The Edinburgh Geologist
Issue no 4 - Autumn 1978

Ode to the Baikal Rift

by Professor Basil King

The following postscript to his lecture was received from the Clough Medallist, Professor Basil King



 

O Baikalian Rift in the heart of Siberia, you're no way inferior
To the rifts that developed elsewhere;
     You're so far from the oceans,
     You show no plate motions
     To give you false notions
And yet you're undoubtedly there.

You show crustal convulsions, but no triple junctions,
And your course follows archaic trends;
     There's been no occasion
     Of mantle invasion
     Though, by seismic persuasion,
You yet could make future amends.

O Baikalian Rift, with continental drift,
You could widen with greatest of ease:
     A gulf of salt water
     Along the right quarter
     Is something that ought to
Please Russians as well as Chinese.

B C King

 

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