Rudolph Oskar Brunnschweiler

Rudolph Oskar Brunnschweiler
Born	1915
Died	1986 (aged 70–71)
Residence	Canberra, Australia
Nationality	Swiss-Australian
Known for	Expanding Earth
Scientific career
Fields	Geology, Palaeontology, Stratigraphy
Institutions	Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics

Rudolph Oskar Brunnschweiler (1915–1986), whose name is also recorded as Rudolf Oskar Brunnschweiler, was a Swiss-born geologist and palaeontologist who spent most of his career in Australia. He is remembered for his work on Australian Mesozoic stratigraphy and Cretaceous ammonites and for his interest in the Expanding Earth hypothesis.

Biography

Brunnschweiler was born in Switzerland in 1915 and trained as a geologist, earning a doctorate and becoming a member of the Swiss Geological Society. He emigrated to Australia, where he was recorded in the mid-1950s as living in Adelaide, South Australia, before settling in Canberra. There he worked for the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, the national government geoscience agency. He died in 1986.

Work

Brunnschweiler specialised in the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Australian Mesozoic. He described Cretaceous ammonite faunas, including Upper Cretaceous ammonites from the Carnarvon Basin of Western Australia and studies of the Aconeceratinae, published in the Bulletin series of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics. He also revised and enlarged Charles F. Laseron's popular account of Australian geological history, published as Ancient Australia: The Story of Its Past Geography and Life (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1969).

In common with a number of Australian geologists of his generation, Brunnschweiler took an interest in global tectonic questions, including the Expanding Earth hypothesis associated with Samuel Warren Carey and the wider Australian school of Expansion Tectonics.

External links

• Memorial to Rudolf Oskar Brunnschweiler 1915–1986 (Geological Society of America)