Otto Ampferer (1 December 1875 in Hötting near Innsbruck – 9 July 1947) was an Austrian alpinist and geologist.[1] To explain the complex processes of Orogeny, he developed his "theory of undercurrent" with the idea of a partially plastic deep Earth's crust (asthenosphere). He became – even before Alfred Wegener – the pioneer of the modern view of continental drift.[2][3]

Otto Ampferer
Otto Ampferer, c. 1900
Born1 December 1875
in Hötting near Innsbruck
Died9 July 1947
Here, west of the Stanser Joch in Tyrol, Ampferer described the relief shift.

Life and scientific work

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Ampferer attended grammar school and then studied physics, mathematics and geology at the University of Innsbruck from 1895, where he obtained his doctorate in 1899. In 1901 he entered the service of the Vienna Geologische Bundesanstalt, which at that time was still Geologische Reichsanstalt. In 1902 he married Olga Sander, the sister of the well-known Innsbruck geologist Bruno Sander.[4] She was his companion on all the walks and she assisted him in many ways.[5] In 1919 he was appointed chief geologist and vice-director of the Federal Institute in 1925. From 1935 to 1937 he was director of this research institute, the Geologische Bundesanstalt,[6] but continued his tectonic, glacial and regional geological work.[7] He produced geological maps and guides in the Gesäusegebirge and Kaisergebirge and dealt with glacial glaciation of the Alps. Altogether he wrote 260 publications and numerous geological map sheets. In 1939 Ampferer was a member of the Reichsstelle für Bodenforschung in Vienna".[7]

Otto Ampferer's name is associated, among other things, with the theory of undercurrent, a hypothesis on the formation of mountain ranges, which later contributed to the development of plate tectonics. His main field of work was the geology of the Alps. In the course of his thorough mapping of the Tyrolean Limestone Alps, he recognised the Karwendel Overthrust as early as 1901, which also played an important role in the assertion of the Overthrust Theory around 1905. In 1906 he wrote an analysis On the motion of the Folded Mountains, wherein he opposed the Contraction Theory of Albert Heim,[8][9] which, however, was only finally refuted around 1960. Ampferer advocated a theory that is one of the precursors of today's explanatory model of plate tectonics. In his publication On the movement pattern of folded mountains he presented some geotectonic considerations of processes occurring in the deep crust of the Earth and in the upper mantle. For a long time, the tectonic passivity of the magma was a dogma until Ampferer's undercurrent theory changed this in 1906. Ampferer recognized in these undercurrents the forces that lead to the formation of ocean basins and high mountains on the edges of the drifting continents. In his publication Thoughts on the motion picture of the Atlantic region (1941), he presented a process anticipating what is known today as seafloor spreading.[3] He had also already recognised that there must be subduction zones.[10]

Ampferer considered a detachment of the Moon from the Earth as the cause for the unevenly distributed lithosphere in the time of the primeval continent Pangaea. He faced ridicule and scorn at the time, which, in his own words, put him off further work for years.[11][12]

In 1928, using the example of the Stanser Joch in Tyrol, he described a relief shift that became exemplary for later work.[13] Furthermore, Ampferer coined the expressions dead folding and mountain rifting.

Ampferer was not only an outstanding geologist, however, he also made a name for himself as a mountaineer. In 1899, for example, together with Karl Berger, he was the first to climb the Campanile Basso in the Brenta Group. Ampferer was also a good draughtsman who did not limit himself to geological motifs.

Honours

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In 1937 he received the Eduard Suess Medal[14] for his geoscientific work, in 1939 the Geological Society was the first to award him the Gustav Steinmann Medal with the additional dedication "the thinker in the depths of the mountains". Ampferer was, among other things, elected a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1936 and a full member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences in 1940.

In 1956 the Ampferergasse in Vienna-Favoriten (10th district) was named after him. There is also an Ampfererstraße in the Innsbruck district of Höttinger Au, and in Graz the Ampfererweg has been dedicated to him since 1973.[7]

Since 1983, the Austrian Geologigal Society, of which Ampferer was president from 1938 to 1939, has awarded the Otto Ampferer Prize[14] every two years to geoscientists (under 35 years of age) for outstanding achievements in the field of geosciences.

In Antarctica, the Ampfererberg was named after him.

Publications

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Literature

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  • Werner Quenstedt (1953), "Ampferer, Otto", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 257–259; (full text online)
  • "Ampferer Otto". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 1, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1957, p. 19.
  • Manfred Leutner: Science-theoretical case studies on the development of earth science research in Austria: Wilhelm Haidinger - Franz von Hauer - Otto Ampferer. In: Abhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, 55 (1999) (digitalisat).
  • Karl Krainer/Christoph Hauser: Otto Ampferer (1875-1947): Pioneer in Geology, Mountain Climber, Collector and Draftsman. In: Geo.Alp Special Volume 1 (2007), pp. 91–100.

References

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  1. ^ Kalliope Verbund: Ampferer, Otto (1875-1947) 
  2. ^ Helmut W. Flügel: Die virtuelle Welt des Otto Ampferer und die Realität seiner Zeit. In: Geo. Alp., Vol. 1, 2004.
  3. ^ a b Wolf-Christian Dullo, Fritz A. Pfaffl: The theory of undercurrent from the Austrian alpine geologist Otto Ampferer (1875–1947): first conceptual ideas on the way to plate tectonics. In: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 28 March 2019.
  4. ^ Karl Krainer and Christoph Hauser: Otto Ampferer (1875-1947): Bahnbrecher in der Geologie, Bergsteiger, Sammler und Zeichner, in: Geo.Alp Sonderband 1, pp. 91-100, Innsbruck 2007. pdf-File
  5. ^ R. Klebelsberg: Otto Ampferer's geological life's work, page 94.
  6. ^ Geosphere Austria: Geschichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt
  7. ^ a b c Endbericht der ExpertInnenkommission für Straßennamen Graz, Graz 2017, p. 26f
  8. ^ Otto Ampferer: pdf Comparison of the Tectonic Effectiveness of Contraction and Undercurrent
  9. ^ Helmut W. Flügel: The Virtual World of Otto Ampferer and the Reality of His Time
  10. ^ Karl Krainer, Christoph Hauser: Otto Ampferer (1875-1947): Pioneer in Geology, Mountain Climber, Collector and Draftsman. In: Geo.Alp Special Volume 1 (2007), pp. 94–95.
  11. ^ Helmut W. Flügel: Wegener — Ampferer — Schwinner - Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Geologie in Österreich. In: Mitteilungen der österreichischen Geologischen Gesellschaft, Wien 1980, S. 238.
  12. ^ Über Kontinentverschiebungen Naturwissenschaften, 13, 1925, p. 672.
  13. ^ Helmut Hölder: Kurze Geschichte der Geologie. p.89-92, Springer 1989
  14. ^ a b Österreichische Geologische Gesellschaft: Inhaber der Eduard Sueß-Medaille
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