Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), German naturalist and explorer, best known for his many valuable contributions to the study of geophysics, meteorology, and oceanography.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Freiherr von Humboldt, was born in Berlin on September 14, 1769, and educated privately and at various universities and the mining academy at Freiberg. Although he was known as a naturalist, diplomat, astronomer, mineralogist, and anatomist, his fame also rests on his exploration of Latin America. In 1799 he sailed from Spain, stopped briefly at the Canary Islands, and finally landed at Cumaná, Venezuela. Humboldt explored the entire length of the Orinoco River and most of the Amazon River system. He also traveled in Cuba, the Magdalena River basin of Colombia, and the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, where he ascended the volcano Chimborazo to an altitude of more than 5800 m (19,000 ft) above sea level. He studied ocean currents, relative temperature according to altitude, and magnetic intensity in relation to the equator, as well as minerals and plant and animal life. He spent the final period of his five-year exploration of America in Mexico. In 1804 he returned to Europe, and in 1829 he made a voyage of scientific exploration through the Ural and Altay Mountains of Russia. During the final years of his long life Humboldt wrote a five-volume work, Kosmos (The Cosmos, 1845-1862), in which he set forth not only his own vast scientific knowledge but also most of the accumulated scientific knowledge of geography and geology of the time. Kosmos has been called the first textbook of geophysics. Humboldt died in Berlin on May 6, 1859.