Recently tagged Gros Morne National Park

His name was Hank Williams, and although he was a talented musician in his own right, he was no country music star. He was a star, though, in the science world, and geologists from across the planet knew his work and his name.

The planet, in fact, was the focus of his life’s work. Williams helped develop and promote our understanding of plate tectonics, the idea that the continents are shifting, and formed from prior supercontinents.

Harold Williams - everyone knew him as Hank - died last week, without fanfare or public notice. I only found out on Tuesday, and was saddened by the news.

The fact that his death did not attract much attention struck me as fitting, as he lived his life without much public recognition in Newfoundland and Labrador of his enormous contribution to science. That oversight is an element I had hoped to correct with an episode on Williams, and the geology of this province, in 2003 for Land & Sea.

His landmark work was a map of the Appalachian mountain system, which sparked a revolution in understanding in geology.

It’s a massive map, enough to colour a wall, and it’s probably unintelligible to lay people. To geologists, it changed everything, as it helped explain how continents collided hundreds and hundreds of millions ago, creating mountains along the way. Williams was tickled to hear that people would steal the map from college walls. Not only that, the map made a profit. “If the map makes money, I don’t have to tell you how important this map has to be to geologists,” he told me years ago.

He drew upon his Newfoundland heritage to explain plate tectonics, dubbing the folding of the continents over massive periods of time “the Harry Hibbs effect,” after the late accordion legend. It seems obvious now, but it was an excellent way of explaining a complicated scientific theory to a wide audience.

Williams was also proud, and justifiably so, of helping to make the case for Gros Morne National Park to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Land & Sea episode was titled The Truth Lies in the Rocks, a phrase that Hank was fond of using to explain why geology matters. “If you don’t know how old things are, or how old you are, you’ll never know who you are,” he told me during the shoot.

I was glad to have had the opportunity to meet him, and get to know him. He was low-key, down-to-earth and charming in his own way.

In tribute to the life of a great scientist, here’s the full episode.