Eduard Suess
| Eduard Suess | |
|---|---|
Eduard Suess, 1869
|
|
| Born |
August 20, 1831 London, England |
| Died | April 26, 1914 (aged 82) Vienna, Austria |
| Resting place |
Marz, Austria 47°43′6.991″N 16°24′57.932″E / 47.71860861°N 16.41609222°E |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Fields | Palaeogeography, tectonics |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Doctoral students |
Melchior Neumayr Johann August Georg Edmund Mojsisovics von Mojsvar Fuchs Wilhelm Heinrich Waagen Albrecht Penck |
| Known for | Biosphere, Gondwana, Tethys Ocean, Das Antlitz der Erde, Eustatic Theory, Sima, sial |
| Notable awards |
Wollaston Medal (1896) Copley Medal (1903) |
| Spouse | Hermine née Strauss |
| Children | 5 sons, 1 daughter |
Eduard Suess (German pronunciation: [ˈeːduaʁt ˈzyːs]; August 20, 1831 – April 26, 1914) was an Austrian geologist who was an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and the Tethys Ocean.
Eduard Suess was born on August 20, 1831, in London, England, the oldest son of Adolph Suess, a Lutheran Saxon merchant, and Eleonore Zdekauer. When he was three, his family relocated to Prague, and then to Vienna when he was 14. He became interested in geology at a young age. While working as an assistant at the Hofmuseum in Vienna, he published his first paper—on the geology of Carlsbad (in present-day Czech Republic)—when he was 19. In 1855, Suess married Hermine Strauss, the daughter of a prominent physician from Prague. Their marriage produced five sons and one daughter.
In 1856, he was appointed professor of paleontology at the University of Vienna, and in 1861 was appointed professor of geology. He gradually developed views on the connection between Africa and Europe. Eventually, he concluded that the Alps to the north were once at the bottom of an ocean, of which the Mediterranean was a remnant. Suess was not correct in his analysis, which was predicated upon the notion of "contractionism"—the idea that the Earth is cooling down and, therefore, contracting. Nevertheless, he is credited with postulating the earlier existence of the Tethys Ocean, which he named in 1893. He claimed in 1885 that land bridges had connected South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica. He named this ancient broken continent Gondwanaland.
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