Charpentier  Johann von

(08.12.1786 - 09.12.1855)

German-Swiss geologist and glaciologist, botanist and zoologist.

Born in Freiberg, Saxony. He was the son of the famous mining engineer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm von Charpentier. Like his father, he studied mining with Abraham Gottlob Werner, later worked at the copper mines in the Pyrenees, and in 1813 he was appointed director of the Bex mine. He also lectured in geology at the Academy of Lausanne, compiled a geological map.

After breaking the glacier lake in 1818, which led to numerous victims, Charpentier turned to glaciology. He paid special attention to the study of irregular blocks and moraines, which he considered fragments of single large glaciers. His work "Tests on glaciers", published in 1841, continues to admire the severity of observation and the clarity of its image.

In honor of Charpentier in 1971, a mountain in the Eastern Antarctic Plateau was named.

Charpentier is also known as a botanist and zoologist. He had an extensive collection of plants, insects and shells. Most of it later arrived in Lausanne.

Charpentier claimed that glaciation occurred after the formation of the Alps.

He died in Beck, canton Vaud, Switzerland.

The glacier is 4 km long in the south of the central part of Nathorsta Land. The coordinates are 77° 37.2'N    15° 36.0'E.