Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen

Wolfgang Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen (December 17, 1809 – March 16, 1876) was a German geologist.

Waltershausen was born at Göttingen and educated at the university in that city. There he devoted his attention to physical and natural science, and in particular to mineralogy. Waltershausen was named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was close friends with his parents. Waltershausen's father, Georg, was a writer, lecturer and professor of economics and history at Göttingen. Georg Sartorius (later Sartorius von Waltershausen) is best known in his role of translator and popularizer of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Waltershausen's son, August, was a well known economist who studied the American economy, and had at least one of his books translated into English.

During a tour in 1834-1835 Waltershausen carried out a series of magnetic observations in various parts of Europe. He then gave his attention to an exhaustive investigation of the volcano of Mount Etna, in Sicily, and carried on the work with some interruptions until 1843 including with Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters. The chief result of this undertaking was his great Atlas des Ätna (1858–1861), in which he distinguished the lava streams formed during the later centuries.

After his return from Mount Etna, Waltershausen visited Iceland, and subsequently published Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island (1847), Über die vulkanischen Gesteine in Sizilien und Island (1853), and Geologischer Atlas von Island (1853). Meanwhile, he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at Göttingen, and held this post for about thirty years, until his death.

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