Artist & Historian
Stratigraphy
In 1795, Alexandre Brongniart met Georges Cuvier for the first time. The moment marked the start of a lifelong partnership of research in natural history. Their work between 1804-1811 formed the foundation for the science of stratigraphy. Their geological and stratigraphical study of the Paris Basin continued to develop until Cuvier's death in 1832. In 1835, Brongniart published the final version of their joint study and turned his focus to works on ceramics, including the Traité des Arts céramiques.
1804-1835
Over the course of a thirty-year project, Cuvier and Brongniart created a coded geological map of the Paris Basin, which had seen a series of alternating environments. Over the course of geological ages, the region had successively been covered by salt water and fresh water in alternation with other periods. Using chemical analysis and study of the fossil life forms, these could be identified. They also created a map showing where different minerals were typically located.
1807-11
Essay on the Mineral Geography of the Paris Basin
The earliest version of Cuvier & Brongniart's map, presented in Paris in 1807 and published widely in 1811, was an acknowledged work-in-progress. They identified and filled in complex detail for areas which they understood well and showed regions which they had not yet analysed in detail with only minimal references for position and transitions between beds (couches) and strata (terrains).
1822-35
Description géologique des environs de Paris
As their work progressed, they released new editions of their publications. In 1822, they renamed their study from Essay on the Mineral Geography of the Paris Basin to the Geological Description of the Paris Basin to reflect the advances in both their work and in the young sciences of geology and stratigraphy.
1829
Brongniart's Tableau des Terrains
In 1829, demonstrating the changes in Brongniart's geological work over three decades, much of which was completed independently, or in the company of a wide range of other geologists, Brongniart published a stratigraphical study that demonstrated the evolution of the Earth's surface from a fiery beginning to the much more temperate present. His work incorporates his direct observations of the uplifting, bending, and folding of the Earth's surface, which he suggested might be affected by the movement of the continents into their current positions. His student, Elie de Beaumont, later put forth early theories in plate tectonics.
Cuvier and Brongniart's Stratigraphy of the Paris Basin
Stratigraphy is the study of the layers of the Earth, and their sequences, divisions, and characteristics. Analysis can be done visually, chemically, physically, and microscopically. The layers tell us about the lifeforms or atmospheric conditions of the period. For example, chemical tests or the presence of certain minerals can indicate that the environment was either acidic or basic, volcanic or sedimentary, saltwater or fresh water, and so on. Brongniart travelled across Europe, frequently on foot, spending hours investigating the landscape and its formations, or descending into mine shafts. As a mining engineer, he had access to sites across France on a regular basis. At the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, Cuvier had a laboratory full of fossils drawn from mining sites across Paris, as well as other sources. Until Cuvier and Brongniart's research began, these fossils were not linked to the specific sites and strata from which they were collected. Their project, first presented in Paris in 1807, was the first major study to correlate fossil evidence with information and depictions of the specific strata from which they came. Their expansive geological, mineralogical and palaeontological survey was the first of its kind to be published, and it set a standard for how such work could be completed elsewhere.