The famous nineteenth century European geologist Hermann Willhelm Abich (1806–1886)¹ was born and educated in Germany. Almost half of his life was spent in Russia and during more than 30 years he travelled tirelessly through different regions of the Caucasus, Transcaucasian and Armenian highlands, where he gathered data on their geological structure and development. He made a considerable contribution to our knowledge of the geology of the Caucasus, and his Russian contemporaries named him ‘the father of Caucasian Geology’.

Hermann Abich: early life and geological education

Hermann Abich (Fig. 1) was born on 11 December 1806 in Berlin, the capital of Prussia, to Willhelm Abich, a mining engineer, and his wife—the daughter of the outstanding German chemist Martin Klaproth (1743–1817). Her brother, Hermann's uncle, Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783–1835) was a well-known traveller, orientalist, ethnographer and expert in the knowledge of Caucasian peoples. He was responsible for stimulating his nephew's interest in the history and the natural history of Caucasus, while Albich's father fostered his son's interest in geology and the mining industry.

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Fig. 1.

Hermann Willhelm Abich (1806–1886).

At first, Hermann entered the law faculty of Heidelberg University, but after two years he realized his mistake and transferred into the philosophical faculty of Berlin University in order to study geology, mineralogy, geography and chemistry. There he came under the guidance of some great naturalists, particularly the geologist Leopold von Buch (1774–1853), the geologist and geographer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) and the geographer Karl Ritter (1779–1859). He also studied philosophy and history, attending the lectures of Georg Hegel (1770–1831) and Leopold Ranke (1795–1886) respectively. The geological ideas of von Buch and von Humboldt impressed him, and he was especially interested in their theory on the craters of uplift. In order to graduate from Berlin University in 1831 Abich had to defend his doctoral thesis in Latin: ‘De spinello’, which had become the basis for four monographs and papers (Abich 1831) published in German, Latin, French and Russian between 1831 and 1834.

Following the recommendation of von Buch, in 1831 Abich left for Italy and during the following three years studied active and extinct volcanoes, including Vesuvius, Stromboli on the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Etna on Sicily. He later described their structure, volcanic activity and history in a special monograph issued in 1841 in Braunschweig (Abich 1841) and in a series of ten papers, published in German, French and Swedish between 1835 and 1843.

Travels in the Caucasus

At the end of the 1830s, Abich, who was already well known as an excellent geologist and mineralogist in western Europe, was invited by the Russian government to become a Professor of Mineralogy at Dorpat University (=Tartu) in what is now Estonia. This was the only university in Russia where the training was carried out in the German language. But he soon moved when in 1840 when a large earthquake struck the region around the Ararat volcano in the Armenian volcanic highland. This seismically-active region is centred on the borders between Russia, Persia (Iran) and Turkey, and the staff of the Russian Corps of Mining Engineers invited Abich to determine the nature and cause of this tectonic instability which was thought to be either seismic or volcanic. In 1843, after a period of serious scientific preparation Abich compiled a special report that contained some new geological data on the region, as well as recommendations regarding the formation of a scientific expedition to study the Transcaucasian volcanic formations, an expedition in which he was prepared to participate. At the same time, he delivered a lecture at Dorpat University entitled ‘On the geological structure of Armenian Highland’ where he summarized the new facts and ideas of his colleagues on the geology of Caucasus, and it was published soon afterwards in the form of small book (Abich 1843). In 1844, the Russian government sent Abich on an official trip to study the geological event of 1840 that was centred on Ararat.

During 1844 and 1845 he ascended Ararat volcano several times (the last visit was particularly successful), and he was so strongly carried away by a desire to continue his field studies of the geology of the Transcaucasian and Caucasian area, that, instead of returning to Dorpat University, he decided to devote his remaining life to travelling in the Caucasus. At that time, this extensive and beautiful mountainous region was still unexplored geologically.

During the next 30 years, until his resignation in 1876, he travelled in many different parts of the region from the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in the west to the coast of the Caspian Sea in the east.

The results of his field observations and his scientific ideas concerning different aspects of Caucasian geology were described in more than 200 publications, including some monographs that appeared in Russian, German and many other languages.

At the beginning of the 1840s, when Abich commenced his research in the Caucasus, from the point of view of geology, its vast territory represented a ‘tabula rasa’. Many places, particularly the western and eastern parts of the Great Caucasus, which were populated with freedom-loving Muslim peoples and tribes, were the locations of longstanding military conflicts between them and troops of the Russian Government, and so were inaccessible to scientists. However, it was possible to enter from the North Caucasian plain into the Transcaucasian regions of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenian highlands by using the military-Georgian road that crossed the Great Caucasian mountains between Vladikavkaz in the north and Tiflis in the south. Another route took travellers round the western and eastern ends of Great Caucasian ridge along the coasts of Azov, Black and Caspian seas.

