- Väinö Auer
Väinö Auer (b.
January 7 1895 in Helsinki, Russian Empire – d.March 20 1981 in Helsinki, Finland), the son of senatorKyösti Auer , was a Finnish geologist and geographer, chiefly remembered as an explorer ofTierra del Fuego andPatagonia . He is also noted for his pioneering studies ontephrochronology ,desertification , and the development ofbog s.Auer studied at the
University of Helsinki , graduating BSc (1917), MSc (1918), and PhD (1923). His studies were interrupted by theFinnish Civil War , where he saw action in 1918. Auer became a professor of geography at the University of Helsinki in 1929.While holding his professorship Auer launched expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in 1928-1929, and to Patagonia in 1937-1938. Following the end of
World War II he relocated toArgentina in 1946, entering the service of the Argentinian government as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank, among other functions. During his years in Argentina, Auer continued his earlier studies on the natural history of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, while advising the Argentinian government in matters related to land use and colonization of the country’s southern frontier.Auer returned to Finland in 1953. In the last years of his professional career, he served as a professor of geography (1953-1957), and of geology and palaeontology (1957-1963) at the University of Helsinki.
A documentary film about the life and work of the Finnish scientist Väinö Auer in Finland and in Latin America was published on 2007 and broadcasted on Magellan Chile. Auer was geographer, explorer and above all swampgeologist. His swamp auger reached the central, post ice age layers of earth’s climate history in Canada, Finland, Tierra del Fuego and Patagony. The film travels in time to the different stagesof Auer’s life: in the swamps and wilderness of Finland, the peculiar shallow swamps of Tierra del Fuego and the Patagonyan pampas that are whipped by dusty winds.
The documentary film is based on Auer’s diary entries and articles. Through them, it also takes a tour of dramatic human history in the 20th century. In that perspective he confess his sponsorship in the construction of a mega submarine German kriegmarine base at Tierra del Fuego Chile on 1943, his confession, makes a remarkable rewriting knowledge about WWII. The journey of a pioneering climatologist from nationalism to globalawareness and concern about the development of the relationship between man and nature.
References
http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:V5kNLx_udiQJ:www.ses.fi/dokumentit/Finnish%2520Documentary%2520Films%25202006.pdf+vaino+auer&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUtwbXAepI
-Alhonen, P. and Alhonen, A. (2006) "Vaakavarren ratsastaja – Tutkimusmatkailija Väinö Auerin elämä" (a biography in Finnish). Edico, Helsinki, 486 pp.
Publications
For a complete list cf. Alhonen & Alhonen (2006).
Auer, V. (1960) The Quaternary History of Fuego-Patagonia. "Proceedings of the Royal Society B", 152.
Auer, V. (1956-1970) The Pleistocene of Fuego-Patagonia. Parts I-V. "Annales Academiae Scientarum Fennicae A III", 45, 50, 60, 80, 100, 1300 pp.
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