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European Geosciences Union
Louis Agassiz was born in Môtiers, Switzerland. He initially studied medicine, and in 1829 received he the degree of doctor of philosophy and in 1830 doctor of medicine. After moving to Paris he was influenced by Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier, who launched him on his careers of geology and zoology, respectively.
In 1832 he was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel. In 1836 the Wollaston medal was awarded to Agassiz by the Geological Society of London, and in 1838 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society for his work on fossilised fish. In 1837 Agassiz proposed the idea that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age. Prior to this, de Saussure, Charpentier and others had made the glaciers of the Alps the subjects of special study, and Charpentier had arrived at the conclusion that the erratic blocks of rocks scattered around Alpine valleys had been moved there by glaciers. Agassiz became interested in this problem, and made successive trips to the Alps in order to investigate the structure and movements of the ice. In 1840, he published a two volume work entitled "Etudes sur les glaciers" ("Study on Glaciers"). In it he discussed the movement of glaciers, their moraines, and their influence on Alpine geomorphology. He extended Charpentier's idea that some of the alpine glaciers had once covered the wide plains and valleys drained by the Aar and the Rhône, concluding that, in the relatively recent past, Switzerland had been another Greenland, covered by an extensive ice sheet, originating in the higher Alps. The publication of this work gave a fresh impetus to the study of glaciology worldwide. In 1840 Agassiz and William Buckland travelled to the UK, visiting the mountains of Scotland. They found clear evidence of ancient glacial action in several locations. The discovery was reported to the Geological Society of London, and the mountainous regions of England, Wales, and Ireland were also considered to constitute centres for the dispersion of glacial debris. In 1846 he moved to the United States where he remained to the end of his life. He was appointed professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University in 1847. His name is associated with several landforms in the US, most notably Lake Agassiz, the Pleistocene precursor to Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. By 1857 he was so well-loved that Longfellow wrote "The fiftieth birthday of Agassiz" in his honour. Agassiz?s lasting legacy is on his pioneering work on Ice Ages. |
