Hans Schardt (18 June 1858 – 3 February 1931) was a Swiss geologist and a professor at the

University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking university based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law and eco ...

and at the ETH and the University of Zurich. He contributed to studies on the folding and movement of layers of the earth based on stratigraphy. His studies where based on the

Glarus thrust The Glarus thrust (german: Glarner Überschiebung) is a major thrust fault in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. Along the thrust the Helvetic nappes were thrust more than 100 km to the north over the external Aarmassif and Infrahelvetic compl ...

which he explained as a

nappe In geology, a nappe or thrust sheet is a large sheetlike body of rock (geology), rock that has been moved more than or above a thrust fault from its original position. Nappes form in compressional tectonic settings like continental collision z ...

Life and work

Schardt was born in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

and moved to

Yverdon Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Roman era) is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district. The population of Yverdon-les-Bains, , was ...

to train as a pharmacist. He then trained to become a high-school teacher. He went to study geology at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...

and received a doctorate in 1884 after which he taught at the Collège in Montreux. Completing his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in Lausanne in 1891, he went to Heidelberg and then became a professor at the Neuchâtel Academy where he began a geology institute. In 1911 he moved to the University of Zurich to succeed

Albert Heim Albert Heim (12 April 184931 August 1937) was a Swiss geologist, noted for his three-volume ''Geologie der Schweiz''. Born in Zürich, he was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical fe ...

. He retired in 1928. Schardt noted the prealps and some

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

strata were resting atop younger tertiary flysch. Schardt was the first to suggest that parts of the prealps were formed elsewhere and had been shifted (termed as allochthonous) and noted as tectonic outliers. Schardt was a keen alpinist, and coauthor of a Geographical dictionary of Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schardt, Hans 1858 births 1931 deaths 19th-century Swiss geologists 20th-century Swiss geologists