Abraham Gottlob Werner

Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817) was a German geologist born in Silesia. After studying mining at Freiberg and Leipzig, he published On the External Characters of Minerals in 1774, the first modern textbook of descriptive mineralogy, and in 1775 became teacher of mining and mineralogy at the Freiberg Mining Academy.

There he taught that all rocks had crystallized from a primordial ocean, a doctrine called Neptunism, which drew students from across Europe. His demonstration of chronological succession in rock strata earned him the title father of German geology. He died in Dresden in 1817.