Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu

Déodat Guy Sylvain Tancrède Gratet de Dolomieu (* June 24, 1750 in Dolomieu in La Tour- du-Pin, Isere (department ), † November 26, 1801 in Châteauneuf ( Saône- et- Loire) ) was a French geologist and mineralogist. According to him, the rock dolomite was named and in consequence also the Alpine area of the Dolomites.

Life and work

He was admitted as a child in the Order of Malta and joined his probation at age 18, but left out of love for the scientific studies the military stand and toured from 1777 to 1783 almost the whole of southern Europe. The results of these trips he shared in the "Voyage aux lsles de Lipari " (Paris 1783; German Lichtenberg, Leipzig 1783), in the paper " Sur le tremblement de terre de la Calabre " (Rome and Paris 1784; German, Leipzig 1789 ), the " Mémoires sur les lsles Ponce et catalog raisonné de l' Etna " (1788; German by Voigt, Leipzig 1789), etc., with.

After 1789 and 1790, explored the mountains of Italy, Tyrol and Graubünden, he pulled back in 1791 with its rich collection to his estate at La Roche- Guyon. New geological tours in France brought out his treatises on the origin of basalt and on the eponymous rock dolomite. In 1796 he became an engineer and professor at the newly established mining school. He acted as a member of the Commission des sciences et des arts, the Egyptian expedition, embarked in March 1799 after Europe, but was held in Taranto as a prisoner of war until his peace of Florence between France and Naples in 1801 his freedom reproduced.

In the same year he was appointed Professor of Mineralogy at the Museum of Natural History in Paris and died on November 26 in Châteauneuf. His last work, " Sur la philosophie mineralogique ", was released from his estate (Paris 1802; German, Berlin 1802 and Mainz 1803). The diary of his last trip through Switzerland gave Bruun - Neergaard out ( German Karsten, Berlin 1802).

Honors

According to him, several ways have been named in the Alps, so in 1989, the connection between the two Tribulaunhütten in Pflersch and Gschnitztal.

On the volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean was the cratère Dolomieu, which is the main crater at the active volcano Piton de la Fournaise, named after the geologist.

The mineral dolomite and dolomite were thus named after him.