Egon T. Degens

Egon T. Degens

Egon Theodor Degens (born April 16, 1928 in Inden ; † February 19, 1989 in Hamburg ) was a German geologist . He was one of the pioneers in organic geochemistry and biogeochemistry . Degens had a lasting influence on the understanding of global material cycles and was the leader of numerous marine and limnic expeditions. He taught in both the USA and Germany and wrote important textbooks on geology .

Life

Degens was born on April 16, 1928 in Inden / Rhineland. His father was a tanner. Degens studied geology at the University of Tübingen and the University of Bonn from 1949 to 1955 , where he received his doctorate in 1955.

From 1955 to 1956 he worked as a research assistant at the Geological and Paleontological Institute in Bonn and then moved to Pennsylvania State University as a research associate (1956–57). From January to June 1958, he stayed at the California Institute of Technology on a DFG research grant . From August 1958 he was a research assistant at the University of Würzburg , where he completed his habilitation in March 1959. As a private lecturer, he set up one of the first laboratories for organic geochemistry there. In September 1960 Degens went to the California Institute of Technology and began working on stable isotopes and the composition of organic matter in sediments . In 1964 he became an associate scientist and professor there. In 1965 the family moved to Falmouth , Massachusetts , following a position as full professor and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). There Degens was responsible for carrying out some of the most famous multidisciplinary marine expeditions, the voyages of the US research vessel Atlantis II in the Red Sea in 1965 and in the Black Sea in 1969 . Degens organized further expeditions to Lake Tanganyika and in 1971 and 1972 to Lake Kiwu in the East African Trench .

In 1973 Degens was offered the position of head of the institute at the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg . There he established a biogeochemical laboratory for the study of water and sediments. The first major project was the multidisciplinary investigation of the Hamburg Alster . As early as 1974 he organized another expedition, this time to the last large lake on earth, the depth of which was not yet known, Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia . German, Swiss (from ETH Zurich ) and Turkish geologists (from MTA, Ankara) worked together. Another undertaking was the Fladengrund Experiment (FLEX), concerning the North Sea .

In March 1977 Degens organized the first carbon cycle conference in Germany (March 21-26, 1977 in Ratzeburg ) within the framework of SCOPE ( Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment ), attended by the world's leading biogeochemists, climatologists and global change researchers participated, u. a. the Swede Bert Bolin . The conference not only led to the first comprehensive presentation of the global carbon cycle in 1979 ("The Global Carbon Cycle", SCOPE Report 13), but also to the founding of the SCOPE / UNEP Carbon Unit at the University of Hamburg in 1977 . She mainly dealt with the global carbon cycle and its anthropogenic changes. In 1980 he initiated the study of the world's major rivers for their carbon and mineral transport (SCOPE / UNEP Project on Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, project management Stephan Kempe ). The project ran until 1990, held annual meetings of the participants in different locations (including Egypt, Venezuela, Alaska, Russia and China) and the results were published in eight volumes of the Geological-Paleontological Institute's communications. Finally (1991) another SCOPE report (No. 42) “Biogeochemistry of Major World Rivers” was published, the first textbook on this subject.

In 1981 Degens spent six months with the family at Tianjin University , China, as a visiting professor. The Academia Sinica appointed him "Honorary Professor".

Above all, Degens strengthened the cooperation with Turkish colleagues and helped u. a. on the acquisition of the Turkish research vessel “Piri Reis”. This led to joint projects with the Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi , Izmir, and the geologist Erol Izdar , who had studied with Degens in Würzburg, such as the investigation of the Marmara Sea (project manager of the geologist How Kin Wong) and to a long-term investigation of the vertical particle flow in the black Meer (project manager of the geologist Stephan Kempe). At the same time, Degens used the contacts with WHOI and his friend Susumo Honjo to carry out sediment trap studies in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . The German research ship “Sonne” and the Indian research ship Sagar Kanya were used in particular . Degens also organized a large-scale study of the biogeochemistry and material cycles of the North Sea with the Hamburg research ship Valdivia between 1984 and 1988 (project management Stephan Kempe). At the invitation of Dutch colleagues, Degens took part in the Snellius II expedition in Indonesia. This led to his own expedition to Sumbawa to investigate the Saleh Bay and the deposits of the Tambora eruption of 1815 with the research vessel Sonne 1986.

