Alexander McKay (geologist)

Alexander McKay (* April 11, 1841 in Carsphairn, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, † July 8, 1917 in Wellington, New Zealand ) was a Scottish- New Zealand geologist and mineralogist.

Early years

Alexander McKay was born on 11 April 1841, the son of Mr and Mrs Agnes MacClellan and her husband William Sloane McKay, a carpenter and wheelwright in Carsphairn. Calvinist educated, he attended the village school until he was 11. Then he assisted his father and attended school only in the winter. In the summer he worked as a cowherd. During this time his interest in geology and mineralogy evolved, learned the stratification of the rocks know, searching for ores in the Rhinns of Kells, a mountain range in his home.

New Zealand

On July 3, 1863 McKay left from his Scottish home of Glasgow. It is likely that drew him the tidings of the Otago Gold Rush to New Zealand. On the Helenslea he reached Campbelltown, later Bluff, in September, 1863, and worked well for two years in the gold fields of Otago and in Wakamarina in the Marlborough region. After a short visit to the goldfields of New South Wales and Queensland, in 1866 he returned back to New Zealand to investigate the southwestern Mackenzie Country geology for four years. In which commissioned this happened is not known. But during this time he met for the first time the German - New Zealand geologist Julius von Haast know.

On August 24, 1868 McKay marries his wife Susannah Barnes, who later lived in Wellington, while McKay was traveling. The marriage produced two sons were born.

In 1870, he scored again to Haast and was engaged by him for geological investigations in the coal fields of Ashley George and Shag Point in the north Otago. In their further cooperation they were looking for fossils of reptiles in the area around Waipara River in the north of Canterbury. Also McKay was involved in the excavations of moa skeletons in Point Cave at Sumner, now a suburb of Christchurch.

In 1972, James Hector, Director of the Colonial Museum and New Zealand Geological Survey, attentive due to McKay's Fossil Collection of Waipara, exhibited in the Canterbury Museum, on him. Hector won McKay for further excavations in Haumuri Bluff near Kaikoura. After completion of his mission in April 1873 McKay went to Wellington to his wife and took over a little later a permanent position for the fossil collection of the Geological Survey. In 1876 he was appointed geologist for excavations and got 1885 Assistenzstelle a state geologist. In 1892 he moved as a geologist for the mining industry in the Mines Department ( Mining Division), and was appointed so to a state geologist. He held this position until his retirement in 1906.

McKay's contributions to geology in New Zealand were in his work in the field of structural geology. He developed theories of mountain building in New Zealand, which was seen initially controversial, but later by respected geologist of New Zealand were confirmed.

After his wife Susanna had died in the year of his retirement, McKay married on June 3, 1907 again. His second wife, Adelaid Doutson should survive him. Alexander McKay died on 8 July 1917 in Kelburn, Wellington.

Photography

In the late 1880s McKay developed increasingly interested in photography and experimented with camera designs, and the development of telephoto lenses and macro lenses. He cut this from the bottoms of bottles and used them to enlargements or reductions. Some of his photographs are created in this way can still be seen today in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

McKay Hammer Award

Since 1957, awards the Geological Society of New Zealand the McKay Hammer Award. He is Alexander McKay awarded to honor each year to New Zealand writers who have contributed in the past three years with her ​​work something outstanding on the geology of New Zealand.