Beschreibung: Gustav Steinmann (1856–1929) was a typical German professor of the time around the turn of the twentieth century. He was active in all fields of geology, palaeontology and marginally mineralogy with a list of about 200 publications. Unfortunately, only a few documents referring to him exist today. We try to outline some details of his life and his scientific and organisational achievements and discuss some aspects of his somewhat discordant character. The geology (structure, stratigraphy including the Pleistocene) of Chile and Peru was one of his main topics. Extracts from the unpublished fieldbooks of his expeditions (1903/1904 and 1908) are given. Other regional investigations cover the Southern Black Forest, the Swiss folded Jura Mountains and their relationships with the Oberrheingraben, the Alps and Apennines. Another lifelong topic was palaeontology and the theory of evolution. Beside some pioneering scientific discoveries, he published various hypotheses that, however, were purely speculative. By contrast, the discovery of the close association of deep-sea sediments and ophiolites in the Alps and the Apennines (1905, 1927), later named the “Steinmann Trinity”, was to inspire later the theories of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. He also was the first to prove two phases of glacial activity in the Black Forest. On the other hand, he erroneously believed that Middle Europe was once completely covered with ice and that folding in the Swiss Jura produced empty spaces in the cores of anticlines in analogy to folds in the Andes that were “passively filled by diorites”. His ideas about the evolution of organisms were also extremely speculative if not absurd. He constructed lineages that were based only on morphological appearance thus bringing together, e.g. dinosaurs and giraffes. In 1877, Steinmann finished a dissertation on fossil hydrozoa in Munich, and in 1880, as an assistant at the University of Strasbourg, a habilitation on the Jurassic and Cretaceous stratigraphy of parts of Bolivia. In 1885 he was appointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in Jena. By 1886, he moved to a full professorship to the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, starting a period of wide-ranging activities covering a great variety of subjects in seminars, lectures and often strenuous fieldtrips, for he was also an enthusiastic mountaineer. With the authoritarian style of his period, he kept his staff and students enormously busy in all respects. He successfully convinced the regional government to erect a new institute building that is still in use today. Nevertheless, in 1906, he accepted the chair of geology and palaeontology in Bonn, along with the title of “Geheimer Bergrat”. Once again he successfully built a new institute, along the lines of the one in Freiburg. His ceaseless activity also continued in Bonn. In addition, he founded new scientific societies: in 1907 the “Niederrheinische Geologische Verein” and in 1910 the “Geologische Vereinigung” amongst others. However, he suffered from severe restrictions during World War I, the occupation of Bonn and the financial crisis during the 1920s. In 1924, he retired, and in 1925, his wife passed away. Nevertheless, with the help of former students, his “Geology of Peru” was published in 1929 and a summary of his ophiolite research appeared in 1927 in Madrid. Throughout his life, he attempted to participate in all International Geological Congresses with their long fieldtrips and the opportunities for personal contacts. Steinmann was a multi-faceted personality, some of them quite “sharp”. He had diverse interests and ideas combined with a profound knowledge in many fields. He had enormous energy and also expected the same from others. After a long trip to the Far East he died in 1929 in Bonn. His most important organizational achievement was certainly the foundation of the “Geologische Vereinigung” (1910) with its renowned annual meetings and its journal, the “Geologische Rundschau”. As an academic enterprise, it was both complementary and a counter balance to the “Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft” with its long tradition rooted in the Geological Surveys. Up to his retirement, Steinmann served either as editor or as chairman, posts which remained in Bonn with his successor Hans Cloos. The meetings and the journal were to inform German-speaking geologists about new results and methods in research and teaching, personal news and extensive reviews of relevant literature covering all branches of the science but with emphasis on physical geology. His editorial work and the number of his review articles illustrate how much he felt responsible for the geosciences in general. In scientific discussions, Steinmann used his knowledge and excellent memory to argue with sharp-witted comments that often offended his colleagues. He also caused many controversies in the scientific community because of his partly incredible speculations. These were perhaps reasons why he did not receive any major scientific honours. We give a final illustration of a very different facet of his personality with a touching letter written by his granddaughter who gives a private portrait of him as an admired grandfather.