His activities led to the establishment of the Institute for Biogeochemistry and Marine Chemistry, in which parts of the Geological-Paleontological Institute and the Institute for Chemistry were integrated. Today the institute is part of the Hamburg Research Center for Marine and Climate Research .

Degens celebrated his last birthday (April 16, 1988) with colleagues and friends on the US research ship "Knorr". Knorr was on its way to the Black Sea to continue the work of Degens and colleagues, which began in 1966. Degens made his last trip to Lake Baikal in Siberia in September 1988 to organize a German-Russian expedition that dropped sediment traps in the lake in 1989.

Degen's last textbook, "Perspectives on Biogeochemistry", appeared only in 1989, posthumously; he worked on it for over ten years. It presents a view of geological history through the lens of biogeochemistry. His employees dedicated a commemorative publication to him for his 60th birthday, which he was no longer able to experience: "Facets of Modern Biogeochemistry", published in 1990.

Degens was married and had three children. He died on February 19, 1989 in Hamburg.

Services

Degens was a co-founder of the geological departments of organic geochemistry and biogeochemistry. He wrote and co-edited 26 books and published approximately 300 articles, many of them in leading scientific journals.

Degens' first textbook, which is still used today, was written during his stay in California: "Geochemistry of Sediments" (Prentice Hall, 1965), was also published in German ("Geochemie der Sedimente", translation by Wolfgang E. Krumbein ), and in Russian and Chinese. It is the first textbook to deal with organic matter as an integral part of sediments. During the Atlantis II voyages, the first hydrothermal ore sludges were discovered in the Red Sea under the leadership of Degens , and in the Black Sea a marine anaerobic water body was examined in a multidisciplinary manner for the first time . The scientific results of these expeditions have been summarized in two highly regarded books, co-edited by Degens: "Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea" (1969) and "The Black Sea - Geology, Chemistry and Biology". In Lake Kiwu , Degens and his colleagues also discovered its hydrothermal activity and the huge gas deposits dissolved there. The investigations on the sediments of the Black Sea led to the discovery of the largest uranium deposit in the world (which, however, is not mineable). Degens also published the first varve census of the Black Sea. The 1974 Van Lake Expedition also led to significant discoveries, including a. to salvage the longest continuous varven chronology known up to then.

Honors

Egon T. Degens was awarded the Emanuel Borřický Medal of Charles University in Prague on May 25, 1988 on the occasion of the colloquium "Rivers - a link between peoples" . The Karls University is the sister university of the University of Hamburg .

Publications (books)

