Charles Constant Wilfrid Kilian (15 June 1862 - 30 September 1925) was a French geologist, paleontologist, and professor at the University of Grenoble where he was a specialist on Alpine geology. He studied stratigraphy and the oscillations in glaciation.
Kilian was born in Schiltigheim in the Alsace region. His father Conrad was a pastor with part Irish ancestry (with an interest in educating deaf-mutes, working for the Boers) and his mother Clémentine was the daughter of Charles Cuvier, a pastor and historian at Strasbourg from the Montbéliard family which included George Cuvier. He was educated at the Protestant Gymnasium, Strasbourg and then the Alsatian School at Paris. He studied geology at the University of Sorbonne, becoming a contemporary and lifelong collaborator of Emile Haug and travelled around Europe, sometimes with Marcel Bertrand, studying the Lure mountains for his 1888 thesis under Edmond Hébert. He collaborated with Marcel Bertrand on the production of a geological map of France. He worked as a lecturer at the University of Clermont-Ferrand but was persuaded by Bertrand to apply for the position of professor of geology at the University of Grenoble in 1892, a position made vacant upon the death of Charles Lory. [1] [2] [3] [4] Kilian had one of the first seismographs installed at Grenoble which recorded from 1892 to 1909. He received the Gaudry gold medal of the French geological society in 1921. [5]
Kilian married Antoinette Boissy d'Anglas in 1894 and they had two daughters, Mathide and Magali; and two sons, Robert, who became a navy officer, and Conrad Kilian who became a geologist and Saharan explorer. Kilian died from an undiagnosed infection. A street in Grenoble and an amphitheater in the University are named in his memory.
Timeline of geology
Josias Simmler was a Swiss theologian and classicist, author of the first book relating solely to the Alps.
Eduard Suess was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana and the Tethys Ocean.
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier, known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils.
In geology, catastrophism theorises that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. This contrasts with uniformitarianism, according to which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, brought about all the Earth's geological features. The proponents of uniformitarianism held that the present was "the key to the past", and that all geological processes throughout the past resembled those that can be observed today. Since the 19th-century disputes between catastrophists and uniformitarians, a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed, in which the scientific consensus accepts that some catastrophic events occurred in the geologic past, but regards these as explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which can occur.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and describing the Silurian, Devonian and Permian systems.
The year 1817 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
The University of Strasbourg is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology, palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropology.
Alexandre Brongniart was a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris. Observing fossil content as well as lithology in sequences, he classified Tertiary formations and was responsible for defining 19th century geological studies as a subject of science by assembling observations and classifications.
William Arthur Parks was a Canadian geologist and paleontologist, following in the tradition of Lawrence Lambe.
Marcel Alexandre Bertrand was a French geologist born in Paris. He was the son of mathematician Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822–1900), and son-in-law to physicist Éleuthère Mascart (1837-1908).
The Glarus thrust is a major thrust fault in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. Along the thrust the Helvetic nappes were thrust more than 100 km to the north over the external Aarmassif and Infrahelvetic complex. The thrust forms the contact between older (Helvetic) Permo-Triassic rock layers of the Verrucano group and younger (external) Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones and Paleogene flysch and molasse.
François-Théodore-Conrad Kilian was a French geologist, son of the professor of geology, Charles Constant Wilfrid Kilian. An explorer of the Saharan region, he postulated that it held oil reserves underneath, and died under mysterious circumstances.
Pierre Toussaint Marcel de Serres de Mesplès, also known as Marcel de Serres, was a French caver, geologist and naturalist.
Paul Fallot was a French geologist and paleontologist. Throughout his career the Mediterranean region, and especially Spain, was the focus of his work.
Maurice Irénée Marie Gignoux was a French geologist who was a specialist on the stratigraphy of the Alps. His 1925 book Geologie stratigraphique was a landmark publication in stratigraphy and was translated into several languages and went into many editions.
Léon Marie Louis Moret was a French geologist and paleontologist. Initially trained in medicine he became a paleontologist and wrote several books on fossil plants and animals while also examining alpine geology. He supported the view that all rocks and soils were susceptible to flow over geological time.
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