frances, a nurse. He went to Acton Lane Elementary School. In 1937, he won a scholarship to Willesden County School.

In 1939, when World War II started, Walker and his mother were in Ballinderry, Northern Ireland. They stayed there, and Walker finished school at Wallace High School, Lisburn.

Education and Early Work

Walker went to Queen's University, Belfast, to study geology. He earned his first degree (BSc) in 1948 and a master's degree (MSc) in 1949. He then went to the University of Leeds for his PhD. His PhD research looked at how minerals change in igneous rocks in Northern Ireland. Igneous rocks are formed from cooled lava or magma.

In the summers of 1952 and 1953, Walker joined his professor, W Q Kennedy, on trips. They went on geological expeditions to the Ruwenzori Mountains and the Belgian Congo.

Career and Discoveries

In 1952, Walker started working at Imperial College London as a mineralogy assistant. He became a lecturer in 1954 and finished his PhD in 1956. For the next ten years, Walker studied how minerals changed in the lavas of eastern Iceland. He spent every summer from 1955 to 1966 mapping in Iceland.

This careful work made him famous as a mineralogist. It also showed for the first time how the Earth's crust grows at oceanic ridges. These are underwater mountain ranges where new crust forms. In 1964, Walker became a Reader at Imperial College.

Focus on Volcanoes

After the Surtsey volcano erupted from 1963 to 1967, Walker became very interested in active volcanoes. This led to his important studies on basaltic volcanism and lava flows on Mount Etna. Basaltic volcanism involves runny lava that flows easily.

Later, he studied pyroclastic rocks and the products of explosive volcanic eruptions. Pyroclastic rocks are made of volcanic ash and rock fragments thrown out during eruptions. He did this work in Italy, the Azores, and Tenerife.

In 1977, Walker received a special award called the Captain James Cook Fellowship. He took this up at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. In 1978, he left Imperial College and moved to New Zealand with his family. In 1981, he moved to the University of Hawaiʻi to become a professor of volcanology. He stayed there until he retired in 1996.

Awards and Recognition

George Walker received many awards for his careful and important work.

• Order of the Falcon from the president of Iceland in 1977.
• Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975.
• McKay Hammer award from the Geoscience Society of New Zealand in 1982.
• Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London in 1982.
• University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Research in 1985.
• Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1987.
• Fellowship of the Geological Society of America in 1987.
• Fellowship of the American Geophysical Union in 1988.
• Honorary D.Sc. from the University of New Zealand in 1988.
• Dr. scient. hon. c. from the University of Iceland in 1988.
• Thorarinsson Medal from the (IAVCEI) in 1989.
• Wollaston Medal (Geological Society of London) in 1995.

Personal Life

In 1958, Walker married Hazel Smith. They had a daughter named Alison and a son named Leonard.