70 | Great Geologists
Thrust-related folding in the Alps.
Eduard Suess
It is arguable that Eduard Suess is one of the greatest geologists that ever lived, yet many geologists who are active
today are unaware of him, although they routinely use terms first coined by him. Eustasy, Gondwanaland, Tethys
Ocean, foreland, listric fault, horst, graben, batholith, island arc and many other terms in common use today originated
from his pen. He published many significant works but none greater than Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of the
Earth) which in three main volumes, numbering 2788 pages, and developed over almost 30 years, he attempted to
review global geology, especially tectonics and stratigraphy in their broadest sense. Remarkably, at the same time
as researching this monumental work, he enjoyed an important political career and fostered scientific thinking in the
Germanic late 19th century world through his leadership of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Not surprisingly, he is
regarded as one of the greatest scientists and polymaths of the German-speaking world.
Born in London in 1831 (where his parents had briefly moved to from Vienna) he was three when he travelled first
to Prague and then to Vienna where he spent the rest of his life. Self-taught in geology and paleontology, in 1852 he
was appointed as an assistant at the Hofmineralenkabinett in Vienna, a practical school of geology and mineralogy
and soon began to publish scientific papers, the first being papers on graptolites, brachiopods and ammonites. This
led to him being appointed Professor of Paleontology at the University of Vienna in 1857 and then, as his interests
in geology broadened, to becoming Professor of Geology in 1862. He remained on the staff of the University till his
retirement in 1901, a hugely popular figure with both students and colleagues.
As might be deduced from the title of his magnum opus, the greater part of his scientific career was devoted to
working out the evolution of the features of the earth’s surface, and in particular mountain-building. Even so, his