Werner, Abraham Gottlob

Werner, Abraham Gottlob (ä`brähäm gôt`lōp vĕr`nər), 1750–1817, German geologist. In 1775 he became inspector and teacher in the mining academy at Freiberg, which through his efforts became one of the leading schools in Germany. In the last part of the 18th cent. he was the most notable figure in the investigation of rocks and minerals; he called the new science geognosy and defined it as the study of the layers of mineral matter. He was the first to classify minerals systematically. According to his theory of neptunism, the earth was originally an ocean of water from which were precipitated the solid rocks now forming most of the dry land. Although much of his theory has been rejected, geology is indebted to him for the application of chronology to rock formations as well as for his precise definitions.

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Werner, Abraham Gottlob

(born Sept. 25, 1750, Wehrau, Saxony—died June 30, 1817, Freiberg) German geologist. In opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin, he founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed that all rocks resulted from precipitation from oceans that had, he theorized, once completely covered the Earth. He rejected uniformitarianism. His brilliant lecturing and personal charm won him many students, who, though many eventually discarded his theories, would not renounce them while Werner lived.