Das Antlitz der Erde: a synthesis of global geology (Suess)
Das Antlitz der Erde: síntesis de la geología global (Suess)
- Date
- 1883-1909 · confidence high
- Place
- Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Eduard Suess
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Suess brought together the geology of all continents in a four-volume work: he explained mountain ranges as wrinkles of an Earth contracting as it cools, popularised the name Gondwana and proposed the ancient Tethys Sea. For the first time it gave a global view of the Earth's structure.
The contraction theory was refuted by radioactivity and plate tectonics, but the terms Tethys, Gondwana and 'biosphere' (1875) endure. The volumes appeared between 1883 and 1909.
What it led to
- global geology and recognition of ancient great ocean basins
- the basis of the continental comparisons used by Wegener