Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish

Arctic explorer Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

, and

palaeobotanist Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

Life

He was born in Väderbrunn in Sweden. Nathorst's interest in

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

was awoken by

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...

’s ‘’Principles of Geology‘’ and, at the age of 21, Nathorst visited Lyell in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1872. Nathorst was employed at the

Geological Survey of Sweden Geological Survey of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges geologiska undersökning, SGU) is a Swedish government agency that was founded in 1858 dealing with questions about the nature of the geological and mineral management in Sweden. The institution has the ...

in 1873-84. He was then appointed professor, by royal decree on the 5 December 1884, and was simultaneously made curator of the new “Department of Archegoniates and Fossil Plants" at the

Swedish Museum of Natural History The Swedish Museum of Natural History ( sv, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, literally, the National Museum of Natural History), in Stockholm, is one of two major museums of natural history in Sweden, the other one being located in Gothenburg. The ...

. He remained on the post until his retirement in 1917. Nathorst visited

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

in 1870 and participated in 1882–83 in the ''2nd Dickson Expedition'' ("Den andra Dicksonska Expeditionen till Grönland") led by

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (18 November 183212 August 1901) was a Finland-Swedish aristocrat, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer. He was a member of the Fenno-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists and held the title of a friher ...

. He led an expedition on the ship ''

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

'' to Bear Island and

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

including the isolated

Kong Karls Land Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. The island group covers an area of and is made up of the islands of Kongsøya, Svenskøya, Abel Island, Helgoland Island, and Tirpitzøya. ...

in 1898. The following year (1899), Nathorst led an expedition to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. This second expedition had as the dual purpose of geographical mapping and of searching for survivors of

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

. The Andreé expedition was not found, however Nathorst found and mapped the

Antarctic Sound The Antarctic Sound is a body of water about long and from wide, separating the Joinville Island group from the northeast end of the Antarctic Peninsula. The sound was named by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskjöld for the e ...

, a fjord branch connecting

Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord ( da, Kejser Franz Josef Fjord; kl, Kangerluk Kejser Franz Joseph) is a major fjord system in the NE Greenland National Park area, East Greenland. Geography The Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord has its mouth in the Foster Ba ...

to the north with the head of

King Oscar Fjord King Oscar Fjord ( da, Kong Oscar Fjord) is a fjord in East Greenland, marking the northern border of the Scoresby Land Peninsula. It was named by A.G. Nathorst on his 1899 expedition as ''Konung Oscars Fjord'' for Oscar II, King of Sweden from 1 ...

to the south. The two expeditions are described in two volumes "Två somrar i Norra Ishavet" (in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

). Starting with macrofossil deposited in

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

clay found in

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

in 1871, Nathorst investigated postglacial development in

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic character ...

. He also researched on plant remains from older

geological era The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...

s, such as

palaeozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and '' ...

and

mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

from the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

and

tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. These investigations made him an internationally acknowledged authority on

palaeobotany Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

. Nathorst had a scientific dispute with

Eugen Warming Eugen is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Archduke Eugen of Austria (1863–1954), last Habsburg Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order from 1894 to 1923 * Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke (1865–1947), Swedish painter, art collector, and pat ...

over the history of the

flora of Greenland The flora of Greenland consists of a total of 583 species or 614 taxa (species and subspecies) of vascular plants, of which 13 are endemic, and 87 taxa introduced by humans, most of which are naturalized. Apiaceae *''Angelica archangelica'' – n ...

. Warming adhered to the hypothesis that part of the flora had survived the last

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

- the

nunatak hypothesis In biogeography, particularly phytogeography, the nunatak hypothesis about the origin of a biota in formerly glaciated areas is the idea that some or many species have survived the inhospitable period on icefree land such as nunataks. Its antithesis ...

, while Nathorst advocated the view that the entire flora had immigrated anew after the glaciation - the tabula rasa hypothesis. Disputes with similar antitheses have later been repeated for other areas by other combatants. He was elected member of a large number of learned societies, including the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

(1885). He died on 20 January 1921.

Legacy

A number of plant, animal and fungal species have been named to his honour, e.g. '' Saxifraga nathorstii'' ( Dusén)

Hayek Hayek, Hayki or AlHayki is a surname: * As a variant spelling of the Czech name Hájek, which originally meant "a grove", it commonly occurs in Czech place names. It occurs among Polish Jews in a Polish language spelling as ''Chajek''. * The fam ...

(East Greenland saxifrage) and a suite of fossil plant species, '' Williamsonia nathorstii'' Carruthers (a fossil

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

) and '' Laestadites nathorstii'' Mesch. (a fossil fungus).

Nathorst Land Nathorst Land is the land area between Van Keulenfjorden and Van Mijenfjorden on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The area is named after Alfred Gabriel Nathorst Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish Arctic ...

in East Central

is named after him. On

and

Nathorstbreen Nathorstbreen is a glacier on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has a length of about , and debouches into Van Keulenfjorden. It has several side glaciers. The glacier is named after Swedish polar explorer Alfred Gabriel Nathorst Alfred Gabriel Nathor ...

are named after him. Also Alfredfjellet, a mountain at the island of Bjørnøya, is named after him.

Sources

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nathorst, Alfred Gabriel 1850 births 1921 deaths Explorers of the Arctic Geological Survey of Sweden personnel Lyell Medal winners Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Paleobotanists Swedish explorers 20th-century Swedish geologists Swedish paleontologists 19th-century Swedish geologists Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala

Life

See also

Legacy

Sources

External links