Fred Roots

Ernest Frederick "Fred" Roots (5 July 1923 – 18 October 2016) was a Canadian geologist, polar explorer, educator and public servant. After graduating with undergraduate and master's degrees in geology from the University of British Columbia and a doctorate from Princeton University, Roots joined the Scott Polar Research Institute and was appointed Chief Geologist for the 1949 to 1952 Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition. During the expedition, in addition to ground-breaking geological and glaciological research studies, he made a 189-day, unsupported dog sled journey across the continent; a record that still stood at the time of his death over six decades later. On his return to Canada he joined the Geological Survey of Canada with whom he served as a field geologist until 1958, when he left to help found the Polar Continental Shelf Program. After 14 years with PCSP, Roots left to act as science advisor to the newly created federal Department of the Environment, where he remained on staff until 1989. After retirement, Roots remained an active participant in polar research, and also became a key mentor within the Students on Ice educational program. He continued to participate in expeditions for Students on Ice well into his tenth decade, his last being to Greenland only two months before his death.

Early life

Fred Roots was born in Salmon Arm, in the Shuswap Country of southern British Columbia, Canada, on 5 July 1923. As a result, Roots spent much of his childhood surrounded by the high ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Growing up among the mountains instilled in Roots a lasting love of outdoor exploration and geology.

However, when Roots was only eight years old his father died from typhoid fever, leaving his mother to bring up the family's three children on her own. It was during this work that he first became involved with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), as he worked alongside the survey's staff geologist J.E. Armstrong to map the mineral-rich district. The same district provided the subject matter for his doctoral research which followed at Princeton University, from where he graduated with a Ph.D. degree in 1950.

Polar and Himalayan exploration

In 1949, at the age of 26, Roots was appointed Chief Geologist for the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition, the first exploratory expedition to Antarctica to involve an international team of scientists. Roots's role was to study the geology of Queen Maud Land, which he showed was a conjugate part of and had once been attached to the east coast of southern Africa. In addition to his geological observations, Roots also helped to show that the glaciers of Antarctica had once been much more extensive, and that the phenomenon of climate change was a global effect and not limited to discrete locations. During the course of the expedition, Roots undertook a 189-day, unsupported dog sled journey across the continent. This feat of endurance remained a record even at the time of his death, over six decades later. Between 1956 and 1958 Roots was, in turn, head of Operation Stikine, the GSC's first systematic attempt to map the geology of the northern portion of the Canadian Cordillera of British Columbia and Yukon. Roots served as head of PCSP for 14 years, until 1971, when he left to join what was to eventually become Environment Canada.

Department of the Environment At the time, the newly established government department was in a state of flux. As science advisor to the Minister of the Environment, Roots was instrumental in helping design the department's structure and objectives, and has been credited with giving it "the scientific credibility, the moral authority and knowledge that enabled it to play its role." He remained with Environment Canada until his retirement from public service in 1989, and subsequently retained a role with the department as an emeritus scientist and advisor until 2003. Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America (1955) Polar Medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom (1956) Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1965) Massey Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (1979) Officer of the Order of Canada (1987) Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1990) Explorers Club Medal of The Explorers Club (2016)

Namesake locations In recognition of his exemplary service in the exploration and scientific investigation of the Antarctic continent, a number of places and geographic features on the landmass have been named in honour of Roots. Roots Heights (Norwegian: ; ), named in 1966, is an area of high ground at the top of an ice-free, flat-topped mountain, approximately central within the Sverdrup Mountains of Queen Maud Land. On the western side of Roots Heights is a large glacial cirque, named Fred Cirque (Norwegian: ; ) also in 1966. Both features were mapped by Norwegian cartographers during the course of the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition for which Roots was Chief Geologist. Multiple biographical articles and obituaries claim that an entire range of mountains on Antarctica is named for Roots, but there appears to be no evidence for this in gazetteers and geographic name directories.

Namesake fossil During his master's thesis research in the Aiken Lake area of northern British Columbia, Roots collected samples of fossils to assist in correlation and dating of the various rock units that he examined there. One of these samples contained a sponge reef fauna which included a species of Archaeocyatha that had not yet been formally described. Fortunately for Roots, on the faculty of the Department of Geology at the University of British Columbia was Vladimir Okulitch, a paleontologist who specialized in Archaeocytha fossils. Okulitch named the species Protopharetra rootsi, meaning 'Roots's first quiver', recognizing both the finder of the fossil as well as its shape.