After more than 30 years of travelling and geological research, much of which had been undertaken by Abich himself, almost all parts of the Caucasus had been described geologically.

The first period of Abich's geological journeys through the Caucasus began in 1844, when he travelled from St Petersburg to the North Caucasus. There he was astonished by the beauty and grandeur of the main Caucasian ridge, which he crossed between Vladikavkaz and Tiflis, and went through Georgia and Armenia to the Great Ararat volcano. This long expedition was completed in 1850 when he returned to St Petersburg. After research on the volcano of Mount Ararat, Abich studied other extinct volcanoes including Alagez (Aragats) situated in the Armenian highlands (Fig. 2). He then focused on the central part of Georgia with its coal deposits, and on Black Sea coast of Georgia. Finally, he studied the eastern part of Azerbaijan, including the oil and gas fields and mud volcanoes on the Apsheron peninsula near Baku.

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Fig. 2.

Canyon-like valley of Aparan river on the south-eastern slope of Alagez (Aragats) volcano near Echmiadzin in the Armenian highlands. Drawing by H. Abich (from Abich 1882).

Because of his very long absence from Estonia, Abich was removed from the staff of Dorpat University; but instead he was employed by the Corps of Mining Engineers, which was under the control of the Caucasian Deputy Count M. S. Vorontsov, who held Abich's scientific and practical capabilities in high regard. He had written to von Humboldt about Abich: ‘He was very useful for us not only as the author of fundamental scientific works, but also in practical relation for the satisfaction of needs of our country, particularly for successful search of coal, peat, salt, etc.’ In 1849, Abich in the company of Russian troops commanded by General Eristavi, crossed the Great Caucasian ridge from the south to the NW to the highest mountain of Caucasus, Elbrus volcano (5.6 km high) and there he began his geological research on the northern slopes of the Great Caucasus.

The first region which he had studied was dotted with young laccoliths (Beshtau and many others) that were intruded into Tertiary sedimentary rocks. Numerous springs of curative mineral waters, on which were centred several famous spas, were known as the ‘Caucasian Mineral waters’. During his first geological expedition Abich together with his companion, the mining engineer V. V. Sokolov, completed a major study of the stratigraphy, tectonics, magmatism, mineral deposits, as well as the geography of many earlier unknown Caucasian regions. He described their results in about 30 papers published in German and French journals that were systematically translated into Russian by the geologist A. D. Ozersky. Ozersky was responsible for translating into Russian Roderick Impey Murchison's (1792–1871) classic volume on the geology of Russia, which was published in Gorny Journal and in other Russian editions. Abich also regularly informed the Corps of Mining Engineers on the progress of his Caucasian work and to their headquarters in St Petersburg and in Breslau sent many dozens of boxes containing rocks, minerals and fossils for chemical, mineralogical and palaeontological investigation.

In August 1850, after his return to St Petersburg, Abich temporarily left Russia and spent 10 months travelling in Germany, Belgium, France and England. He gave lectures and engaged in interesting and successful discussions in scientific societies, and met with outstanding European geologists including his beloved teacher and friend von Humboldt. In order to help his talented pupil and disciple, von Humboldt persistently applied to the Head of Staff of the Corps of Mining Engineers of Russia asking that Abich be given a long period of leave and a grant to enable the publication of his principal scientific work: ‘Extensive H. Abich's works in the Caucasus and Armenia deserved acknowledgement everywhere, and Mr. Abich had occupied one of the primary places amongst European geologists’. After waiting two years von Humboldt's request was granted.

On Abich's return to Russia in May 1851 he visited St Petersburg and shortly after that returned to the Caucasus where he remained until 1853. In this short period he studied the Tertiary deposits in the basin of Sea of Azov (from the city of Taganrog in the north to Taman peninsula in the south). Then he went to Tiflis where he was obliged to spend several months because of a long illness. In the spring of 1852 he resumed his geological study of Kertch peninsula in the eastern part of Crimea and then went again to Tiflis and further through Armenia up to Persian boundary. During this journey he established and mapped most of the Tertiary deposits in the Transcaucasus.

In the spring of 1853 he left Tiflis for a long trip to western Europe, in order to continue his medical treatment and to make contact with his foreign scientific colleagues. Soon afterwards, he learned that the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences had elected him a full ordinary member in recognition of his valuable geographical and geological investigations in the Caucasus.

