Eduard Suess
- Born
- 20 August 1831
- Died
- 26 April 1914 (age 82)
London-born Eduard Suess was an Austrian geologist and palaeobiologist. He was mainly interested in the geological structure of Earth and the concept of plate tectonics, but his interest in rock formations stemmed from his study of fossils and classification of extinct sea animals.
Born in London in 1831 to Austrian parents, Suess moved to Prague at the age of three and then Vienna at the age of 14.
Suess's interests in geology began at the age of 21 during his time as an assistant at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It was then that he wrote papers on the anatomy and classification of animals that he saw fossilised within rocks. He analysed brachiopods, 550million year old shelled marine animals, and ammonites, extinct squidlike creatures that lived in coil-shaped shells 240-65million years ago.
From then on his interest moved away from palaeobiology and towards geology, looking at rock formations themselves. In 1857 he published a short book; Die Enstehung der Alpen (The Origin of the Alps), in which he outlined his argument that mountain ranges are formed, not by simple lifting of the Earth's surface, but due to the horizontal movements of the Earth’s rocky outer shell, known as the lithosphere.
Suess’ academic career began in 1856 when he became a Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna, later also working as a Professor of Geology in 1861.
Between 1883 and 1909 Suess set to work on a four-volume series The Face of the Earth. He documented the geological structure of the planet and coined for the first time many common terms and concepts used in tectonics today. Suess used these books to further explain his theories relating to the lithosphere and its structure and evolution in detail.
Not only did Suess contribute to geology as we know it today, but he also had a significant political career spanning 30 years as a Liberal deputy from Vienna. During this time he was a member of the Assembly and national Parliament in Vienna