Giovanni Arduino (16 October 1714 – 21 March 1795) was an Italian

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, alt ...

who is known as the "Father of Italian

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 Ea ...

". Arduino was born at Caprino Veronese, Veneto. He was a

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

specialist who developed possibly the first classification of geological time, based on study of the geology of northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. He divided the history of the Earth into four periods: Primitive, Secondary,

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 ...

, and Volcanic, or Quaternary. Giovanni Arduino geological section Valle dell'Agno

The scheme proposed by Arduino in 1759,See: * Available at
Museo Galileo (Florence (Firenze), Italy)
From p. 158 (clviii): ''"Per quanto ho potuto sinora osservavare, la serie di questi strati, che compongono la corteccia visibile della terra, mi pare distinta in quattro ordini generali, e successivi, senza considerarvi il mare."'' (As far as I have been able to observe, the series of these layers that compose the visible crust of the earth seems to me distinct in four general orders, and successive, not considering the sea.) * English translation: which was based on much study of rocks of the southern

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, ...

, grouped the rocks into four series. These were (in addition to the Volcanic or Quaternary) as follows: the Primary series, which consisted of schists from the core of the mountains; the Secondary, which consisted of the hard

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...

s on the mountain flanks; and the Tertiary, which consisted of the less hardened sedimentary rocks of the foothills. Because this arrangement did not always hold true for mountain ranges other than the Alps, the Primary and the Secondary were dropped in the general case. However the term 'Tertiary' has persisted in geological literature until its recent replacement by the Palaeogene and Neogene periods. The last period of the Cenozoic Era is still known as the Quaternary period. The Cenozoic was studied and further determined by, among others, the English geologist (and mentor of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

) Charles Lyell. Giovanni Arduino died in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

in 1795. The lunar ridge

Dorsum Arduino Dorsum Arduino is a wrinkle-ridge at in the border region between Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Imbrium on the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and mos ...

is named after him.

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*
''Effetti di Antichissimi Estinti Vulcani, e Altri Fenomeni, e Prodotti Fossili Osservati da Giovanni Arduino''
(1769)
''Osservazioni chimiche sopra alcuni fossili''
(1779); an
''Esame Chimico, e Considerazioni Sopra la Marga, Ossia Marna...''
(1791)- full digital facsimiles at Linda Hall Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Arduino, Giovanni 1714 births 1795 deaths People from the Province of Verona 18th-century Italian geologists

Further reading

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