Stanisław Staszic: An Early Surveyor of the Geology of Central and Eastern Europe

0363900 - GFÚ 2012 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Grigelis, A. - Wójcik, Z. - Narebski, W. - Gelumbauskaité, L. Ž. - Kozák, Jan
Stanisław Staszic: An Early Surveyor of the Geology of Central and Eastern Europe.
Annals of Science. Roč. 68, č. 2 (2011), s. 199-228. ISSN 0003-3790. E-ISSN 1464-505X
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30120515
Keywords : geology * history * Central Europe
Subject RIV: DB - Geology ; Mineralogy
Impact factor: 0.417, year: 2011

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Polish geoscientist, philosopher, and statesman Stanislaw Staszic conducted an extensive geological survey of Poland and adjacent areas. In 1815, he completed a book (in Polish), On the geology of the Carpathians and other mountains and lowlands of Poland, complemented by a well-made geological map of Central and Eastern Europe. Early in the nineteenth century, Staszic refined the idea of 'geological mapping', though initially he was interested in the exploration of mineral deposits, rock salt, copper and iron ores, and coal. Unlike his predecessors, his book adopted a temporal subdivision of rocks, using a somewhat modified version of Abraham Gottlob Werner's system. He delineated the surface distribution of five rock units and coloured them onto his map. His work gave expression to his view of geological history, and brought the 'Enlightenment Period' of geology in Central and Eastern Europe to a close.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0199517