• Egon T. Degens: Geochemistry of Sediments. Prentice Hall, 1965.
• Egon T. Degens and Johann Matheja: Molecular Mechanisms on Interactions between Oxygen Co-ordinated Metal Polyhedra and Biochemical Compounds . Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WHOI-67-57, 4 Parts, 61 + 31 + 76 + 7 pp., Icl. Figures and Tables, 1967.
• Egon T. Degens: Geochemistry of the sediments. Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1968.
• Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross (Eds.): Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea. Springer-Verlag, New York 1969.
• Johann Matheja and Egon T. Degens: Structural Molecular Biology of Phosphates. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1971.
• Kenneth Mopper and Egon T. Degens: Aspects of Biogeochemistry of Carbohydrates and Proteins in Aquatic Environments . Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WHOI-72-68, 105pp., 38 Figures and 77 Tables, 1972.
• Robert E. Hecky and Egon T. Degens: Late Pleistocene Chemical Stratigraphy and Paleolimnology of the Rift Valley Lakes of Central Africa. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WHOI-73-28 93pp., 25 Figures and 6 Tables, 1973.
• Egon T. Degens and G. Kulbicki: Data File on Metal Distribution in East African Sediments . Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution WHOI-73-15, 280pp, 1973.
• Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross (Eds.): The Black Sea - Geology, Chemistry and Biology. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Mem. 20, 1974.
• Egon T. Degens and F. Kurtman (Eds.): Geology of Lake Van , MTA Press, Ankara, 1978.
• Egon T. Degens, Bert Bolin, Stephan Kempe and Pieter Ketner (Eds.): The Global Carbon Cycle, SCOPE Report 13. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester 1979.
• Egon T. Degens, Jürgen Timm and How Kin Wong (eds.): Rheinisches Schiefergebirge: Ebbe-Antiklinorium. Facies, stratigraphy, tectonics. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 50, 1980.
• Egon T. Degens (Ed.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, Part 1. Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, 1982.
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe and Hassan Soliman (Eds.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, Part 2. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 55, SOPE / UNEP special volume, 1983.
• Egon T. Degens, Gero Hillmer and Christian Spaeth (eds.): Excursion guide, geological history of the North Sea and Baltic Sea area. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, 1984.
• Egon T. Degens, et al. (Ed.) A North-South Profile: Central Europe - Mediterranean Area - Africa. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute Hamburg, Volume 56, Festband Georg Knetsch, 1984.
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe and Rafael Herrera (Eds.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, Part 3. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 58, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1985.
• Egon T. Degens, Philip A. Meyers and Simon C. Brassell (Eds.): Biogeochemistry of Black Shales. Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 60, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1986.
• Egon T. Degens, Erol Izdar and Susumu Honjo (Eds.): Particle Flux in the Ocean. Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 62, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1987.
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe and Gan Weibin (Eds.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, Part 4 . Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 64, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1987.
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe and S. Naidu (Eds.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Major World Rivers, Part 5 . Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 66, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1988.
• Egon T. Degens: Perspectives on Biogeochemistry. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo 1989
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe and Jeffrey E. Richey (Eds.): Biogeochemistry of Major World Rivers, SCOPE Report 42. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester 1991
• Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe, A. Lein and Y. Sorokin (Eds.): Interactions of Biogeochemical Cycles in Aqueous Systems, Part 7. Messages from the Geological-Palaeontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 72, SCOPE / UNEP special volume, 1992.
• Egon T. Degens, How Kin Wong and MT Zen (Eds.): The Sea off Mount Tambora. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 70, 1992.
• Stephan Kempe, SD Eisma and Egon T. Degens (Eds.): Transport of Carbon and Minerals in Rivers, Lakes, Estuaries and Coastal Seas, Part 6. Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 74, SCOPE / UNEP Special volume, 1993.

Publications (articles)

