Reinout Willem van Bemmelen, also known as Rein van Bemmelen, (14 April 1904

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residen ...

– 19 November 1983 Unterpirkach, Austria) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 ...

whose interests were structural geology, economic geology and

volcanology Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term ''volcanology'' is derived from the Latin word '' vulcan''. Vulcan was the an ...

. He is known for his work on these subjects and the geology of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Biography

Rein van Bemmelen was born in Batavia and spent his youth in the Dutch East Indies, where his father Willem van Bemmelen was the director of the Magnetic, Meteorological and Seismological Observatory. From 1920 to 1927 he studied mining engineering at

Delft University Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Among his teachers were H.A. Brouwer and G.A.F. Molengraaff. Van Bemmelen became PhD in 1927 with a study on the geology of the Cordillera Bética. He took courses in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and then worked with the geological survey in the Dutch East Indies, where he mapped parts of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

and Sumatra. From 1933 to 1935 he studied

pedology Pedology (from Greek: πέδον, ''pedon'', "soil"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a discipline within soil science which focuses on understanding and characterizing soil formation, evolution, and the theoretical frameworks for modeling ...

at the Technical University of Vienna. After that he went back to Java to continue his research there. His main interest was in volcanology (

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

s and

pyroclastic rock Pyroclastic rocks (derived from the el, πῦρ, links=no, meaning fire; and , meaning broken) are clastic rocks composed of rock fragments produced and ejected by explosive volcanic eruptions. The individual rock fragments are known as pyroc ...

s), structural geology and

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 ...

, especially sliding tectonics. He was able to observe the 1930s activity of

Mount Merapi Mount Merapi, ''Gunung Merapi'' (literally Fire Mountain in Indonesian and Javanese), is an active stratovolcano located on the border between the province of Central Java and the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is the most acti ...

from the volcanological post at Babadan on the north west slope. When the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Van Bemmelen and his wife spent three years in a prisoners camp. He belonged to a small number of professionals who were allowed by the Japanese to continue with their work. It was during that time that he managed to publish the 1941 issue of the Netherlands East Indian Volcanological Survey, which came out in 1943. With the end of the war they moved to the Netherlands, where they lived in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. The Dutch government assigned to Van Bemmelen the job to recollect all information on the geology of the

Indonesian Archipelago The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands. History ...

. (Van Bemmelen had summarized that information in a manuscript destroyed during the war). (The manuscript was entrusted to his assistant who took it to Yogyakarta. When diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia were established, the manuscript was returned to him. In the meantime, Van Bemmelen was able to produce a similar document and in 1949 his ''The Geology of Indonesia'' was published, just after

's independence. Van Bemmelen then spent a year as assistant of S.G. Trooster at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

and then worked for

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

as a consultant. Van Bemmelen retired in 1969. ''Geologie en Mijnbouw'' marked the occasion of his seventieth birthday with a special issue. Following the death of his wife in 1983 he moved to Austria, where he died shortly after. A controversial TV series was made after his death about his role in the euthanasia of his wife.

Academic career

In 1950 Van Bemmelen became a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

. Together with M.G. Rutten he started research on the

and paleomagnetism of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. He supervised seven doctoral dissertations on the tectonics of the Italian Alps and several dissertations on hydrology (his chair was Economic Geology). Van Bemmelen is known for his explanation of orogeny. In his book ''Mountain Building'' he postulated his ''Undation Theory''. The mechanism behind orogeny was, according to Van Bemmelen, in the mantle. Due to geochemical differentiation slight differences in density would lead to vertical flow in the mantle, resulting in orogeny. These ideas had to be adjusted with

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...

as the mechanism of orogeny. In 1972 Van Bemmelen's book ''Geodynamic Models'' the ''Undation Theory'' was integrated in plate tectonics.

Published works

* van Bemmelen, R. W. (Reinout Willem) ''The Geology of Indonesia''. The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949. 2 volumes

References

External links

In Memoriam R. W. van Bemmelen
obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Bemmelen, Rein 1904 births 1983 deaths Economic geologists Structural geologists Dutch volcanologists Wollaston Medal winners Delft University of Technology alumni TU Wien alumni Academic staff of Utrecht University Geology of Indonesia People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies 20th-century Dutch East Indies people 20th-century Dutch geologists Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies

Biography

Academic career

Published works

References

Further reading

External links