David Ferguson (geologist)

David Ferguson (* 1857 in Glasgow ; † March 8, 1936 ibid) was a Scottish geologist and explorer . He is known for his research expedition to South Georgia and the Antarctic, which lasted from 1911 to 1915 .

Life

Ferguson began his professional career as a mining engineer and prospector . In these functions he worked in what is now Iran in 1891, in Newfoundland, Canada in 1894 and in Africa from 1903 to 1905 . From 1905 to 1907 he studied geology and mineralogy at the University of Glasgow , but did not complete this study with a graduation . He was then involved in the exploration of deposits in Scotland.

Between 1911 and 1915 Ferguson undertook a geological exploration trip to South Georgia and the Falkland Islands on behalf of the company Christian Salvesen & Co. from Leith, Scotland , which he took on board the whaling ship Hanka to the Antarctic Peninsula , the South Shetland and South Shetland Islands from 1913 to 1914 Orkney Islands stretched. In preparation for this research trip, he had consulted the polar explorer William Speirs Bruce , who made the results of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-1904) available to him. During this voyage, Ferguson surveyed and mapped some previously unnamed geographic objects in Antarctica. He himself is the namesake of Ferguson Peak on South Georgia and the Ferguson Channel , a strait off the Danco coast of Graham Land , and the Ferguson Glacier on King George Island in the archipelago of the South Orkney Islands . The University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum still houses Ferguson's extensive collection of Antarctic rock samples.

literature

• John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 1, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , pp. 546-547.
• Phil Stone, John Faithfull: The mineral prospecting expeditions to the South Atlantic islands and Antarctic Peninsula region made by the Scottish geologist David Ferguson, 1912-1914. In: Scottish Journal of Geology , 2013. Volume 49 (1), pp. 59-77 (English, accessed January 17, 2016).
• Phil Stone, John Faithfull: David Ferguson's mineral prospecting visit to the Falkland Islands, 1913-1914. In: Falkland Island Journal , 2014. Volume 10 (2), pp. 6–24 (accessed January 17, 2016).
• Phil Stone, John Faithfull: David Ferguson's mineral prospecting expedition to South Georgia in 1912. In: Falkland Island Journal , 2014. Volume 10 (3), pp. 2-14 (accessed January 17, 2016).