Leopold von Buch (geologist)

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Leopold von Buch
Hereditary funeral of the von Buch family in Stolpe

Christian Leopold von Buch (born April 26, 1774 in Stolpe , † March 4, 1853 in Berlin ) was a German geologist . He is considered to be one of the most important representatives of his field in the 19th century . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " book ".

origin

Von Buch comes from the Brandenburg nobility family von Buch , who were wealthy north of Berlin and in the Uckermark . His parents were the Prussian envoy Adolf Friedrich von Buch (1733-1811) and his wife Charlotte Philippine Juliane, née von Arnim-Suckow (1746-1810).

Live and act

He studied together with Alexander von Humboldt at the Bergakademie Freiberg with Abraham Gottlob Werner , the founder of geognosy in Germany, as well as at the universities in Halle and Göttingen. As Werner's student, he was initially a follower of Neptunism , but later changed his mind and switched to Plutonism . Von Buch toured large parts of Europe and is considered one of the first geological field researchers .

The main focus of his broad-based geological studies was initially the phenomenon of volcanism , later he turned to fossil research . He coined the term index fossil and is considered one of the founders of stratigraphy . One of his most important achievements is his scientific definition of the Jura rock system , published in book form in 1839 . In 1822 he introduced the term Keuper (Upper Triassic) into scientific linguistic usage, but still used it as a name for a rock that he assigned to the Buntsandstein (Lower Triassic). In 1826 he published the first complete geological map of Germany (but had a forerunner in Christian Keferstein ). In 1828 he gave a lecture on ring-shaped inorganic phenomena on fossils and other calcareous substrates, which are known today as Buch's Kieselringe .

After visiting Vesuvius in 1798 and Auvergne in 1802, he found the Neptunist theories of volcanism (such as melting through burning coal underground) refuted. One proof was that in the Auvergne the basalt lay directly on the granite basement, so that von Buch subsequently viewed basalt as molten granite. His geological description of the valley of the Caldera de Taburiente on the Canary Island of La Palma introduced the term caldera as a volcanic collapse crater in the earth sciences (later it turned out, however, that this type of locality is not a caldera in the strict sense). In 1814 he visited Lanzarote and realized that most of the volcanic eruptions there from the period from 1730 to around 1736 came from a single long crevice, which is now estimated to be at least 14 km. He reported on his observations on Lanzarote and the assumptions about volcanism derived from them in a lecture at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1819 and in a review from 1825.

In 1821 he published his theory of volcanoes as elevation craters. Afterwards they were created by underground pressure of the magma, which led to bulging, sometimes also to caldera formation. At first he allowed a second type of volcano, the embankment crater, but from 1835 he believed that all volcanoes were elevation craters, which led to a scientific controversy. Elie de Beaumont was on the side of Buch, Friedrich Hoffmann , Constant Prévost and Charles Lyell were against. Buch traveled again to Italy in 1834, where he found his theory (now outdated) confirmed.

He was a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences .

In December 1848, Leopold von Buch founded the German Geological Society as first chairman , together with Rudolf von Carnall and Carl Karsten as vice chairmen, the secretaries Heinrich Ernst Beyrich , Julius Ewald , Heinrich Girard and Gustav Rose , the treasurer Friedrich Tamnau , the archivist Carl Rammelsberg and another 40 participants in the constituent meeting.

Von Buch died on March 4, 1853 at the age of 78 in Berlin. He was buried at the von Buch family's hereditary funeral in the former Stolper Park.

honors and awards

Still image of Leopold von Buch above the entrance area of ​​the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Sculptor: Richard Ohmann

In memory of his contribution to understanding volcanic craters, the book crater on the moon was named after him. An InterCityExpress and several streets bear his name. He was also honored in the type epithet of various plant species, for example Lavandula buchii from the Canary Islands . In the Pechgraben near Großraming , the Leopold-von-Buch monument is located on the largest of several erratic granite blocks . In his honor, a rock that was created by pyrometamorphosis or combustion metamorphosis and contains more than 20% glass was called Buchit .

Fonts

The following important information is missing from this article or section: Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

  • Travel through Norway and Lapland. 1810 ( digitized version )
  • About the causes of the spread of large alpine debris. Treatises of the physical class of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. 161-186, Berlin 1815.
  • About the composition of the basaltic islands and about elevation craters. 1820 ( digitized version )
  • About a volcanic eruption on the island of Lanzarote. 1820 ( digitized version )
  • About the pic of Tenerife. 1820 ( digitized version )
  • Some remarks about the climate of the Canary Islands. 1821 ( digitized version )
  • Physical description of the Canary Islands. 1825 ( digitized version )
  • About the Jura in Germany. 1839.
  • About Terebratula Mentzelii in the Tarnowitz Muschelkalke. In: New yearbook for mineralogy, geognosy, geology and petrefacts customer. Born in 1843, Stuttgart 1843, pp. 253–256, plate II.
  • About Ceratiten. Treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, physical class, pp. 1–43, plates 1–7, Berlin 1850.

literature

Web links

Commons : Leopold von Buch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Leopold von Buch  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Quenstedt :  book, Christian Leopold von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 697 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Enrollment in Göttingen on May 4, 1795 as a stud. cam.
  3. ↑ Juan Carlos Carracedo, Eduardo Rodríguez Badiola, Vicente Soler: Aspectos volcanológicos y estructurales, evolución petrológica e implicaciones en riesgo volcánico de la erupción de 1730 en Lanzarote, Islas Canarias. In: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España) (ed.): Estudios geológicos. Vol. 46, 1990, pp. 25-55 (PDF; 1.7 MB)
  4. ↑ Leopold von Buch: About a volcanic eruption on the island of Lanzerote. Treatise read aloud in the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences on February 4, 1819. Freely accessible digitized material that can be downloaded as an eBook
  5. ↑ Leopold von Buch: "Physical Description of the Canary Islands", Berlin 1825.
  6. ^ Otfried Wagenbreth , History of Geology in Germany, Springer 1999, p. 69
  7. ^ Member entry by Leopold von Buch (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  8. ^ Directory of members since 1666: Letter B. Académie des sciences, accessed on September 29, 2019 (French).
  9. ^ Member entry of Leopold von Buch (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  10. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 13, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 52.
  12. ↑ Leopold von Buch Monument
personal data
SURNAME Book, Leopold von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Book, Christian Leopold von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Stumble
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1853
Place of death Berlin