Franz Kossmat ( 22 August 1871 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– 1 December 1938 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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, althou ...

, for twenty years the director of the Geological Survey of Saxony under both the kingdom and the subsequent German Republic. Kossmat was professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the Graz University of Technology. From 1913 to 1934 Kossmat was the director of the Geological Survey of Saxony and director of the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. In 1920 he presented the first gravity measures for middle Europe. It was published in 1921. In his life he published over twenty books himself, and collaborated on numerous others. He is most known for his work on isostasy, his opposition to Wegener's theories of continental drift, and for establishing a division of the European Variscides into several tectonic zones. GrabstätteFranzKossmatneu

Selected works

* -- (1906) ''Paläogeographie : (Geologische Geschichte der Meere und Festländer)'' (''The Geological History of the Oceans and Continents'') G.J. Göschen
OCLC 11245502
a second edition was published in 1916. * -- (1921) ''Die mediterranen Kettengebirge in ihrer Beziehung zum Gleichgewichtszustande der Erdrinde'' (''The Mediterranean Mountain Chain in its relationship with the Isostasy of the Earth’s Crust'') Abh. d. Math.-Phys. Klasse der Sächs. Akad. d. Wiss. (Proceedings of the Mathematical-Physical Class of the Saxony Academy of Science), vol. 38, no. 2, Teubner, Leipzig * -- (1927) ''Gliederung des varistischen Gebirgsbaus'' (''Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains'') Abh. Sächs. Geol. L.-A. (Proceedings of the Saxon Geological Survey), vol. 1, Leipzig. * -- (1936) ''Paläogeographie und Tektonik'' (''Paleogeography and Tectonics'') Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin
OCLC 8420779

References

* Drost, Kerstin (2004) ''Franz Kossmat: 1871 - 1938'' Dresden Museum für Mineralogie und Geologie, Dresden
OCLC 163338505
in German * Meinhold, Guido (2017) ''Franz Kossmat – Subdivision of the Variscan Mountains – a translation of the German text with supplementary notes'' History of Geo- and Space Sciences, vol. 8, pp. 29–51

External links

*
Photograph of Franz Kossmat
Geological Survey and Archive of Saxony
Photograph of Franz Kossmat
University of Rostock {{DEFAULTSORT:Kossmat, Franz 20th-century German geologists 1871 births 1938 deaths Scientists from Vienna Academics of the Graz University of Technology