Avraam Werner German geologist and mineralogist. Date of Birth: 25.09.1750 Country: Germany

Biography of Abraham Werner

Abraham Gottlob Werner (September 25, 1750, Wehrau, near Görlitz - June 30, 1817, Dresden) was a German geologist and mineralogist. He studied natural sciences at Leipzig University from 1771. In 1775, he began teaching at the Freiberg Mining Academy. Werner developed a classification system for rocks and minerals based on their external characteristics and chemical composition. His "natural historical" school of mineralogy, which focused on detailed studies of the physical properties and morphology of minerals, dominated the field in Western Europe at that time. The results of his research and their orientation were particularly evident in Werner's classification of minerals. One of Werner's students, Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839), later proposed the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Academician V. M. Severgin criticized the one-sidedness of Werner's classification and attempted to apply chemical principles in his own comprehensive surveys of Russian mineralogy. Werner led the "neptunism" movement in geology, which argued that all rocks, including volcanic ones, were formed as sedimentary deposits in a watery environment. Werner was the founder of a prominent geological school.