Monday 24 April 2017

Heidelberg und der Loess

Kirchheimer, F.  1969.  Heidelberg und der Loess.  'Ruperto-Carola'  Zeitschrift der Vereiningung der Freunde der Studentschaft der Universitat Heidelberg e.V. XXI Jahrgang 46, 3-7.

Its nearly 50 years since Kirchheimer published his essay on 'Heidelberg and the Loess' - some translated material appeared in 'Loess A Partial Bibliography' by I.J.Smalley..

"...  One of the leading firms in the first half of the last century, founded in 1804 by the then tax inspector (Steuerassessor)  Karl Caesar Leonhard and later to be known as Freidrich Moldenauer's Heidelberger Mineralien Comptoir (Schiffgasse No.211) began to sell, from                                        



 
 
 1825 a large number of 'Geognostic Collections after Leonhard's Analysis of Rock Types'. These suites, which were bought by many Earth Science Institutes and museums, each included a perishable sample of loess from 'Haarlass' (by Heidelberg) as described in 1824.

Heidelberg is important for various reasons. Karl Caesar von Leonhard was a professor there- and he was the first to describe and define and validate loess. He was there in 1832 when Charles Lyell arrived on his honeymoon voyage south from Bonn, and he and H.G.Bronn showed Lyell around the town and the loess deposits. Lyell absorbed the idea of loess in Heidelberg, and sent it round the world in vol.3 of the Principles of Geology.
 
 
 
Heinrich Georg Bronn was at Heidelberg with Leonhard. Leonard Horner suggested that his small book on Heidelberg contained one of the best early description of loess:
 
Bronn, H.G.  1830.  Gaea Heidelbergensis, oder Mineralogische Beschreibung der Gegend von Heidelberg [Heidelberg und Leipzig, Neue academische Buchhandlung von Karl Groos.]
 
"...  Der Loess ist eine, erst neuerlich aufgestellte, und wie es scheint, dem Rheinthale eigenthumliche Gebirgsart von sehr allgemeiner, aber unzusammenhangender Verbreiting. " (read more in Loess Letter 67: www.loessletter.msu.edu)