# Jean de Charpentier
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{{Short description|German-Swiss geologist}}
thumb|180px|Jean de Charpentier
'''Jean de Charpentier''' or '''Johann von Charpentier''' (8 December 1786 – 12 December 1855) was a German-Swiss [geologist](/source/geologist) who studied Swiss [glacier](/source/glacier)s. He was born in [Freiberg](/source/Freiberg%2C_Saxony), [Electorate of Saxony](/source/Electorate_of_Saxony), [Holy Roman Empire](/source/Holy_Roman_Empire) and died in [Bex](/source/Bex), [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland).
==Life==
After following in his father's footsteps as a mining engineer he excelled in his field while working in the copper mines in the Pyrénées and salt mines in western Switzerland.
In 1818 a catastrophic event changed his life focus when an ice-dammed lake in the [Val de Bagnes](/source/Val_de_Bagnes) above [Martigny](/source/Martigny) broke through its barrier,[The flood is described in Jean M. Grove, ''Little Ice Ages, Ancient and Modern'' (as ''The Little Ice Age'' 1988) rev. ed. 2004:161.] causing many deaths. Afterwards, he made extensive field studies in the Alps. Using evidence of erratic boulders and moraines and drawing on the works of [Goethe](/source/Goethe),[{{cite book|last=Cameron|first=Dorothy|year=1964|title=Early discoverers XXII, Goethe-Discoverer of the ice age. Journal of glaciology|url=http://www.igsoc.org/journal/5/41/igs_journal_vol05_issue041_pg751-754.pdf|access-date=2010-11-23|archive-date=2019-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215060416/https://www.igsoc.org/journal/5/41/igs_journal_vol05_issue041_pg751-754.pdf|url-status=dead}}] he hypothesized that Swiss glaciers had once been much more extensive.[{{Cite book|title=Essai sur les glaciers et sur le terrain erratique du bassin du Rhône|last=de Charpentier|first=Jean|publisher=M. Ducloux|year=1841|url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/255419}}] These boulders, characteristic of glaciers, were strewn as if they were [brought there by glaciers](/source/Glacial_erratic) that no longer existed. Even so, he wasn't sure how glaciers first formed, moved, or how they disappeared. His ideas were later taken up and developed by [Louis Agassiz](/source/Louis_Agassiz).
thumb|upright 1.5|center|Carte Géologique des Pyrénées
==Legacy==
The glacier of [Charpentierbreen](/source/Charpentierbreen) in [Nathorst Land](/source/Nathorst_Land) at [Spitsbergen](/source/Spitsbergen), [Svalbard](/source/Svalbard) is named after him.[{{cite web |url=http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Charpentierbreen |title=Charpentierbreen (Svalbard) |publisher=[Norwegian Polar Institute](/source/Norwegian_Polar_Institute) |access-date=3 March 2015}}]
==See also==
* [Ice age](/source/Ice_age)
==Bibliography==
* Tobias Krüger, "Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Verständnis der Klimageschichte: der Alpenraum und die Anfänge der Eiszeitforschung" ''Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte (Geschichtsforschender Verein Oberwallis)'', XLI, Brig 2009, pp. 123–160.
* Tobias Krüger, "Discovering the ice ages : international reception and consequences for a historical understanding of climate", in ''History of science and medicine library''; vol. 37, Leiden 2013, {{ISBN|978-90-04-24169-5}} (cloth); {{ISBN|978-90-04-24170-1}} (electronic bk.) (pp. 148–154, 162–163, 167–168, 177–178, 186–188).
* Tobias Krüger, "À l'aube de l'âge de glace. Jean de Charpentier pionnier tragique d'une révolution scientifique", in Patrick Kupper, C. Bernhard Schär (ed.) ''Les Naturalistes. A la découverte de la Suisse et du monde (1800-2015)'', Baden, Hier und Jetzt 2015, {{ISBN|9783039193578}}, pp. 17–33.
==References==
{{reflist}}
*[Karl Alfred von Zittel](/source/Karl_Alfred_von_Zittel), ([Maria M. Ogilvie Gordon](/source/Maria_Gordon), tr.), ''History of Geology and Palæontology to the End of the Nineteenth Century'' (1901).
==External links==
* Pictures and texts of [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811220546/http://www3.unil.ch/viatimages/index.php?module=search&projet=viaticalpes#/ouvrage-126 ''Essai sur les glaciers et sur le terrain erratique du bassin du Rhône'' by Jean de Charpentier can be found in the database VIATIMAGES].
*[http://www.todayinsci.com/C/Charpentier_JeanDe/CharpentierJeanDeBio.htm Today in Science History bio]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charpentier, Jean De}}
Category:1786 births
Category:1855 deaths
Category:19th-century German geologists
Category:19th-century Swiss geologists
Category:18th-century German geologists
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jean de Charpentier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Charpentier) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Charpentier?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.