Colin Reeves MA MSc PhD

Postal address: Achterom 41a, 2611 PL Delft, The Netherlands.

Telephone: +31 611 35 62 72 (office/mobile); +31 15 214 6370 (home).

e-mail: reeves.earth@planet.nl

Colin Reeves has been involved for almost 40 years with the use of (airborne) geophysical mapping in support of geological reconnaissance and resource exploration in the developing countries.  He holds degrees from Cambridge, Birmingham and Leeds universities in England and started his professional career with the Geological Survey of Botswana in 1970 where he planned and executed the first national gravity survey coverage.  In 1976 he moved to Ottawa, Canada, joining Geoterrex Limited and working on the initial CIDA aeromagnetic coverage of the Kalahari.  In 1978 he relocated to Toronto, joining Paterson, Grant and Watson Limited and working on similar projects in Ivory Coast, the South China Sea, Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi as well as in North and South America.  He became a director of the company and, with Ian MacLeod, co-founded Geosoft^® in this period. 

In 1983 he was appointed Professor in Exploration Geophysics at the International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) in Delft, The Netherlands, where he took charge of postgraduate and MSc courses in exploration geophysics for students almost exclusively from Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Some 250 students, including over 50 research MScs, passed through his division, many now holding senior positions in their own countries. 

He continued with consulting work, mainly in Africa and India, as part of his ITC duties and, in 1991, accepted an invitation from the government of Australia to head the geophysical mapping programme of the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (now Geoscience Australia) during a two-year leave of absence, 1991-3.  There he supervised, inter alia, the production of the first magnetic and gravity anomaly images of the entire continent.  He also initiated the digital compilation of all aeromagnetic data for the whole of Africa (AMMP), Arabia, India and the Middle East (AAIME) from his ITC base, 1989-1999. 

After returning to the Netherlands in 1993 he was elected as head of the Delft Location of ITC and then, in 1996, to the chairmanship of the Department of Earth Resources Surveys, at that time divided over the two ITC locations.  He served internationally as chairman of Division V (Instruments, Observatories, Surveys and Analyses) for the International Association for Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) from 1994 to 1999.  He has published widely on geophysical mapping and its contribution to understanding geology and regional tectonics. He has hands-on experience of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa through visits or student projects and has retained active contacts with leading geoscientists in India through visits and international projects there extending back over 25 years. With the ending of ITC activties in Delft in 2000, he started phasing out his involvement, opting for full early retirement in 2004.

He set up Earthworks BV in 2001 and through it undertakes advisory work on projects where the combination of geology, paleo-geographic reconstruction, regional geophysical mapping and interpretation and digital cartography can deliver new insight. Ongoing research to understand the geology and tectonics of the southern continents includes the detailed sequence of fragmentation of Gondwana from ocean-floor topography and the consequent generation of sedimentary basins along the margins of and within its current fragments. He sees the development of this holistic, GIS-based approach as an important development area in the earth sciences for the coming years, exemplified recently by OneGeology, Dapple and the GIRAF initiative for Africa.  He contributes to AfricaArray through an honorary professorship at the University of the Witwatersrand, and is an associate of AEON (the Africa Earth Observatory Network) at the University of Cape Town.  Current advisory projects include the new nationwide airborne geophysical coverages of the Precambrian of Uganda and Nigeria as well as several assignments for the oil sector.  He will deliver an Association Lecture on Geomagnetism and Exploration of Global Geology at IAGA's 11th Scientific Assembly in Sopron, Hungary in August 2009 and at the 'Africa' meeting of the Geological Society of Houston/PESGB in London in September he will review the latest results of Gondwana dispersal  studies (illustrated by the latest animation below).

His extensive experience in airborne geophysical surveying (theory, practice, data processing, interpretation) and geodynamics and global tectonic reconstruction focussed on the Gondwana continents is available on request in the form of courses and e-texts. The scope of activties of Earthworks  BV is outlined further on a separate page and relevant news items for recent years are presented on subsequent pages.

Colin still lives in the old centre of Delft and works from an independent office nearby.

2009 August 7.

Edition 30.