• Egon T. Degens, GV Chilingar and WD Pierce: On the origin of petroleum inside freshwater carbonate concretions of Miocene age . Adv. Org. Geochem. Proc. Intern. Meet. Milan 1962: 1-16, 1962.
• Egon T. Degens: Diagenesis of organic matter . In: Larsen, G. & Chilingar, GV, (eds.) Diagenesis in Sediments, Developments in Sedimentology, Vol. 8: 343-390, Elsevier, Amsterdam etc., 1967.
• Egon T. Degens, DW Spencer and RH Parker: Paleobiochemistry of molluscan shell proteins . Comp. Biochem. Physiol., Vol. 20: 553-579, 1967.
• Egon T. Degens, DW Spencer, MT Ghiselin and RH Parker: A phylogenetic survey of molluscan shell matrix proteins . Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol. 262, Cambridge, 1967.
• Egon T. Degens: Biogeochemistry of stable carbon isotopes . In: Eglington, G. and Murphy, MTJ (eds) Organic Geochemistry: 304-329, Springer Berlin, 1969.
• Egon T. Degens, WG Deuser and RL Haerick: Molecular structure and composition of fish otolithes . Marine Biology Vol 2 (2): 105-113, 1969.
• Egon T. Degens: Molecular nature of nitrogenous compounds in sea water and ercent marine sediments . In: DW Hood (ed) Organic Matter in Natural Waters, Inst. Of Mar. Sci. Univ. of Alaska, Occ. Publ. Vol. 1: 77-106, 1970.
• Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross: Oceanographic expedition in the Black Sea . The Sciences, Vol. 57: 349-353.
• David A. Ross, Egon T. Degens and J. MacIlvaine: ` Black Sea: recent sedimentary history. Nature, Vol. 170: 163-165, 1970.
• Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross: The Red Sea hot brines . Scientific American, Vol. 222, Issue 4, 1970.
• Egon T. Degens, RP von Herzen, and How-Kin Wong: Lake Tanganyika: water chemistry, sedimentes, geological structure . Natural Sciences, Vol. 58: 229-240, 1971.
• Egon T. Degens: Sedimentological history of the Black Sea over the last 25,000 yeras . In: Geology and History of Turkey AS Campell (ed.), Tripoli, 407-429, 1971.
• Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross: Chronology of the Black Sea over the last 25,000 years . Chemical Geology, Vol. 10: 1-16, 1972.
• Egon T. Degens: Accounting for the salts in the sea . Nature, Vol. 243: 504-507, 1973.
• Egon T. Degens, RP von Herzen and Holger W. Jannasch: Lake Kivu: Structure, chemistry and biology of an East African rift lake . Geologische Rundschau, Vol. 62: 245-277, 1973.
• Egon T. Degens: Climate calendar in the eternal ice . Die Welt 191, August 19, 1974.
• David A. Ross and Egon T. Degens: Recent Sediments of the Black Sea. In: Egon T. Degens and David A. Ross (eds.) The Black Sea - Geology, Chemistry and Biology, Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Mem. 20: 183-199, 1974.
• Egon T. Degens and Kenneth Mopper: Early diagenesis of organic waste in marine soils . Soil Science, Vol. 119 (1): 65-72, 1975.
• Egon T. Degens: Molecular mechanisms on carbonate, phosphate and silica deposition in the living cell . Topics in Current Chemistry, Vol. 64: 1-112; Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1976.
• Egon T. Degens and Peter Stoffers: Stratified water as a key to the past . Nature, Vol. 263: 22-26, 1976.
• Egon T. Degens, Francis Khoo and Walter Michaelis: Uranium anomaly in Black Sea sediments . Nature, vol. 269, no. 5629: 566-569, 1977.
• Stephan Kempe and Egon T. Degens: Van See: The largest soda lake in the world . Umschau Vol. 77 (14): 478-481, 1977.
• Egon T. Degens: When life began . Image of Science Vol. 10: 106-120, 1977.
• Egon T. Degens and Peter Stoffers: Phase boundaries, an instrument for metal concentration in geological systems . In: Klemm, DD and Schneider, HJ (eds) Time- and Strata-Bound Ore Deposits. Jumper; 24-45, 1977.
• Egon T. Degens, How-Kin Wong, F. Kurtman and Peter Finckh: General development of Lake Van: Summary . In: ETDegens & F. Kurtman (eds.) Geology of Lake Van, Ankara MTA Press, 1978.
• Egon T. Degens and Antonin Paluska: Tectonic and climatic pulses recorded in Quaternary sediments of the Caspian-Black Sea region . 10th intern. Congr. Sedimentology, Jerusalem July 9-14., 5 pp., 1978.
• Peter Stoffers, Egon T. Degens and Egis T. Trimonis: Stratigraphy and suggested ages of Black Sea sediments cored during leg 42b . In: DA Ross, et al., (Eds) Init. Rep. Deep Sea Drilling Proj. Vol. XLII (2): 483-487; Washington, 1978.
• Egon T. Degens, Peter Stoffers, S. Golubic and MD Dickman: Varve chronology: Estimated rates of sedimentation in the Blak Sea deep basin . In: DA Ross, et al., (Eds) Init. Rep. Deep Sea Drilling Proj. Vol. XLII (2): 499-508; Washington, 1978.
