Friedrich August Rothpletz (28 April 1853, in

Neustadt an der Haardt Neustadt (German for ''new town'' or ''new city'') may refer to: Places * Neustadt (urban district) Czech Republic *Neustadt an der Mettau, Nové Město nad Metují *Neustadt an der Tafelfichte, Nové Město pod Smrkem *Nové Město na Mora ...

– 27 January 1918, in

Oberstdorf Oberstdorf ( Low Alemannic: ''Oberschdorf'') is a municipality and skiing and hiking town in Germany, located in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps. It is the southernmost settlement in Germany and one of its highest towns. At the&nbs ...

) was a German

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, althoug ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Biography

From 1875 to 1880 he conducted geological mapping in

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

as part of the ''Sächsischen Geologischen Landesanstalt'' (Saxon Geological Survey), afterwards receiving his doctorate from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

(1882). Two years later he obtained his habilitation at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, where he taught classes in geology, Alpine

tectonics Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

and paleobotany. In 1894 he became an associate professor and in 1904 succeeded

Karl von Zittel Karl Alfred Ritter von Zittel (25 September 1839 – 5 January 1904) was a German palaeontologist best known for his ''Handbuch der Palaeontologie'' (1876–1880). Biography Karl Alfred von Zittel was born in Bahlingen in the Grand Duchy ...

as professor of geology and paleontology at Munich.Nature, Volume 101
Macmillan Journals Limited, 1918 From 1904 to 1918 he was director of the ''Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie'' (Bavarian Geological-Paleontological State Collections).BHL
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications He performed research on a wide array of subjects, that included studies on the structure of

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

algae and the folding of rocks in mountain ranges. He was particularly interested in geological problems associated with the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, publishing two important works as a result, ''Geotektonische Probleme'' (1894) and ''Geologische Alpenforschungen'' (1900–08). He also studied marine geological formations of the Canary Islands, publishing the treatise ''Die marinen Ablagerungen auf Gran Canaria'' (1890), in collaboration with Victor Simonelli. He was a foreign correspondent of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

(from 1894), becoming a foreign member in 1903. In 1948 the calcimicrobe genus ''

Rothpletzella ''Rothpletzella'' is a genus of calcimicrobe known from the Silurian of Gotland, the Devonian of France, as well as the Ordovician of China. It has been hypothesised to be a cyanobacterium, and shares morphological similarities with extant cyano ...

'' was named in his honor.

Selected works

* ''Das Karwendelgebirge'', 1888 – The

Karwendel The Karwendel is the largest mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps. The major part belongs to the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, while the adjacent area in the north is part of Bavaria, Germany. Four chains stretch from west to east; i ...

Mountains. * ''Ein geologischer Querschnitt durch die Ost-Alpen'', 1894 – A geological cross section of the eastern Alps. * ''Geotektonische Probleme'', 1894 – Geotectonic problems. * ''Das Geotektonische Problem Der Glarner Alpen'', 1898 – The geotectonic problem of the

Glarus Alps The Glarus Alps (german: Glarner Alpen) are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They are bordered by the Uri Alps and the Schwyz Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south, the Appenzell Alps to the northeast. The eastern part of ...

* ''Geologische Alpenforschungen'' (Geological Alpine investigations): ** I. ''Das Grenzgebiet zwischen den Ost- und West-Alpen und die rhaetische Ueberschiebung''. 1900 – The border between the Eastern and Western Alps and the Rhaetian overthrusting. ** II. ''Ausdehnung und Herkunft der rhaetischen Schubmasse''. 1905 – Origin and expansion of the Rhaetian thrust mass. ** III. ''Die Nord- ind Süd-Ueberschiebungen in den Freiburger Alpen''. 1908 – The north and south overthrusts in the Fribourg Alps.de.WikiSource
August Rothpletz

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothpletz, August 1853 births 1918 deaths 19th-century German geologists German paleontologists Paleobotanists People from Neustadt an der Weinstraße Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Leipzig University alumni 20th-century German geologists