Ferdinand André Fouqué (21 June 1828 – 7 March 1904) was a French

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

petrologist Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks, their mineralogy, composition, texture, structure and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous an ...

. He was born at

Mortain Mortain () is a former commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Mortain-Bocage. Geography Mortain is situated on a rocky hill rising above the gorge of the ...

, in the

Manche Manche (, ; Norman language, Norman: ) is a coastal Departments of France, French ''département'' in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy on the English Channel, which is known as , literally "the sleeve", in French. Manche is bordered by ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

''. At the age of twenty-one he entered the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and from 1853 to 1858 he held the appointment of keeper of the scientific collections. In 1877 he became professor of natural history in the chair of geology at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

, in Paris, succeeding Charles Sainte-Claire Deville. In 1881 Fouqué was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences.FOUQUÉ Ferdinand André
Sociétés savantes de France As a stratigraphical geologist he rendered much assistance on the Geological Survey of France, but in the course of time he gave his special attention to the study of volcanic phenomena and

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s, to minerals and rocks; and he was the first to introduce modern petrographical methods into France. He also worked on

volcanic gas Volcanic gases are gases given off by active (or, at times, by dormant) volcanoes. These include gases trapped in cavities (Vesicular texture, vesicles) in volcanic rocks, dissolved or dissociated gases in magma and lava, or gases emanating from ...

analyses, using the methods of

Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...

, notably on the island of

Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...

(

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

). One prominent student of his was Alfred Lacroix, to whom Fouqué's daughter was married. His studies of the eruptive rocks of

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

and elsewhere; his researches on the artificial reproduction of eruptive rocks, and his treatise on the optical characters of

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

s deserve special mention; but he was perhaps best known for the joint work which he carried on with his friend Auguste Michel-Lévy. His chief publications were: ''Santorin et ses éruptions'' (1879), ''Minéralogie micrographique : roches éruptives françaises'' (1879) and ''Synthèse des minéraux et des roches'' (1882); the latter two works written in collaboration with Auguste Michel-Lévy. In 1885 he edited the report of the French commission that investigated the

Andalusian earthquake of 25 December 1884 The 1884 Andalusian earthquake () occurred on 25 December 1884 at 9:08 p.m in the south of Spain, and had an estimated magnitude of 6.7 . It shook a poor region where many of the houses were built without foundations, with lime or mud mortar, and ...

. Fouqué is also noteworthy for his archaeological excavations on the island of Santorini.

Works

* ''Recherches sur les phénomènes chimiques qui se produisent dans les volcans'', 1866. * ''Rapport sur les phénomeńes chimiques de l'éruption de l'Etna en 1865'', (1866). * ''Les anciens volcans de la Grèce'', 1867. * ''Santorin et ses éruptions'', 1879; later translated into English and published as: "Santorini and its eruptions", Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. * ''Minéralogie micrographique : roches éruptives françaises'', 1879 (with Auguste Michel-Lévy). * ''Synthèse des minéraux et des roches'', 1882 (with Auguste Michel-Lévy). * ''Les tremblements de terre'', 1889. * ''Contribution à l'étude des feldspaths des roches volcaniques'', 1894.

References

External links

*
Fouqué as Wikisource author in French
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouque, Ferdinand Andre 1828 births 1904 deaths People from Manche Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the French Academy of Sciences French geologists Petrologists