Jean de Charpentier

Johann von Charpentier ( born December 8, 1786 in Freiberg, Electorate of Saxony, † December 12, 1855 in Bex, Vaud Canton, Switzerland ) was a German -Swiss geologist and glaciologist.

Charpentier, Jean de Charpentier also called himself, was the son of the famous mining engineer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm von Charpentier and the brother of Toussaint Charpentier. He studied his father Abraham Gottlob Werner in mining at the Mining Academy Freiberg, worked in copper mines in the Pyrenees later and was then appointed 1813 in the office of Saline Director in Bex. In addition, he thought at the Academy of Lausanne lectures on geology.

When in 1818 a glacial lake broke through and many people were killed by he turned to glaciology. Above all, through his study of the erratic boulders and moraines he hypothesized that glaciers formerly had a much greater extent.

In 1841 he published his work " Essais sur les glaciers " which awakened by the sharpness of observation and clarity of presentation today admiration. With this work, the theory of an earlier glaciation has further been scientifically proven to far into the foothills of the Alps, with all its implications as Moränenaufschüttungen and block deportations parts of Switzerland. He had won along with Ignaz Venetz (1788-1859), whose share he has always appreciated in his publications His findings.

Charpentier represented in contrast to Karl Friedrich Schimper ( and Louis Agassiz ) the view that the glaciation was not made until after the lifting of the Alps.