Kurt Wölcken

Hermann Kurt Wölcken (born August 6, 1904 in Tianjin , China , † January 11, 1992 in Florida, Province of Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was a German geophysicist , meteorologist and polar researcher .

Life

Souvenir envelope from the GDR 1983 on "50 Years of the Second International Polar Year 1932–1933" and in memory of Kurt Wölcken and his method for measuring ice thickness on polar glaciers

Kurt Wölcken studied at the universities of Munich , Vienna and Göttingen , among others with Emil Wiechert . In 1930 he received his doctorate in Göttingen with a dissertation on measurements and registrations of ultra-radiation . He then took part in Alfred Wegener's Greenland expedition from 1930 to 1931 , spending the winter in the western station. Using seismic measurements, he determined the thickness profiles of the Greenland ice sheet and, combined with Karl Weiken's trigonometric height determination , also the profile of the subsurface. In continuation of this work, he took part during the second International Polar Year 1932/33 in a Soviet Arctic expedition led by geologist Mikhail Yermolajew (1905-1991) to the north island of Novaya Zemlyas , where a cape and a glacier now bear his name.

Subsequently, Wölcken turned increasingly to meteorology. From 1934 to 1938 he was employed by the German Maritime Weather Service. At times he was on duty on a weather ship off the Brazilian coast, from where the weather advice for German South Atlantic flights took place. In 1938 he joined the Argentine Office for Meteorology, Geophysics and Hydrology , where he held various positions until 1976. Most recently he headed the Institute for Atmospheric Physics. In 1961 Wölcken was appointed full professor of meteorology and climatology at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires .

In 1992, Kurt Wölcken, the last participant in Alfred Wegener's Greenland expedition, died.

Awards

Commemorative Medal of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute ( Russian Арктический и антарктический научно-исследовательский институт ) Leningrad , 1970
Honorary member of the Argentine Society for Geophysics and Geodesy ( Spanish Asociatión Argentina de Geofísicos y Geodestas ), 1984
Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class, 1984

Fonts

Bernhard Brockamp , Ernst Sorge and Kurt Wölcken: Seismics . In: Scientific results of the German Greenland Expedition Alfred Wegener 1929 and 1930–1931 , Volume 2, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1933.
Kurt Wölcken: Sound investigations in the polar region . In: Journal of Geophysics . Volume 10, 1934, pp. 222-234. doi: 10.23689 / fidgeo-3266
Kurt Wölcken: Seismic ice thickness measurements on Nowaja Semlja 1932/33 (PDF; 620 kB). In: Polar Research . Volume 31, 1961, pp. 87-91.

literature

Otto Schneider: In memoriam Hermann Kurt Wölcken (PDF; 252 kB). In: Polar Research . Volume 60, No. 3, 1990 (published 1992), pp. 231-232.
Else Wegener and Fritz Loewe : Alfred Wegener's last trip to Greenland. The experiences of the German Greenland expedition in 1930/1931 described by his traveling companions and according to the researcher's diaries . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1932

Individual evidence

↑ GP Awetissow: Wölcken, Kurt . In: Imena na Karte Rossijskoi Arktiki , Nauka, Sankt Petersburg 2003, ISBN 5-02-025003-1 (Russian).

personal data
SURNAME	Wolcken, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Wölcken, Hermann Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German geophysicist, meteorologist and polar researcher
DATE OF BIRTH	August 6, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tianjin , China
DATE OF DEATH	January 11, 1992
Place of death	Florida, Buenos Aires , Argentina

[1] GP Awetissow: Wölcken, Kurt . In: Imena na Karte Rossijskoi Arktiki , Nauka, Sankt Petersburg 2003, ISBN 5-02-025003-1 (Russian).