Alexander Du Toit
Alexander Logie du Toit (born March 14, 1878 in Rondebosch , today Cape Town , † February 25, 1948 in Cape Town) was a South African geologist . As one of the few scientists in the first half of the 20th century, he supported Alfred Wegener 's theory of continental drift .
Du Toit studied at the University of the Cape of Good Hope and at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow , where he graduated as a mining engineer in 1899. He then briefly studied geology at the Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines in London and then returned to Glasgow as a lecturer, where he taught geodesy, mining and geology at the university and at the Royal Technical College. In 1903 he became a geologist at the Geological Service in Cape Town, where he geologically mapped large parts of the Cape Province . In 1920 he became a hydrogeologist at the Union Irrigation Department and in 1927 Chief Consulting Geologist at De Beers . In 1941 he retired there.
His work for the Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope and his book Our Wandering continents , published in 1937, contributed significantly to the increasing acceptance of Alfred Wegener's concept of "wandering continents" until plate tectonics became general in the 1960s recognized theory of processes in the earth's crust . In addition to the geology of South Africa, he also examined the geology of South America in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil from 1923 with the support of the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, DC .
In 1943 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society .
A crater on Mars was named after him. He is also the namesake for the Du Toit Mountains in Palmerland and the Du-Toit Nunatakker in Coatsland , mountains on both sides in Antarctica .
Selected Works
- The Geology of South Africa, Edinburgh 1926 (several reprints)
- Robert Broom commemorative volume (special publication of the Royal Society of South Africa). Cape Town, Royal Society of South Africa, 1948 (here as editor)
- Geological map of southern Africa (1: 5,000,000). Edinburgh, published by J. Bartholomew 1950 (revisions by Sidney Henry Haughton )
- Our wandering continents: an hypothesis of continental drifting, Hafner Publ., 1937
Web links
- Brief biography (Engl.)
- Entry for Toit, Alexander Logie Du (1878-1948) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | You Toit, Alexander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | You Toit, Alexander Logie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1878 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rondebosch |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 25, 1948 |
| Place of death | Cape Town |