Lawrence Austin Frakes (born 1930)[1] is an American-born geologist and paleoclimatologist residing in Australia since 1973. He holds (emeritus) the Douglas Mawson Professor of Geology chair, at the University of Adelaide, in South Australia.[2] Mount Frakes, a shield volcano in the Crary Mountains of Antarctica, is named for him.[3]

Career edit

Lawrence Frakes is the son of Frank. B. Frakes and Elizabeth Austin (and is descended from an old ranching family near Elizabeth Lake (Los Angeles County, California)), and is a cousin of naturalist William Franklin Frakes and historian George E. Frakes.[4] Frakes studied at the University of California, Los Angeles where he earned his master's degree in 1959 (with a thesis on "The geology of the Quatal Canyon area, Kern, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties, California") and his Ph.D. in 1964 (entitled "Paleogeography of the Trimmers Rock Member of the Fort Littleton Formation (Devonian) in southern and eastern Pennsylvania")[5] with advisor John C. Crowell.[6] Frakes worked at University of California, University of New Mexico, Florida State University, and later in the Department of Earth Sciences at Monash University in Australia. He was named to his position as the Douglas Mawson Professor of Geology chair, at the University of Adelaide in 1985.[7] Professor Frakes was Chairman of the Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Adelaide from 1986-1989.

Frakes researches the relationship between continental drift and climate change.[8][9] He has written a number of papers about glaciation and plate tectonics.[10] His studies of ocean sediments helped to determine the history of glaciation,[11] and have been published in well-respected journals, including Nature.[12][13]

Selected publications edit

  • Lawrence A. Frakes; Jane E. Francis; Jozef I. Syktus (3 November 2005). Climate Modes of the Phanerozoic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-02194-4.
  • Lawrence A. Frakes (1979). Climates throughout geologic time. Elsevier Scientific Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-444-41729-9.

References edit

  1. ^ Birth year from WorldCat catalog entry, retrieved 2019-10-20
  2. ^ The Polar Times. American polar society. 1966. p. 4.
  3. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lawrence A. Frakes
  4. ^ "Frank B. Frakes (1908-1988) - Find a Grave".
  5. ^ http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/vwebv/search?searchType=7&searchId=1456&maxResultsPerPage=50&recCount=50&recPointer=0&resultPointer=0&headingId=8389243[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Lawrence A. Frakes". Geotree: The Academic Genealogy of Geology and Geochemistry (academic tree.org).
  7. ^ Mineral Industry Quarterly. S.A. Department of Mines and Energy. 1982. p. 27.
  8. ^ Colin P. Summerhayes (13 July 2015). Earth's Climate Evolution. Wiley. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-1-118-89738-6.
  9. ^ University of California (System) (1968). University Bulletin: A Weekly Bulletin for the Staff of the University of California. Office of Official Publications, University of California. pp. 58–.
  10. ^ Oscar R. López-Gamundí; Luis A. Buatois (2010). Late Paleozoic Glacial Events and Postglacial Transgressions in Gondwana. Geological Society of America. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-0-8137-2468-3.
  11. ^ Sea Secrets. International Oceanographic Foundation. 1972. p. 80.
  12. ^ Reed Business Information (5 April 1973). New Scientist. Reed Business Information. pp. 7–. ISSN 0262-4079. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  13. ^ Gabrielle Walker (24 August 2009). Snowball Earth: The Story of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It. A&C Black. pp. 124–. ISBN 978-1-4088-0714-9.

External links edit