Jean de Charpentier

Jean de Charpentier or Johann von Charpentier (December 8, 1786 – December 12, 1855) was a German-Swiss geologist who studied Swiss glaciers. He was born in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany and died in Bex, Switzerland.

After following in his father's footsteps as a mining engineer he excelled in his field while working in the copper mines in the Pyrénées and salt mines in western Switzerland.

In 1818 a catastrophic event changed his life focus when an ice-dammed lake broke, causing many deaths. Afterwards, he made extensive field studies in the Alps. Using evidence of erratic boulders and moraines, he hypothesized that Swiss glaciers had once been much more extensive. These boulders, characteristic of glaciers, were strewn as if brought there by glaciers that no longer existed, in contrast of the previous idea that ancient flooding causing this deposition. Even so, he wasn't sure how glaciers first formed, moved, or how they disappeared. His ideas were later taken up and developed by Louis Agassiz.

See also: ice age

References

History of Geology and Palæontology to the End of the Nineteenth Century (1910).

External links

* [http://www.todayinsci.com/C/Charpentier_JeanDe/CharpentierJeanDeBio.htm Today in Science History bio]