Johannes Gabriel Granö

Johannes Gabriel Granö in the 1920s

Johannes Gabriel Granö (born March 14, 1882 in Lapua , † February 23, 1956 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish geographer , best known for his exploration of Siberia and Mongolia and his book Pure Geography .

Granö spent his childhood in Omsk in Siberia , where his father Johannes Granö worked as a pastor from 1885 to 1913. His mother's name was Alma Jakobina Fontell. Johannes Granö officially worked in Nedertorneå from 1892 to 1901 so that his son could go to school in Finland . In 1900 Johannes Gabriel Granö graduated from high school in Oulu and began studying at the University of Helsinki . At first he studied botany , but soon switched to geography . He spent his holidays with his father in Siberia, where he kept records. His first scientific publication was in 1905 "Siperian suomalaiset siirtolat" ( The Finnish colonies in Siberia ).

In 1906, 1907 and 1909 he made trips to northern Mongolia, the Altai and the Sajan Mountains . His archaeological research was supported by the Finnish-Ugric Society . Another focus of his work was investigations into the morphological influence of the Ice Age . Granö was the first to prove that southern Siberia and western Mongolia were covered with ice during this period. His doctoral thesis "Contributions to the knowledge of the Ice Age in northwestern Mongolia" (1910) dealt with this topic.

Sakari Pälsi , Gustaf John Ramstedt and Granö in the Changai Mountains in Mongolia, 1909

Another trip in 1911 took him to Eastern Siberia , the Amur region and Japan . From 1913 to 1916 he traveled to the Altai again. In 1916 he published partly in French, since it did not seem advisable to publish in German during the First World War . He turned down an offered professorship at the University of Tomsk in Western Siberia to return to Finland. In 1913 Granö married Hilma Sofia Ekholm.

In 1919 Granö received the chair of geography in Tartu in the newly independent Estonia . In 1923 he became an associate professor in Helsinki, in 1924 he became a full professor. He then moved to the University in Turku , where he was rector from 1932 to 1934. In 1945 he returned to the University of Helsinki, but was also Chancellor of the University of Turku from 1945 to 1955.

The asteroid (1451) Granö was named in his honor. His son Olavi Granö was also an important geographer.

Works

• Contributions to the knowledge of the Ice Age in north-western Mongolia and some of its southern Siberian border mountains (doctoral thesis 1910)
• Northwest Mongolia (i "Journal of the Society for Geography", 1912)
• Morphological research in the eastern Altai (ibid., 1914)
• Les formes du relief dans l'Altai russe et leur genése (i "Fennia" 1917)
• Altai I-II (1919, 1921)
• The Estonian Landscape Units (1922)
• Pure geography (1929, Finnish Puhdas maantiede 1930, English Pure geography 1997)
• The geographical areas of Finland (1931)
• Mongolian Landscapes and Locations (1941)
• The mold building of the north-eastern Altai (1945)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} GRANÖ, Johannes Gabriel
 in Biografiskt lexikon för Finland, accessed October 24, 2017