Geophysics: A very short introduction / Геофизика: очень краткое введение

The mining towns in northern Canada are remote from good roads but they are surrounded by lakes. Aircraft, mounted on floats instead of wheels, serve as a practical means of transport in the forested wilderness. After the ice had melted from the lakes in the early summer of 1961, I found myself —a young Scot with a good recent degree in physics but minimum training for the task ahead—disembarking from a float-plane on the shore of a large lake in northern Manitoba, 80 kilometres from the nearest town where the mining company that employed me had its headquarters. My companions were five Cree Indians and a cook, and for the rest of the short northern summer my job would be to use geophysical equipment to search for potential sources of nickel in the geological structures buried beneath the forest floor. This was my initiation to the world of geophysical exploration. It convinced me to change from physics to a career as a geophysicist. In addition to teaching and laboratory research it involved annual fieldwork that took me into less developed areas of the world where interesting geological problems could be addressed.