Horace benedict de saussure biography of michaels

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Horace benedict de saussure biography of michaels

Hopwood v. Texas 78 F. Hopton, Susanna Harvey — Hopson Development Holdings Ltd. Hops Restaurant Bar and Brewery. His work as a mineralogist was also recognized. Saussurite is named after him. Saussure was honoured by being depicted on the 20 Swiss franc banknote of the sixth issue of Swiss National Bank notes to , when replaced by the eighth issue; the notes were recalled in and will become valueless on 1 May His daughter Albertine Necker de Saussure was a pioneer in the education of women.

His great-grandson Ferdinand de Saussure was an important linguist and semiotician. She was a Swiss writer and educationalist, and an early advocate of education for women. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. Back to Profile. Photos Works. Un regard sur la Terre , Geneva, Georg, , p.

Le Monde Alpin et Rhodanien. Retrieved 3 July Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemistry World. Historian of Earth and Man , Geneva, Slatkine, , p. Archived from the original on 22 January Retrieved 13 January List of Fellows of the Royal Society, — Retrieved 13 November Retrieved 11 October Oxford, U. ISBN Sterry American Journal of Science. Retrieved 8 November Karl Hillebrand.

London: George Bell and Sons. References [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Authority control databases. Categories : births deaths 18th-century botanists from the Republic of Geneva Mountain climbers from the Republic of Geneva 18th-century physicists from the Republic of Geneva 18th-century Protestants Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 18th-century naturalists Scientific instrument makers De Saussure family Meteorologists from the Republic of Geneva.

Toggle the table of contents. For the time being he proposed a variety of interpretations that cover the whole spectrum of unsupported theories of his time. These included a kind of crystallization on the seafloor generating structures comparable to the microscopic folds of agate concretions or subterranean forces of unknown origin, or even subterranean fires although no traces of their action was visible.

The Cramont and Vallorcine Saussure proposed a new mechanism Ms — derived from the panorama as seen from the summit of the Cramont a peak located immediately south of Mont-Blanc. According to him, the primitive and secondary rock layers were deposited horizontally on the seafloor. The explosion of elastic fluids in subterranean caverns uplifted the primitive rocks in a vertical and contorted position while cutting across the overlying secondary rocks.

These secondary rocks remained leaning against the primitive ones at an angle that decreased gradually away from the center of the Alps. The originality of this approach was in the vertical force due to the explosion of the elastic fluids that left no traces. Saussure then tried to characterize his concept of vertical force by investigating the various types of conglomerates, in particular those of Vallorcine near Chamonix ,.

These conglomerates displayed huge and spectacular angular to rounded boulders of granite in a purple, shaly matrix. This unusual rock type was interpreted by Saussure as indicating a powerful process of fragmentation followed by redeposition according to the size of the clasts in a quiet aqueous environment. These depositional events were followed in time by the general uplifting of the beds.

The final conclusion reached was that these conglomerates represent the product of violent earthquakes and consequently that mountain building is a seismic process. This interpretation is a theoretical challenge still under consideration by modern geologists. Unquestionably, Saussure was well informed about the spectacular effects of the numerous earthquakes of his century from reading books and periodicals.

By wisely using his personal wealth he began to assemble a systematic library. Two catalogs in his own hand Ms — show holdings of at least 1, items, that is 1, books and 59 periodicals published by learned societies from all over Europe. Rapidly, it became one of the most diversified collections of the eighteenth century. Related correspondence with major book dealers of Europe reveals an extensive network of purchases and sales.

He bought between and , 1, volumes, that is, sixty-five percent of the final library he needed for his research. The major reason for such a collection lies in the fact that Geneva was a relatively isolated city-state and that purchasing books was the only way to keep abreast with scientific development in all fields. Basaltic Volcanism Saussure wrote a series of manuscripts on the origin of prismatic basalt in Italy, Auvergne, Vivarais, Provence, and Brisgau Ms — In particular, he wanted to see for himself the examples described in the Massif Central of Auvergne by Nicolas Desmarest who had demonstrated the volcanic origin of basalt by following large prismatic lava flows from the plains up the slopes of scoriaceous cones into the corresponding craters.

Saussure returned from his trip to Auvergne an enthusiastic believer in the volcanic origin of basalt. However, through the years of investigating rather superficially many outcrops, and by accepting the neptunian ideas of Abraham Gottlob Werner , he tempered his position to the extent of assuming two types of basalt: an aqueous deposit and a volcanic lava.

Eventually, he believed only in a water-laid origin. In defense of these strange changes of concepts it should be pointed out that Saussure happened to come across many unusual types of basalt that he did not study in sufficient detail. Furthermore he was a famous geologist who had to take a position in the controversy. Lectures on Physical Geography The documents pertaining to physical geography Ms are of three major types.

A first version written in French on index cards that is the most personal document and a second version in Latin also on note cards—now lost—which is the required language of the oral academic presentation. Of great interest is the spontaneous presentation of the index cards in French which has a completely informal style with so-called red flags reminding the speaker to attract the attention of the students to important aspects of the presentation.

A similar technique is still used by experienced lecturers. He observed that at this location it could only be formed by horizontal thrusting in opposite directions—a new concept given without any further comments. Returning to the field in and after detailed studies he presented a speculation of great importance. The date of this critical observation was 13 October He even went so far as to suggest laboratory simulations with clay layers, becoming a pioneer of experimental geology.

It can be better explained by a modern interpretation using a transverse cross-section trending through the Valley of Chamonix and the summit of Mont-Blanc. If overthrusting tilted the rocks from an original horizontal position to their present vertical one and the bottom of the Valley of Chamonix represents the ancient surface of the crust then the horizontal distance between the Chamonix Valley and the top of Mont-Blanc corresponds approximately to the thickness of the crust that has been overthrusted.

Therefore, the summit of Mont-Blanc, which reaches in the twenty-first century the elevation of about one league over the present surface of the globe, was originally buried at a depth of more than two leagues 8. The Alps and World Mountains In summary, Saussure Notes of 6 July considered a worldwide application of his structural ideas to the origin of the great orogenic belts.

He stated that it is not at the great depth of coal mines but on the top of mountains consisting of vertical beds uplifted in such a position and maintained in it by the permanent stresses of earthquakes, that lie the answers of modern tangential tectonics. Carozzi, Albert V. Carozzi, Bernard Crettaz, and David Ripoll. Bilingual Volume. Geneva: Editions Slatkine, This is the most recent biography.

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