After his return to Russia in 1854 he was sent to the Caucasus for two more years. However, because he had to prepare his great work Comparative Geological Analysis of Main Features of Caucasian, Armenian and North-Persian Mountains as a Basis of Geology of Caucasian Countries for publication (the so called ‘Prodromus’) (Abich 1859) he was forced to spend a great deal of time away from Tiflis in St Petersburg. Finally in 1857, he was obliged to move from Tiflis to the capital of Russia. ‘Prodromus’ was published in 1859 and represented the first fundamental general and systematic description of the relief and geology of the Caucasus region. This work was critically acclaimed by many foreign and Russian geologists, in particular, by Professor G. E. Tshurovsky, the head of geological school of Moscow University, who discussed it in his book Geological Essay of Caucasus in 1872. Soon after his move to St Petersburg, Abich married Adelaide Hess, the daughter of the famous Russian chemist and member of St Petersburg Academy of Science, H.I. Hess.

After completion of his ‘Prodromus’, which had taken him four years to prepare (1854–1858), he decided in spite of his age to embark on yet another expedition to the Caucasus. This can be considered his third expedition to the area. He explored the Northern slope of the Great Caucasus (the area between Elbrus and Cazbek volcanoes with Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks, and springs in the Caucasian Mineral Waters region); examined the southern slope of the Great Caucasus (Ratcha, Lechkhum, Svanetia, Shemacha) and its western and eastern ends (Kertch, Taman and Apsheron peninsulas); and spent time in the Minor Caucasus and on the Armenian volcanic highland, where he examined the volcanoes of Great and Small Ararat. This period of travel was extensive and prolonged, with the exception of some short interludes, and lasted eighteen years until 1875. In 1866 at the age of sixty he was elected an honorary member of St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was also a member of many foreign and Russian scientific societies, including the Moscow Naturalist Society, which was the oldest such body in Russia. Abich's creative scientific activity had not diminished with age. During these eighteen years he had published about 120 original new papers and books, all of which demonstrated continued and sustained scholarship.

The last years in Vienna

In 1876, Abich retired on a full pension from his geological job after thirty-five years. He left St Petersburg and spent the last ten years of his long and fruitful life in Vienna, the capital of Austro-Hungarian Empire. This city was one of main centres of European geology, and he intended to devote his retirement to the preparation and publication of a final synthesis of his work in the Caucasus.

Unfortunately, this programme was only partly realized. The first two volumes of this series entitled Geological Explorations in Caucasian Countries were published (Abich 1878, 1882) during his lifetime. For these he was presented with the Konstantin gold medal of Russian Geographic Society. The third volume was published posthumously in 1887 and contained a short biography of Abich written by his wife Adelaide and his long-standing friend the great Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831–1914) who was also responsible for editing the volume (Abich 1887). The second and third volumes were subsequently translated into Russian by B. Z. Kolenko and published in Tiflis in 1899 and 1902 in an abridged form under the title Geology of Armenian Highland. Western and Eastern parts. Orographic and Geological Description. The fourth and last volume remained unfinished by Albich before he died; Suess in fact used a great deal of this material in his famous work Die Antlitz der Erde (1883–1885).

Hermann Abich's scientific abilities were highly regarded in Russia and in western Europe. He died on 1 July 1886 as a result of appendicitis. According to Abich's will his body was cremated, and the urn containing his ashes was buried in the grave of his mother in Koblenz in Germany.

Conclusions

Hermann Abich spent over forty years studying the geology of the vast and extremely complicated territory of the Caucasus. He had a natural gift for geology, persistence, good health and endurance, an excellent education and professional training at Berlin University. This, together with an independent study of Italian volcanoes, prepared him for his diverse geological investigation of the Caucasian region. He was ideally prepared for a full and detailed study. In addition, for many years he devoted himself only to his beloved science and long journeys, and avoided marriage until he was 50 years old. All these natural talents, together with his excellent gift as an artist of geology and landscape and his acquired knowledge and principles of life, led to him becoming an important figure in the Earth sciences, and his research brought great benefits to Russia and its multinational society. Abich, however, was not a pioneer in new scientific methodologies but tended to follow the older more orthodox teachings of his mentors. For all of his life he adhered to the theories of von Humboldt and von Buch on the craters of uplift as the main cause of mountain building. Because of this he was most interested in the role volcanic processes played in the development of structures seen in the Armenian highlands (Milanovsky 1998). He was also a pioneer in the scientific study of the present and Quaternary glaciation of the Caucasus (Milanovsky 2000).