Jacques Bourcart (5 June 1891 – 24 June 1965) was a French geologist and oceanographer who was involved in producing undersea topographical maps of the Mediterranean Sea. He was a professor of geology at the
University of Paris, Sorbonne. He came up with the continental flexture theory to explain the terrain off Morocco.
Bourcart was born in
Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin and grew up studying at Remiremont. He initially studied medicine but moved to the natural sciences and worked with the oceanographers
Paul Marais de Beauchamp
Charles Alfred Paul Marais de Beauchamp (3 March 1883 – 30 January 1977), 5th Baron Soye, was a French zoologist.
Life
Paul Marais de Beauchamp was born in 1883 in Paris as the first son of Etienne Arthur Marais de Beauchamp, office manager of ...
and
Louis Joubin
Louis Marie Adolphe Olivier Édouard Joubin (27 February 1861 in Épinal – 24 April 1935 in Paris) was a professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. He published works on nemerteans, chaetognatha, cephalopods, and other ...
but became very interested in Morocco. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he was posted into the Albanian borders where he became interested in the region. His 1922 doctoral thesis made use of data collected during his Albanian posting, supported by his superior during the war, Marshal
Franchet d'Espere, dealt with the geography of Albania but his work included material on the Albanian people and their language, and he was known for his discursive storytelling. He produced the first geological map of the region at a 1:200,000 scale. He became a director of the Cherifian Institute at Morocco in 1925 and began to study the region, collaborating with
Louis Gentil Louis may refer to:
* Louis (coin)
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
Derived or associated terms
* Lewis (d ...
whom he succeeded as director, and after visiting the Canary Islands, he once again became interest in oceanography. He returned to Paris in 1933 and from 1936 he taught at Sorbonne, becoming a full professor in 1950 and conducted studies on the seabed and ocean sediment. One his students was Claude Francis-Boeuf but his career was cut short by an accident in Ethiopia in 1952. He began to examine the Mediterranean Sea, examining the undersea canyons, the topography, and collecting sediments. He proposed continental flexture to explain the topography of the North African coast and submarine valleys. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1959 and elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1960.
References
External links
''Les confins albanais administrés par la France, 1916-1920 : contribution à la géographie et à la géologie de l'Albanie moyenne''(1922)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourcart, Jacques
1891 births
1965 deaths
Academic staff of the University of Paris
French oceanographers
French geologists