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Walker's footage digitized and "Viscous shape"

LIST OF WALKER'S FOOTAGE  - the  original film bands are archived at Kvikmyndasafn in Hafnarfjörður, SW-Iceland.

Project Viscous shape. A professional artist team was working a continious film (~5 min) with the material (in totla more than 10 h). Their words after one week work with the material:

"It takes more than guts to peer into an erupting volcano... Or to stand beside a river of lava moving at 40mph... Or to gaze at a cloud of tephra larger than any skyscraper. It could even be said that in doing these things it's not just the earth's stomach that you witness but your own insides, your human guts and sense of scale. During the later years of his life, George Walker turned to investigating active volcanos as a way to perpetuate and develop the then little-known science of rheology (the study of fluid dynamics). Walker used cinematic technologies to record his rigorous explorations of lava flow, and only now have his films been rediscovered and preserved for the public to share in his life's work. With an eye for the unlikely and ineffable, artists Curtis Tamm (USA) and Hermione Spriggs (UK) reopen the unseen cinematic and textual archives of George Walker. Through a collaboration with Breiðdalssetur, geology center, the artists work with Walker's archive as a way to engage the literal and metaphysical implications raised by the groundbreaking work of this scarcely known geologist."

"Supported by the Arts Council England International Development Fund"

teaser picture            Watch the teaser Viscous shape

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Walker samples from Hawaii

G.P.L. Walker left working documents, teaching material and samples in Honolulu, when he got retired and moved back to England 20 years ago. The curator of Breiðdalssetur went to Hawaii in March 2016 to pack the samples and send them to Iceland. The samples (2 pallets) or 1,3 t, were two month on their way over the Pacific ocean through Panama channel,  over the Atlantic ocean to Rotterdam and finally to Reyðarfjörður, Iceland. The samples are from volcanos from all over the world but mainly ash from the Pacific fire ring.Thanks a lot to the staff of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology of the University of Hawai‘i at MānoaSchool of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for their kind assistance.

Walker samples in Honolulu Hawaii in March 2016:

hawaii bdv 0hawaii bdv 01hawaii bdv 02

Samples arrived in Breiðdalsvík Iceland in May 2016:

hawaii bdv 1hawaii bdv 2hawaii bdv 3

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Memorial events in honor of Walker's 90th birthday, March 2nd & 5th 2016

This year G.P.L. Walker would get 90 years old. For this opportunity, Breiðdalssetur organizes two events: Birthday coffee on March 2nd at 3:30 pm and a symposium on March 5th at 1:30 pm. Three named Icelandic geologists will hold a presentation there:

Ármann Höskuldsson, Ómar Bjarki Smárason & Thor Thordarson.

More about the event and presentations

afmli 2 mars 2016  afmli 5 mars 2016 fyrirlestrar

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Publications by George P.L. Walker, East Iceland

List about articles by Walker and his studnets connected to East Iceland ca 1950-1980

Walker 1959. The Geology of the Reyðarfjörður Area, Eastern Iceland.

Walker 1960. Zeolite zones and dike distribution in relation to the structure of the basalts of eastern Iceland.

Walker 1962. Tertiary welded tuffs in eastern Iceland.

Walker 1963. The Breiðdalur central volcano, eastern Iceland.

Walker 1964. Geological investigations in eastern Iceland.

Walker 1974. The Structure of Eastern Iceland.

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Publications by G.P.L. Walker et al.

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Dr. G.P.L. Walker - biography

Walker previewGEORGE PATRICK LEONARD WALKER

Born in London 2 March 1926.

Studied geology in Belfast, received Ph.D. at the University of Leeds, 1956. His thesis topic concerned the Early Tertiary igneous rocks of Northern Ireland, in particular their hydrothermal alteration minerals.

Lecturer at Imperial College, London 1951-1978.
Geological research in Iceland 1955-1965. Visits e.g. in 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1988, and 1995.
Geological research in the Azores, Italy, the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Indonesia and Hawaii.
After 1978 he lived in New Zealand, then went to Hawaii and moved back to Gloucester in 1996.

Walker passed away at the age of 78, 17 January 2005.

Memoirs of GPL Walker poster as pdf

S. Self and R.S.J. Sparks, 2006. George Patrick Leonard Walker. 2 March 1926 - 17 January 2005. Biographical Memoirs - Fellows of the Royal Society 52, 423-436.

Heimir Gíslason, 2006. Í minningu dr. Walkers. Glettingur 43, 20-22.

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