André Hubert Dumont
André Hubert Dumont (born February 15, 1809 in Liège ; † February 28, 1857 ibid) was a Belgian geologist who carried out the first thorough geological survey of Belgium.
life and work
Dumont was an excellent student, and in 1832 he won an award for a study on the geology of the Belgian province of Liege . From 1835 until his death he was a professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Liège . Later he was also the rector of this university . His most important work was the geological mapping of Belgium, which took several years to complete. He visited almost every outcrop in Belgium on foot. In 1849 he published the first geological map of Belgium. Until his death he kept improving this map.
Dumont made an excellent subdivision of paleozoic rocks in southern Belgium from a lithological and stratigraphic point of view . Together with the work of Jules Gosselet, this should form the basis for further geological research for a long time. His Mémoire sur les terrains ardennais et rhénan de l'Ardenne, du Brabant et du Condroz contained a mineralogically very precise description of the stratigraphy of the Ardennes , but was still in need of improvement in the area of fossils . In contrast to other geologists of his time such as the Briton Roderick Murchison , the French Édouard de Verneuil or the Russian Pyotr Tschichachev , Dumont hesitated to compare his subdivision of the Ardennes with other areas in Europe . He thought that the fauna of the individual areas could differ greatly, so that caution should be exercised when correlating with the help of guide fossils . That is why he did not want to recognize any Devonian or Silurian in Belgium, stratigraphic units that u. a. defined by Murchison in Great Britain .
Nevertheless, he made comparative research between the tertiary in southern England and that in Belgium. He also traveled to the Bosphorus and Spain to study the similarities in the two areas. In 1850 he proposed the geological stage of the Ypresium .
Another subject that he dealt with was researching ores and minerals .
family
In 1841 he married Amélie Hyacinthe de Jaer. The couple had three sons; Jean-Baptiste (* 1843), Jules (* 1844) and André Dumont (* 1847).
Award
The Geological Society of London awarded Dumont the Wollaston Medal in 1840 . He was a member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences.
Others
In 2005 he was also one of the candidates for the title The Greatest Belgian , but did not make it onto the final nomination list and ended up at number 193 among those who just fell off the nominations list.
literature
- Dumont, AH, 1847–1848: Mémoire sur les terrains ardennais et rhénan de l'Ardenne, du Brabant et du Condroz
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dumont, André Hubert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dumont, André |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1809 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liege |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1857 |
| Place of death | Liege |