John Arthur’s eventful career and major contribution to the development of the near surface geoscience division of EAGE has this year been recognized by the award of Honorary Membership. He recalls that he only became a geophysicist by accident.
Were your school friends jealous of the train set at home?
My most enduring childhood memory is of our front room encircled with a waist high bench with a fully working Hornby Dublo 00 gauge railway track layout handmade by my father - a joy to behold and to run when I was permitted to take the controls. Friends didn’t get much of a chance as my mother didn’t encourage visitors!
What inspired your interest in geology?
My family loved beaches and, based in Christchurch, we often drove westwards to explore the south coast Dorset beaches from Kimmeridge to Lyme Regis, now known as ‘The Jurassic Coast’. Not only did I discover the fascination of fossils buried in pebbles but puzzled over how sedimentary beds, originally laid horizontally, could now be standing vertically at Durdle Dor, just around the corner from Lulworth Cove.
How did your first job come about?
Even though my grammar school in Hampshire guided me through the sciences, no one was available to teach me geology. But I achieved good enough science grades to get a place in the geology department at Bristol University. It did not go well and I was moved in my last year to a course in soil mechanics. What luck – with this combination I was taken on in 1963 as a geologist in the soil laboratories of George Wimpey and Co.
How did that turn you into a geophysicist?
Our small group at the laboratory concentrated on investigating the subsurface for all types of engineering projects including multi-story housing blocks in areas previously coal mined. We began to realize that boreholes alone were not enough to find mineshafts, so I was sent to work alongside a small geophysical site survey company. Also Wimpey had in 1957 teamed up with Alpine Geophysical Associates to undertake offshore analogue profiling in the UK. That’s how I got to work on some of the first offshore exploratory oil well sites in the North Sea.
Your last company job before going independent didn’t end well?
During my last Channel Tunnel analogue profiling survey (before digital multi-channel recording technology took over), Aquatronics in Houston offered me the job of chief geophysicist. For the next nine years I was oscillating between the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea meeting the rising demand for shallow gas surveys. But the ‘hire and fire’ culture got me in the end. After four changes of president, the fifth one decided that a multi-lingual colleague would be a better European marketing manager and I was out. Happily it inspired me to set up my own company, so was a blessing in disguise
What did you do to the Channel Tunnel?
In 1986 we were asked to plan and direct a comprehensive new study for the UK to France Channel Tunnel. Two years later we revisited the locations of proposed rail crossovers. With improved seismic resolution we recommended relocating the UK crossover to a less faulted position. So I like to say we moved the Channel Tunnel!
Near surface projects kept you busy…
Between 1988 and 1997 one major preoccupation was geological investigation of possible sites for a nuclear waste repository at the Dounreay nuclear fusion site in Scotland and the Sellafield nuclear facility in NW England. Just about every geophysical discipline and a large team of associates was involved with studies including airborne geophysics, land and marine seismic and gravity, down-hole geophysics and land electromagnetic trials. Overseas a Turkish oil pipeline, rail route in South Africa, iron ore development in Senegal and Black Sea drilling hazards were memorable projects.
Do you worry about future of geosciences?
Clearly the big oil players are not going to be around to recruit so much, but I think my experience shows that many opportunities arise in near surface geoscience outside hydrocarbons.
Outside work, any special interests?
I used to be an avid downhill skier. These days philosophy and singing tenor in our local church choir are things I enjoy.
