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Jean de Charpentier

 

 
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Jean de Charpentier
 
 
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Jean de Charpentier or Johann von Charpentier (December 8, 1786 – December 12, 1855) was a German-Swiss geologist
Geologist

For other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system ....
 who studied Swiss glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
s. He was born in Freiberg
Freiberg, Saxony

Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the Mittelsachsen district.The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries....
, Saxony
Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a States of Germany of Germany. Located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 and died in Bex
Bex

Bex is a Municipalities of Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Aigle . It has an area of 96.60 km?, an altitude of 424 m, and 5709 inhabitants....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
.

After following in his father's footsteps as a mining engineer he excelled in his field while working in the copper mines in the Pyrénées and salt mines in western Switzerland.

In 1818 a catastrophic event changed his life focus when an ice-dammed lake in the Val de Bagnes above Martigny broke through its barrier, causing many deaths.






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Jean de Charpentier or Johann von Charpentier (December 8, 1786 – December 12, 1855) was a German-Swiss geologist
Geologist

For other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system ....
 who studied Swiss glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
s. He was born in Freiberg
Freiberg, Saxony

Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the Mittelsachsen district.The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries....
, Saxony
Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a States of Germany of Germany. Located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 and died in Bex
Bex

Bex is a Municipalities of Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Aigle . It has an area of 96.60 km?, an altitude of 424 m, and 5709 inhabitants....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
.

After following in his father's footsteps as a mining engineer he excelled in his field while working in the copper mines in the Pyrénées and salt mines in western Switzerland.

In 1818 a catastrophic event changed his life focus when an ice-dammed lake in the Val de Bagnes above Martigny broke through its barrier, causing many deaths. Afterwards, he made extensive field studies in the Alps. Using evidence of erratic boulders and moraines, he hypothesized that Swiss glaciers had once been much more extensive. These boulders, characteristic of glaciers, were strewn as if they were brought there by glaciers
Glacial erratic

A glacial erratic is a piece of Rock that deviates from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "wiktionary:erratic" take their name from the latin word "errere", and are carried by glacier, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres....
 that no longer existed, in contrast to the previous idea that the Biblical Flood had causing this deposition. Even so, he wasn't sure how glaciers first formed, moved, or how they disappeared. His ideas were later taken up and developed by Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a paleontologist, glaciologist, and geologist, and was a prominent innovator in the study of the earth's natural history....
.

See also: ice age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....


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