Werner Giggenbach

Werner Friedrich Giggenbach (born November 10, 1937 in Augsburg ; † November 7, 1997 at Tavurvur ) was a German geochemist , geologist and volcanologist who mainly worked in New Zealand . He was considered one of the world's leading scientists in the field of volcanic gases as well as igneous and geothermal fluids. The methods and tools he developed for collecting samples are still the scientific standard today.

With activities for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations , Giggenbach also opened up a broad field of research and was closely networked internationally. Many of his findings became reference values ​​in the geosciences and contributed to developing a better understanding of a wide variety of aspects. Giggenbach has received various awards in the course of his career and posthumously. Among other things, a submarine volcano and the Giggenbach Ridge ridge on the Antarctic Ross Island were named after him.

Life

education

Giggenbach enrolled for a study of chemistry at the Technical University of Munich and was established in June 1966 summa cum laude with a dissertation on the S ₂ ^- ion, which is colored blue principle of solutions of sulfur and ultramarine doctorate .

Between September of the same year and August 1968 he did research as a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University .

Working life

In September 1968 he switched to the chemical institute of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) - the predecessor of today's Crown Research Institute - in Lower Hutt as a scientific officer . He joined a very active research group led by Jim Ellis that studied geothermal and volcanic fluids . Giggenbach's career in New Zealand was only briefly interrupted when he worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna between March 1980 and October 1982 . There he acted as head of the geothermal-isotopic laboratory. After returning to his previous employer, he was promoted to "senior scientist". When the DSIR became the Crown Research Institutes in 1992, his group became part of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS).

Since 1980, Giggenbach has held a detailed lecture at the end of the semester at the Institute for Geothermal Energy at the University of Auckland , which is aimed specifically at students from developing countries. In 1995 he also taught at a geothermal energy training course organized by the United Nations University in Iceland .

He was co-editor of the scientific journals Applied Geochemistry (1986–1990) and Bulletin of Volcanology (1991–1997) and since 1988 editor of the IAVCEI commission's newsletter on volcanic gases. He also held a post as a special adviser on volcanoes at the United Nations .

While he was collecting gas samples in the field at Tavurvur , Papua New Guinea , Giggenbach died of a stroke on November 7, 1997, a few days before his 60th birthday . His wife Agnes Reyes, also a scientist at GNS, had accompanied him on the excursion. Next to her he left his first wife Johanna, their two daughters Ellen and Jutta and three grandchildren.

Scientific achievements

A large part of Giggenbach's findings became reference values ​​in the geosciences . He gained notoriety in scientific circles for developing very practical and useful methods of collecting samples of volcanic gases and geothermal fluids. The 200 milliliter “Giggenbach bottle” made of Pyrex glass is still the internationally used standard vessel for gas collection. Giggenbach was considered to be an extremely meticulous, persistent and ambitious scientist. He had a firm rule that he only examined and analyzed samples that he had personally collected. In addition, he often insisted on performing the analyzes himself instead of leaving them to scientific staff . Giggenbach's colleagues highlighted his ability to acquire new skills outside of his main disciplines very quickly and autodidactically as one of his strengths - for example gas chromatography .

He was valued, among other things, for his holistic physical and geochemical models of volcanic and geothermal systems. Werner Giggenbach made significant advances in understanding the nature and origin of magmatic and hydrothermal fluids. These helped significantly to understand the decomposition and mineralization processes in low thermal ("epithermal") and porphyry environments. He supported more than a dozen states in developing their own geothermal energy programs and studied geological processes in the earth's crust off the east coast of New Zealand. Thanks to him, a better understanding of the country's fossil raw materials and mineral resources was gained ; at the same time, derived from the findings of his research, one could better weigh volcanological dangers in New Zealand.

During the 1970s Giggenbach worked for four seasons in the New Zealand Antarctic Program (NZAP) on Mount Erebus and in December 1978 became the first person ever to descend into its crater. His early studies on the small volcanic island of White Island in New Zealand also proved to be particularly influential . In 1986 he organized a corresponding conference in Ōhope . His sideline work as a special advisor to the United Nations also took him to numerous countries. In 1985, for example, he traveled to Colombia to the Nevado del Ruiz and calculated the correct career path for the lahars , which a few weeks later would kill 23,000 people. In August 1986, in the aftermath of the catastrophic CO ₂ emissions, he carried out investigations on Lake Nyos in Cameroon .

Giggenbach was an extremely prolific researcher and, as a lead or co-author, published over 100 articles in scientific journals . He also wrote reports on White Island , Rumble III , Raoul Island , Ngauruhoe , Mount Erebus and Lonquimay for the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network . Cross-border scientific exchange was one of his main concerns, which is why he took part in numerous conferences. Between 1987 and 1997 alone he was a guest speaker 25 times at international symposia.

Honors

The Giggenbach volcano from the east. The representation is vertically exaggerated twice.

Werner Friedrich Giggenbach received a lot of recognition for his research. For example, the Geological Society of New Zealand awarded him the McKay Hammer in 1991 . In the same year he was a Distinguished Lecturer of the Society of Economic Geologists . Both the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and the US Society of Economic Geologists named him a Fellow . In November 1997 Giggenbach also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ). The decision was made while he was working in the fields at Tavurvur and could not be communicated to him before his death. Also immediately before his death, the RSNZ awarded him a research grant financed by its Marsden Fund, entitled “Understanding Crustal Fluids. Rulers and Witnesses of Processes Deep within the Earth ”. Funding has been redirected to allow visits from numerous contributing authors. They completed the research and published part of Giggenbach's unpublished material.

Several scientific journals dedicated special editions to him and his work after his death. He also received a few other honors posthumously . This is how the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named a mountain range up to 2,400 meters high on the Ross Island of Giggenbach Ridge in 2000 . It stretches over a length of nearly nine kilometers west and northwest of Mount Terror . In addition, a submarine stratovolcano (30 ° 02 ′ 16 ″ S, 178 ° 43 ′ 20 ″ W) discovered about 35 kilometers northwest of Macauley Island in the Pacific Ocean was discovered by the Society of Economic Geologists in memory of the scientist Giggenbach baptized.

After the merger of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand with the New Zealand Geochemical and Mineralogical Society in 2012 and the associated reallocation of funds for awards, the Geoscience Society of New Zealand has been awarding the Werner F Giggenbach Prize for Geochemistry to young geochemists since 2014 38 years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Englert, Peter; Goguel, Reiner; Callan, John: Obituary for Giggenbach . Retrieved from gsnz.org.nz ( Geoscience Society of New Zealand ) on November 22, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Obituary for Giggenbach . Retrieved from royalsociety.org.nz ( Royal Society of New Zealand ) on November 22, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Obituary for Giggenbach . Retrieved from volcano.si.edu ( Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program ) on November 22, 2015.
4. ↑ Graham, Ian; Simmons, Stuart F .: Special Publication, No. 10. Volcanic, Geothermal, and Ore-Forming Fluids: Rulers and Witnesses of Processes within the Earth . Retrieved from segweb.org ( Society of Economic Geologists ) on November 22, 2015.
5. ↑ List of the awards given by the Geoscience Society of New Zealand . Retrieved from gsnz.org.nz ( Geoscience Society of New Zealand ) on November 22, 2015.