Jón Pétur Eyþórsson (27 January 1895 – 6 March 1968) was an Icelandic meteorologist. He is known for his work measuring
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
s and tracking the relationship between glacial movement and weather patterns.
Jón also coined the term "
glacier mice" for a peculiar form of
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
colony.
Education and professional life
Jón was born on a farm in
Þingeyrar in Iceland's
Northwestern Region and graduated from the
Menntaskólinn à ReykjavÃk gymnasium in 1917. He then studied natural sciences the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University.
...
in Denmark for two years, before moving to Norway, completing a
cand.mag. advanced degree at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
in 1923. He then studied meteorology at the
Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen until 1926. While in Norway, Jón worked with
Hans Wilhelmsson Ahlmann to set up a high-altitude meteorological station on
Fannaråki, the first such station in Scandinavia .
After completing his schooling, Jón worked at the
Icelandic Meteorological Office before heading up the
ReykjavÃk Airport weather office from 1953 to 1965. He also served as president of hiking and mountaineering association intermittently from 1935 to 1961. In November 1950, he founded the , serving as its first chair and editor of its journal, ''
Jökull''.
Jón was also one of the founders of
RÃkisútvarpið, the Icelandic public broadcaster, serving as chairman of its board in the 1930s.
Contributions to glaciology
In 1932, working with local volunteers, Jón began systematic observations of margins of major Icelandic glaciers and continued this work until his death. He also, from 1953 to 1966, published regular reports on
drift ice in the North Atlantic.
Through his observations and the annual lists of measurements published in ''Jökull'', Jón helped standardize the names of Iceland's glaciers.
Jón wrote and translated many books, including publishing in 1945 a translation of the previously overlooked 1795 treatise by
Sveinn Pálsson describing how glaciers flow.
In 1950, he published a brief description of glacial moss colonies, which he dubbed (
Icelandic for "glacier mice").
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eythorsson, Jon
1895 births
1968 deaths
Glaciologists
20th-century Icelandic translators
Jón Eyþórsson