Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and academic. He is known for being a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton (with whom he undertook the Nimrod Expedition in 1907–1909). However, most of his geological work was undertaken in South Australia, in particular the Precambrian rocks of the Flinders Ranges. Mawson was born in England and was brought to Australia as an infant. He completed degrees in mining engineering and geology at the University of Sydney, after which he was appointed lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1906. From 1903 onwards he undertook significant geological exploration, including an expedition to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in 1903, and later in the Flinders Ranges and far north-east of South Australia and over the border near Broken Hill in New South Wales. He was interested in the commercial applications of geology, in particular the radioactive minerals being used in medical applications in the early 1900s. He identified and first described the mineral davidite in 1906, and later became an expert in the geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Much of his later work was focused on the Precambrian rocks Adelaide Superbasin (which included the Flinders and Barrier Ranges), where there are significant fossil beds showing the beginnings of animal life on Earth. Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909), alongside his geologist lecturer and mentor Edgeworth David. They were part of a group which became the first to climb Mount Erebus in March 1908. Mawson, David and Alistair Mackay formed the expedition's northern party, which later, setting off in October 1908, became the first people...