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"What Lies Beneath Table Mountain..."
Author: JD Clemens
Published: 08/08/2016

​What Lies Beneath Table Mountain or All Models are Wrong, but Some are Useful

 

inaugural lecture - Prof. Alex Kisters

 

After two years, the Faculty of Science finally caught up with Professor Alex Kisters and, on August 2nd, he delivered a typically lucid and fascinating inaugural lecture in front of an audience of friends, staff, students, former colleagues and government and industry associates. Alex's talk was entitled "What Lies Beneath Table Mountain or All Models are Wrong, but Some are Useful". Alex reviewed the various models for the development of the Malmesbury Group, concluding that it contains no really exotic terranes but instead represents an accretionary wedge, deformed initially in oblique, southeast-directed subduction. Alex reminded us that models are critical for understanding the geological development of a region but that we must always bear in mind the limitations of the models that we present. We all congratulate Alex on his full professorial appointment and wish him every success for the his future at Stellenbosch.