Died This Day: Eduard Suess

Suess (Aug. 20, 1831 – April 26, 1914) was an Austrian geologist who helped lay the basis for paleogeography and tectonics. He was an authority on structural geology, especially of mountains, and postulated the existence of the giant land mass Gondwanaland.

While he was a professor (1857–1901) at the Univ. of Vienna, he also served for more than 20 years in the Austrian parliament. His Austrian-born son, Hans Suess, became a geochemist who pioneered radiocarbon dating techniques and was a founding faculty member of the University of California, San Diego.

From Today In Science History