Walther Penck
| Walther Penck | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 August 1888 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | September 29, 1923 (aged 35) Stuttgart, Germany |
| Residence | Austria-Hungary, Argentina, Ottoman Empire, Germany |
| Citizenship | Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Geomorphology |
| Institutions |
Dirección General de Minas University of Constantinople University of Leipzig |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
| Known for | Landscape evolution theorist |
| Influences |
William Morris Davis Grove Karl Gilbert Albrecht Penck |
| Influenced | Albrecht Penck |
Walther Penck (30 August 1888 – 29 September 1923) was a geologist and geomorphologist known for his theories on landscape evolution. Penck is noted for criticizing key elements of the Davisian cycle of erosion, concluding that the process of uplift and denudation occur simultaneously, at gradual and continuous rates. Penck's idea of parallel slope retreat led to revisions of Davis's cycle of erosion.
Walther Penck was born in Vienna as the son of German geographer Albrecht Penck. He obtained a Ph.D. by studying petrology at the Heidelberg University. Between 1912 and 1915 he worked in Dirección General de Minas in Buenos Aires before moving to the University of Constantinople where he was named professor of mineralogy and geology. He finally settled as professor in the University of Leipzig in 1918. The areas he studied in detail and based he's theories on include the Black Forest in Germany, Puna de Atacama in Argentina and Anatolia in modern Turkey.
During the 1920s Penck, with Siegfried Passarge, Alfred Hettner and his father, was the foremost figure in a broad German opposition to the "geographical cycle" theory of William Morris Davis. It was characteristic of Davis to react violently and disdainfully to criticism, particularly to this German criticism; it was also his characterictic to choose to attack the most vulnerable points of that criticism. Regarding Walther Penck's objections to the Davisian geographic cycle Davis commented to Albrecht Penck in 1921:
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