Eckart Walger

Eckart Walger in 1979 on an excursion in southern France

Eckart Walger (born January 6, 1924 in Darmstadt ; † February 8, 2003 in Kiel ) was a German geologist and professor at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel .

Life

Born in Darmstadt, Walger comes from a family of teachers. He studied geology and palaeontology from 1942 to 1953 at the TH Darmstadt, interrupted by military service and prisoner of war from 1943 to 1947. His thesis entitled A contribution to the special geological mapping of the Alzey sheet led him to one of his central research topics, the agates , which are continued in his doctoral thesis. He received his doctorate in 1958 under Professor Tröger with a dissertation on the post-magmatic transformation phenomena in the melaphyres of the Palatinate mountains .

Walger was then a scientific assistant, first at the Institute for Geology and Technical Geology at the TH Darmstadt from 1953 to 1956, later at the invitation of Professor Eugen Seibold at the Institute for Geology and Paleontology at the University of Tübingen from 1956 to 1958 and from June 29, 1958 at the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Kiel . In the marine geological research group newly founded by Eugen Seibold, Walger specialized in sedimentology , in particular grain size analysis with the Baltic Sea research field . His work from 1961 and 1965 provided an exhaustive and still up-to-date description of the methodology and sediment movement with a detailed mathematical background.

Walger wrote his habilitation thesis on the transport processes of beach sands. The work was designed as a field experiment and provided detailed knowledge of the grain size distribution and the heavy minerals belonging to the grain community . The basis was the mathematically strict application of the equivalence principle, which defines the rate of fall of sediment grains in relation to grain size and density .

The large number of examined sediment samples with new methodologies, u. a. With the sedimentation balance developed by Walger and the flow channel set up at the institute, electronic data processing was essential. Walger introduced this to marine geology as early as the 1970s and became the basis for many subsequent sedimentological work and projects. After the research vessel Meteor went into service, Walger took part in numerous expeditions, including a. involved with Eugen Seibold .

Fonts

• The occurrence of Uruguay agates near Flonheim in Rheinhessen, its tectonic evaluation and its significance for the question of agate formation. Annual reports and communications of the Upper Rhine Geological Association, 36: 20-31, Stuttgart (1954), doi : 10.1127 / jmogv / 36/1954/20 .
• The grain size distribution of individual layers of sandy sediments and their genetic significance. Geologische Rundschau, 51: 494-507 (1961), doi : 10.1007 / BF01820015 .
• For the representation of grain size distributions. Geologische Rundschau, 54: 976-1002 (1965), doi : 10.1007 / BF01820768 .
• The Aeolian sand stream from the W-Sahara to the Atlantic coast. Geologische Rundschau, 63: 1065-1087, together with M. Sarnthein (1974), doi : 10.1007 / BF01821323 .
• Partial maps in Geological-Geophysical Atlas of the Indian Ocean. International Indian Ocean Expedition, Moscow, together with E. Seibold, M. Hartmann & M. Sarnthein (1975).

literature

• Obituary: Eckart Walger , Meyniana, 55, 5-13, by Georg Matthess and Friedrich Werner (2003), doi : 10.2312 / meyniana.2003.55.5 .