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KREICHGAUER, Damian (1859-1940) : Die Äquatorfrage in der Geologie

Steyl: Druck und Verlag der Missionsdruckerei, 1902.

8vo, 22.6cm. Pp. 394,[2], 6 double-page maps, 57 figures in text, index. Hardbound, orig. cloth with gilt decoration and lettering, coloured vignette of earth globe to front cover, marbled edges. Half-title stamped, a fine copy otherwise. - Rare first edition, in its attractive original binding. A second edition, much shortened to 300 pages, appeared in 1926 as yet. - Rare first edition; a second and shortened edition appeared in . "The physicist Damian Kreichgauer entered the German Missionary Order Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) in 1892. From 1895 onwards, he taught natural sciences to future missionaries at the Order's seminary St Gabriel (Austria). In 1902, he published a book called Die Äquatorfrage in der Geologie (The Question of the Equator in Geology) with the Order's publishing outlet, in which he advocated the idea of a mobilistic Earth, where the Earth's crust as a whole moved with respect to the fluid core and the Earth's rotational axis. The main evidence for this idea he found in the changing of climate zones during geological epochs. Due to a small database, which was basically restricted to European plate localities, Kreichgauer did not notice discrepancies between polar wander on different continents. Nevertheless, the book was later cited and discussed as one of his precursors by Alfred Wegener in his book on the origin of continents and oceans." (Kölbl-Ebert, in: Earth Sciences History, Vol. 29, 2010.)

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