• WG Deuser, Egon T. Degens and Peter Stoffers: O18 and C13 contents of carbonates from Deep Sea Drilling sites in the Black Sea . In: DA Ross, et al., (Eds) Init. Rep. Deep Sea Drilling Proj. Vol. XLII (2): 617-623; Washington, 1978.
• Kenneth Mopper, Walter Michaelis, Curado Garrasi and Egon T. Degens: Sugars, amino acids and hydrocarbons in Black Sea sediment from DSDP leg 42b cores . DA Ross, et al., (Eds) Init. Rep. Deep Sea Drilling Proj. Vol. XLII (2): 697-705; Washington, 1978.
• Egon T. Degens, Walter Michaelis, Curado Garrasi, Kenneth Mopper, Stephan Kempe, and Venu A. Ittekkot; Varven chronology and early diagenetic conversions of organic substances from Holocene sediments of the Black Sea. Meues Jahrbuch Geologische-Paläontologische Monatshefte, Vol. 5: 65–86, 1978.
• Egon T. Degens and Stephan Kempe: Will the earth become a greenhouse? Bild der Wissenschaft, Vol. 16, Issue 8: 52-58, 1979.
• Egon T. Degens and Kenneth Mopper: Early diagenesis of sugars and amino acids in sediments . In: AG Chingar and GV: Chingar (eds) Diagenesis of Sedimentes and Sedimentary Rocks: 143–205, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1979.
• Egon T. Degens and A. Paluska: Tectonic and climatic pulses recorded Quaternary sediments of the Caspian-Black Sea region . Sedimentary Geology, Vol. 23: 149-163, 1979.
• Antonin Paluska and Egon T. Degens: Climatic and tectonic events controlling the Quaternary in the Black Sea region. Geologische Rundschau, Vol. 68: 284-301, 1979.
• Egon T. Degens, Gv Bronsart, How-Kin Wong, F. Khoo, and MD Dickman: Environmental parameters responsible for the fixation of uraniom in recent sediments; test region Bow Lake, Ontario, Canada . - Manuscript 60pp, 1979.
• Egon T. Degens and Peter Stoffers: Environmental events recorded in Quaternary sediments of the Black Sea . Lecture Black Shale Symposium: Geol. Soc. of London, May 2, 21 pp., 1979.
• Egon T. Degens, Walter Michaelis and Antonin Paluska: Principles of petroleum source bed formation . In: D. Merrick (ed) Energy Resources, J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1980.
• Egon T. Degens and Peter Stoffers: Environmental events recorded in Quaternary sediments of the Black Sea . Journal of the Geological Society Vol. 137: 131-138, 1980.
• Egon T. Degens, Walter Michaelis, Currado Garrasi, Kenneth Mopper, Stephan Kempe and Venu Ittekkot: Warven chronology and early diagenetic conversion of organic substances from Holocene sediments of the Black Sea . New Yearbook Geol. Paleont. Mh., Vol. 1980/2: 65-86, 1980.
• Stephan Kempe and Egon T. Degens: An early soda ocean? Chemical Geology, Vol. 53: 95-108, 1985.
• Egon T. Degens, How Kin Wong, and Martin G. Wiesner: The Black Sea Region: Sedimentary facies, tectonics and oil potential . Mitt. Geol.-Paläontol. Inst., Univ. Hamburg, Vol. 60: 127-149, 1986.
• Martin G. Wiesner, How-Kin Wong and Egon T. Degens: Provenance and diagenesis of organic matter in Late Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments from the southern Black Sea margin. Geologische Rundschau Vol. 78: 793-806, 1989.
• Bernward Hay, Susumu Honjo, Stephan Kempe, Venu Ittekkot, Egon T. Degens, Tosun Konuk and Erol Izdar: Interannual variability in particle flux in the southwestern Black Sea. Deep-Sea Research 37/6: 911-928, 1990.

literature

• Dedication: Professor Egon T. Degens, April 16, 1928-19 February 1989. In: Egon T. Degens, Stephan Kempe, Jeffrey E. Richey (Eds.): Biogeochemistry of Major World Rivers, SCOPE 42. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester , Pp. XV-XVI.
• V. Ittekkot, S. Kempe, W. Michaelis and A. Spitzy (eds.): Facets of Modern Biogeochemistry , Festschrift for Degens. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong 1990.
• Gero Hillmer (editor): memorial volume Egon T. Degens (1928–1989). Messages from the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Volume 69, 1990.
• Jörn Thiede: In memoriam Egon T. Degens (1928–1989). Global and Planetary Change, Volume 3, Issue 3: 177-178, 1990.

Web links

• Literature by and about Egon T. Degens in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PDF, 12.19 MB
2. ↑ Lake Kivu: Limnology and biogeochemistry of a tropical great lake - Google Books
3. ↑ SCOPE 13 - The Global Carbon Cycle, Contents ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ SCOPE 42 - Biogeochemistry of Major World Rivers, Index ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Person: "Degens, Egon T." - SPK-Digital ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Author: "Degens, Egon T."
7. ↑ List of WHOI Technical Reports by author "Degens, Egon T."