Pierre Jean Édouard Desor (13 February 1811,

Friedrichsdorf Friedrichsdorf () is a town of the Hochtaunuskreis, some north of Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Friedrichsdorf is located in the Taunus area, ranking third among the Hochtaunuskreis boroughs after Bad Homburg vor der ...

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 18 ...

23 February 1882) was a German-

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

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, alt ...

and naturalist.

Biography

Desor studied law at

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, was compromised in the republican movements of 1832/3 (see, for example,

Hambach Festival The Hambacher Festival was a German national democratic festival celebrated from 27 May to 30 May 1832 at Hambach Castle, near Neustadt an der Weinstraße, in present-day Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The event was disguised as a nonpolitical ...

and Frankfurter Wachensturm), and escaped to Paris. Here his attention was drawn to geology. He made excursions with Élie de Beaumont, and in 1837 met

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...

at a meeting of naturalists in Neufchâtel. With

Gressli Gressli is a village in the municipality of Tydal in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Nea River, about west of the municipal center of Ås and about west of the village of Aunet. History In 1878, 2,253 coins were fo ...

and

Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

, Desor became an active collaborator with Agassiz, studying

palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...

phenomena, and contributing the essays for vol. iii. of Agassiz's ''Monographie d'echinodermes vivants et fossiles'' (Neufchâtel, 1842). Desor also published ''Excursions et sejours dans les glaciers et les hautes régions des Alpes de M. Agassiz et de ses compagnons de voyage'' (Neufchâtel, 1844). Together with

James David Forbes James David Forbes (1809–1868) was a Scottish physicist and glaciologist who worked extensively on the conduction of heat and seismology. Forbes was a resident of Edinburgh for most of his life, educated at its University and a professor ...

, Desor ascended the

Jungfrau The Jungfrau ( "maiden, virgin"), at is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, located between the northern canton of Bern and the southern canton of Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the ...

in 1841. He was in a guided party on the first ascent of the

Lauteraarhorn The Lauteraarhorn is a peak (4,042 m) of the Bernese Alps, located in the canton of Bern. Together with the higher Schreckhorn, to which it is connected by a high ridge, it lies between the valleys of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier and the Unte ...

on 8 August 1842 and of the

Rosenhorn The Rosenhorn (3,689 m) is a peak in the Bernese Alps in the Bernese Oberland. It is lowest of the three composing the Wetterhorner massif, and most distant from the alpine village of Grindelwald Grindelwald is a village and municipality in th ...

summit of the

Wetterhorn The Wetterhorn (3,692 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 ...

on 28 August 1844. He spent a few years in the north of Europe, especially in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

, investigating the erratic phenomena peculiar to that region, From strata he examined in Denmark he introduced the term

Danian The Danian is the oldest age or lowest stage of the Paleocene Epoch or Series, of the Paleogene Period or System, and of the Cenozoic Era or Erathem. The beginning of the Danian (and the end of the preceding Maastrichtian) is at the Creta ...

in 1847, to characterize the oldest stage of the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of ...

. Desor accompanied Agassiz in 1847 to the United States, found employment in the coast survey, and made with Whitney, Foster, and

Rogers Rogers may refer to: Places Canada *Rogers Pass (British Columbia) * Rogers Island (Nunavut) United States * Rogers, Arkansas, a city * Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement * Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...

a geological survey of the mineral district of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh w ...

. Returning to Neufchâtel in 1852, he investigated with Gressli the

orography Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discip ...

of the Jura for industrial purposes. Desor became professor of

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

at the academy of Neuchâtel, continued his studies on the structure of glaciers, but gave special attention to the study of

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 ...

Echinoderm An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the s ...

s. He also investigated the old lake-habitations of Switzerland, and made important observations on the physical features of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. In 1862, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...

. He was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1871. Having inherited considerable property he retired to Combe Varin in

Val-de-Travers Val-de-Travers is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and Travers ...

. He died in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

on 23 February 1882.

Works

His chief publications were: * * ''Synopsis des Échinides fossiles'' (1858) * ''Aus Sahara und Atlas'' (Leipzig, 1865) * ''Der Gebirgsbau der Alpen'' (1865) * ''Die Pfahlbauten des Neuenburger Sees'' (1866) * ''Échinologie helvétique'' (2 vols., Paris, 1868–1873, with

Perceval de Loriol Charles Louis Perceval de Loriol (24 July 1828, Geneva – 23 December 1908, Cologny) was a Swiss paleontologist and stratigraphist. He studied natural sciences and paleontology in Geneva as a pupil of François-Jules Pictet. For a period ...

) * ''Le paysage morainique'' (1875)

Taxa named by Pierre Jean Édouard Desor

*'' Asterias forbesi'' - the Forbes Sea star.

Notes

References

* *

External links

* Pictures and texts o
''Excursions et séjours dans les glaciers et les hautes régions des Alpes, de M. Agassis et de ses compagnons de voyage'' by Edouard Desord can be found in the database VIATIMAGES
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desor, Pierre Jean Edouard 1811 births 1882 deaths People from Friedrichsdorf People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse 19th-century Swiss geologists Swiss mountain climbers German emigrants to Switzerland Members of the American Antiquarian Society