Väinö Auer (; January 7, 1895,

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

– March 20, 1981, Helsinki), the son of senator , was a Finnish

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

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, chiefly remembered as an explorer of

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

and

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

. He is also noted for his pioneering studies on

tephrochronology 250px, Tephra horizons in south-central Iceland. The thick and light coloured layer at the height of the volcanologist's hands is rhyolitic tephra from Hekla. Tephrochronology is a Geochronology, geochronological technique for dating archaeolo ...

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

, and the development of

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

s. Auer studied at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

, graduating B.Sc. (1917), M.Sc. (1918), and Ph.D. (1923). His studies were interrupted by the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

, where he saw action in 1918. Auer became a professor of geography at the University of Helsinki in 1929. While holding his professorship Auer launched expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in 1928–1929, and to Patagonia in 1937–1938. Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he relocated to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in 1946, entering the service of the Argentine government as an advisor to the

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

government and the

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

, among other functions. During his years in Argentina, Auer continued his earlier studies on the natural history of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, while advising the Argentine government in matters related to land use and colonization of the country's southern frontier. Auer returned to Finland in 1953. In the last years of his professional career, he served as a professor of geography (1953–1957) and geology and paleontology (1957–1963) at the University of Helsinki. A documentary film about the life and work of Auer in Finland and Latin America was published in 2007 and broadcast on Magellan Chile. Auer was a geographer, explorer, and above all, swamp geologist. His swamp auger reached the central, post-ice age layers of Earth's climate history in Canada, Finland, Tierra del Fuego, and Patagonia. The film travels in time to the different stages of Auer's life: in the swamps and wilderness of Finland, the peculiar shallow swamps of Tierra del Fuego, and the Patagonian pampas whipped by dusty winds. The documentary film is based on Auer's diary entries and articles. Through them, it also takes a tour of dramatic human history in the 20th century. In that perspective he confesses his involvement in the construction of a German submarine base in

in 1943.

Notable publications

For a complete list cf. Alhonen & Alhonen (2006). * Auer, V. (1960) The Quaternary History of Fuego-Patagonia. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B'', 152. * Auer, V. (1956–1970) The Pleistocene of Fuego-Patagonia. Parts I–V. ''Annales Academiae Scientarum Fennicae A III'', 45, 50, 60, 80, 100, 1300 pp.

References

* Alhonen, P. & Alhonen, A. (2006). ''Vaakavarren ratsastaja: Tutkimusmatkailija Väinö Auerin elämä'' (a biography in Finnish). Edico, Helsinki.

External links

Väinö Auer
at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. {{DEFAULTSORT:Auer, Vaino 1895 births 1981 deaths People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Explorers of South America Finnish geologists Finnish geographers Palynologists University of Helsinki alumni Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Finnish expatriates in Argentina Finnish Nazis Finnish explorers 20th-century geographers 20th-century geologists