Alec Trendall (8 December 1928 – 4 April 2013) was an English geologist, poet, and explorer. He is known for his work in mapping the island of

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east ...

and for surveying the geology of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

Early life

Alec Trendall was born in 1928 at Enfield, Middlesex, and in 1949 graduated in

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

at London University. He has a PhD degree from Liverpool University.

Exploration

Trendall was the geologist on the 1951–52 and 1953-54

South Georgia Survey The South Georgia Survey was a series of expeditions to survey and map the island of South Georgia, led by Duncan Carse between 1951 and 1957. Although South Georgia had been commercially exploited as a whaling station during the first half of t ...

expeditions led by

Duncan Carse Verner Duncan Carse (28 July 1913 – 2 May 2004) was an English explorer and actor known for surveying South Georgia and for the portrayal of Special Agent Dick Barton on BBC Radio. Early life Carse was born on 28 July 1913 in Fulham, London, ...

. Trendall Crag, 1,005 m, overlooking the north side of

Drygalski Fjord Drygalski Fjord is a bay wide which recedes northwestwards , entered immediately north of Nattriss Head along the southeast coast of South Georgia. It was charted by the Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–12, under Wilhelm Filchner, and ...

at the southeast end of

, was named to commemorate Alec Trendall's contribution. In 2011 he published a full account of the survey expeditions, entitled ''Putting South Georgia on the Map''. The Scott Polar Research Institute's digitised archive includes 305 images of Trendall including images of a

bergschrund A bergschrund (from the German for ''mountain cleft'') or rimaye (from French; ) is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers, who sometimes ...

- a hole in an ice sheet - which Trendall fell down before being carried on an improvised sled, to leave the First expedition.

Geological Survey of Western Australia

Trendall was Director of the

Geological Survey of Western Australia The Geological Survey of Western Australia is an authority within the Department of Mines and Petroleum of the Government of Western Australia that is responsible for surveying and exploration of Western Australia's geological resources. Th ...

from 1969-1989. Trendall discovered the locality known as Trendall Reserve, Eastern Pilbara in 1984. It contains convincing evidence of some of the oldest known fossils known as

stromatolites Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations ( microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). ...

.Trendal Locality
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trendall, Alec 1928 births History of South Georgia 2013 deaths