Editing Eduard Suess (section)

== Biography ==

Eduard Suess was born on 20 August 1831 in London, England, the oldest son of Adolph Heinrich Suess,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edward Suess |url=https://opac.geologie.ac.at/ais312/dokumente/BR0106_001_A.pdf |access-date=11 November 2020}}</ref> a [[Lutheran]] [[Saxony|Saxon]] merchant,<ref name="nation">{{Cite journal |last=Kemp |first=J. F. |year=1914 |title=Science: Edward Suess |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3FQyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA670 |journal=The Nation |volume=98 |issue=2553 |page=671 |access-date=March 9, 2014}}</ref> and mother Eleonore Friederike Zdekauer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eduard Suess and the Study of Tectonics |date=20 August 2017 |url=http://scihi.org/eduard-suess-tectonics-alps/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201112041752/http://scihi.org/eduard-suess-tectonics-alps/ |archive-date=12 November 2020 |access-date=11 November 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Adolph Heinrich Suess was born on 11 March 1797 in Saxony and died on 24 May 1862 in Vienna;<ref>{{ÖBL2|Adolph-Heinrich|Suess|1797|1862|title=Sueß, Adolph Heinrich (1797–1862), Fabrikant|volume=14|pages=31–32|author=J. Mentschl}}</ref> Eleonore Friederike Zdekauer was born in Prague, now part of the [[Czech Republic]], which once belonged to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and the [[Austrian Empire]].

When Eduard Suess was an infant, his family relocated to Prague, and then to Vienna when he was 14. He became interested in [[geology]] at a young age. At the age of 19, while working as an assistant at the [[Imperial Natural History Museum|Hofmuseum]] in Vienna, he published his first paper—on the geology of Carlsbad (now [[Karlovy Vary]] in the Czech Republic). In 1855, Suess married Hermine Strauss, the daughter of a prominent physician from Prague. Their marriage produced five sons and one daughter.<ref name="nation" />

In 1856, he was appointed professor of paleontology at the [[University of Vienna]], and in 1861 was appointed professor of geology.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Eduard Suess {{!}} Austrian geologist |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eduard-Suess |access-date=2017-12-15}}</ref> He gradually developed views on the connection between Africa and Europe. Eventually, he concluded that the Alps to the north were once at the bottom of an ocean, of which the Mediterranean was a remnant. Suess was not correct in his analysis, which was predicated upon the notion of "contractionism"—the idea that the Earth is cooling down and, therefore, contracting. Nevertheless, he is credited with postulating the earlier existence of the [[Tethys Ocean]], which he named in 1893.<ref>Edward Suess (March 1893) [https://books.google.com/books?id=yQUVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180 "Are ocean depths permanent?,"] ''Natural Science: A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress'' (London), '''2''' : 180–187. From page 183: "This ocean we designate by the name "Tethys," after the sister and consort of Oceanus. The latest successor of the Tethyan Sea is the present Mediterranean."</ref> He claimed in 1885 that land bridges had connected South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica, creating a supercontinent which he named [[Gondwana]]land.<ref>Eduard Suess, ''Das Antlitz der Erde'' (The Face of the Earth), vol. 1 (Leipzig, Germany: G. Freytag, 1885), [https://archive.org/stream/dasantlitzderer02suesgoog#page/n759/mode/2up page 768.] From p. 768: "''Wir nennen es Gondwána-Land, nach der gemeinsamen alten Gondwána-Flora, ...''" (We name it Gondwána-Land, after the common ancient flora of Gondwána ... )</ref>

Suess published a comprehensive synthesis of his ideas between 1885 and 1901 titled ''Das Antlitz der Erde'' (''The Face of the Earth''), which was a popular textbook for many years. In volume two of this massive three-volume work,<ref>Suess, Eduard (1885–1909). ''Das Antlitz der Erde''. F. Tempsky, Vienna, {{OCLC|2903551}}, Note: volume 3 was published in two parts.</ref> Suess set out his belief that across geologic time, the rise and fall of sea levels were mappable across the earth—that is, that the periods of [[Transgression (geology)|ocean transgression]] and [[Marine regression|regression]] were correlateable from one continent to another. His theory was based upon [[glossopteris|glossopteris fern]] fossils occurring in South America, Africa, and India. His explanation was that the three lands were once connected in a supercontinent, which he named Gondwanaland. Again, this is not quite correct: Suess believed that the oceans flooded the spaces currently between those lands.

[[File:Eduard Suess00.jpg|thumb|Eduard Suess, {{Circa}} 1890]]
In his work ''Die Entstehung der Alpen'', Suess also introduced the concept of the [[biosphere]], which was later extended by [[Vladimir I. Vernadsky]] in 1926.<ref>Smil, Vaclav. 2002. The earth's biosphere : evolution, dynamics, and change. MIT.</ref> Suess wrote:
{{blockquote|One thing seems to be foreign on this large celestial body consisting of spheres, namely, organic life. But this life is limited to a determined zone at the surface of the [[lithosphere]]. The plant, whose deep roots plunge into the soil to feed, and which at the same time rises into the air to breathe, is a good illustration of organic life in the region of interaction between the upper sphere and the lithosphere, and on the surface of continents it is possible to single out an independent biosphere.}}

He was elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1886<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1886;smode=advanced;startDoc=61 |access-date=2021-05-24 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> and the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] in 1895. He received the [[Wollaston Medal]] of the [[Geological Society of London]] in 1896 and he won the [[Copley Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] in 1903.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Geikie|first=Arthur|author-link=Archibald Geikie |date=4 May 1905|title=Scientific Worthies. XXXV.—Eduard Suess|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=72 |issue=1853 |pages=1–3|doi=10.1038/072001a0|doi-access=free}}</ref> Suess died on 26 April 1914 in Vienna. He is buried in the town of [[Marz, Austria|Marz]] in [[Burgenland]], Austria.