Ernst Heinrich Karl von Dechen (25 March 180015 February 1889) was a German

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, ...

. He was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and was educated at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. He subsequently studied mining in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

and

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

, and was in 1820 placed in the mining department of the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n state, serving on the staff until 1864. Dechen was a professor at the University of Berlin from 1834 to 1841, after which he became director of the Prussian mining department while stationed at

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. In the early years he made journeys to study the mining systems of other countries, and with this object he visited England and Scotland in company with Karl von Oeynhausen (1797–1865). In the course of his work he paid special attention to the coal-formation of

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

and northern Europe generally, and he greatly furthered the progress made in mining and metallurgical works in

Rhenish Prussia The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It was created from th ...

. He made numerous contributions to geological literature; notably the following: * ''Geognostische Umrisse der Rheinländer zwischen Basel und Mainz mit besonderer Rücksicht auf das Vorkommen des Steinsalzes'' (with von Oeynhausen and La Roche), 2 vols. (Berlin, 1825). * ''Geognostische Führer in das Siebengebirge am Rhein'' (Bonn, 1861) * ''Die nutzbaren Mineralien und Gebirgsarten im deutschen Reiche'' (1873) The work that gave him the most renown was a geological map of Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia in 35 sheets on the scale of 1-80,000, issued with two volumes of explanatory text (1855–1882). He also published a small geological map of Germany (1869). He died in Bonn in 1889.

Tributes

The mineral "Vondechenite" is named after Ernst Heinrich Karl von Dechen in 2016. The mineral "Dechenite" was named after him in 1850 by Carl Wilhelm Sigismund Bergemann.Carl Wilhelm Sigismund Bergemann, "Untersuchung einiger Mineralien (Dechenit, Gelbbleierz und arseniksaures Blei von Azulaques)", in ''Annalen der Physik und Chemie'', vol. LXXX, 1850
p. 393–403
/ref>

Mount Dechen Mount Dechen is a mountain in the West Coast Region of New Zealand. Description Mount Dechen is located in the Southern Alps of the South Island. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains east into the Landsborough River, southwest into ...

in the Southern Alps of New Zealand is named after him.''Mount Dechen''
New Zealand Gazetteer, Retrieved 22 January 2025.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dechen 1800 births 1889 deaths Scientists from Berlin 19th-century German geologists People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Privy Councillor (Russian Empire) Geologists from the Kingdom of Prussia

Tributes

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Further reading

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