Beschreibung: Late Quaternary sediments on the West African continental margin between 24°N and 15°N were studied with RV METEOR (1971) and VALDIVIA (1975). Cores on the shelf were taken with a 6-m-vibrocorer, in deeper water mainly with a 12 m Kastenlot corer. During Holocene, and up to the present time, more or less and climatic conditions north of the Senegal River area reduced terrigenous supply. Therefore, the biogenic-carbonate content exceeds about 50%. Wüstenquarz numbers (red + yellow quartz : white quartz x 100) are high (20 to mmore than 200), indicating eolian input. The Senegal River supplied fine grained, green colored, terrigenous material with some plant debris. During Würm, the Mediterranean climatic zone with winter rains was shifted more than 5° to the South and was reaching Banc d'Arguin (at about 20°N). Therefore, the terrigenous supply was increased in this northern part and consequently the carbonate content and the Wüstenquartz numbers dropped below 50% and 10, respectively. The arid zone was also shifted to the south; as a consequence, the Senegal River did not reach the sea, eolian supply diluted the biogenic carbonates, and increased Wüstenquartz numbers to more than 200. Eolian dunes covered parts of the shelf. Ratios of radiolarians/plankonic foraminifera and planktonic/benthonic organisms and sedimentation rates of organic carbon indicate stronger upwelling in the northern region. Turbidity currents were more frequent, eroding as much as a third of the material supplied ba pelagic sedimentation.

Beschreibung: Processes from above and below influence the sea bottom and its sedimentary cover. The evolution of the lithosphere is being as passionately discussed today as was the evolution of the biosphere a century ago. The physical, chemical and biological interactions at the sea bottom, of "benthic boundary", call for interdisciplinary research.

Beschreibung: Adjacent seas in humid and arid climates differ in their water circulation patterns. This difference effects both the organisms and the sediment. The following table compares the two ideal models: [The table is not shown here.] Even recent examples do, however, show divergences from the ideal model. These discrepancies can develop through severe cooling during winter, anomalous weather condition in the straits leading to the open oceans or through differences in climate between the surrounding land area and the adjacent sea or the lagoons of the same basin. Therefore, one should not attempt to apply this model scheme as a whole to fossil conditions. The analysis of the individual factors, and the attempt to reconstruct a complete picture from them is more important than the model itself.

Beschreibung: In den letzten Jahrzehnten sind aus Untersuchungen im Meer umwälzende Vorstellungen zur erdgeschichtlichen Entwicklung von Ozeanen und Kontinenten erwachsen. Marine Sedimente und ozeanische Kruste werden mitsamt ihren Porenwässern laufend den Kontinenten angegliedert. Marine Sedimentgesteine und ihre frühere Umwelt können besser gedeutet werden, wenn man heutige Vorgänge im Meer dazu heranzieht. Ozeanische Sedimente sind in ihrer detaillierten zeitlichen Abfolge zu hervorragenden Archiven für die Erdgeschichte geworden. Einige neuer Beispiele sollen dies verdeutlichen.

Beschreibung: Einleitung Vor drei Jahrzehnten bahnte sich in den Erdwissenschaften ein Umschwung an, der nur mit der wissenschaftlichen Revolution verglichen werden kann, die Charles Darwin mit seinen Ideen zur Evolution der Biosphäre auslöste. Mit den Theorien der Spreizung der Ozeanböden und der Plattentektonik wurde die Evolution der Lithospähre völlig neu durchdacht.

Beschreibung: Durch Vermittlung von Jörn Thiede gelangte das Geologenarchiv in den Besitz eines Videobands von einem Fernsehinterview mit Rosenqvist (auch gelegentlich Rosenquist), das Elen Roaldset (E.R.) im Geologischen Institut der Universität Oslo am 8.September 1988 führen konnte. Es umfasst den gesamten Lebenslauf und die wichtigsten wissenschaflichen Leistungen dieses aussergewöhnlichen Geologen und Mineralogen. Er wurde in Wien am 17. Mai 1916 geboren, kam aber mit seinen Eltern schon 1917 nach Oslo, wo er am 8. Oktober 1994 starb (K. Bjørlykke 1995). Im Folgenden sollen aus dem Interview nur seine wegweisenden Untersuchungen der Quicktone, seine fachliche Vielseitigkeit, sein gesellschaftliches Engagement und seine schwierigen Erfahrungen mit Deutschland herausgegriffen werden. Das in der Landessprache geführte Gespräch wurde von Geir Ebelfoff und Lars Erik Kastilan ins Deutsche transkribiert.