Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Ritter von Hochstetter (30 April 1829 – 18 July 1884) was aGerman-Austriangeologist. In 1857 he was appointed geologist on the Austrian Novara expedition to New Zealand, collecting natural history specimens and producing the first geological map of New Zealand.
Von Hochstetter was born inEsslingen, then in the kingdom of Württemberg, to Christian Ferdinand and his second wife, Sophie Orth. His father was a parson who also published on botanical and geological subjects. Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary atMaulbronn, Ferdinand proceeded to theUniversity of Tübingen and theTübinger Stift; there, underFriedrich August von Quenstedt, the interest he already felt ingeology became permanently fixed, and he obtained his doctor's degree and a travelling scholarship.[1]
He then travelled to Vienna where in 1853, he joined the staff of theImperial Geological Survey of Austria and was engaged until 1856 in parts ofBohemia, especially in theBohemian Forest, and in theFichtel Hills and Karlsbad mountains. His excellent reports established his reputation. Thus he came to be chosen as geologist to theNovara expedition (1857–59), and made numerous valuable observations in the voyage round the world.[1]
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The Novara arrived in New Zealand on 22 December 1858. Almost immediately he met the German scientistJulius von Haast who had also recently arrived in New Zealand, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. PolymathArthur Purchas convinced von Hochstetter to stay in New Zealand, where he spent the next nine months of his life.[2] In 1859, Ferdinand was employed by thegovernment of New Zealand to make a first geological survey of the islands.[1] His survey of old Lake Rotomahana and thePink and White Terraces provides the only primary evidence of the Terrace locations today. Between 2016 and 2020, his survey diary was reverse engineered to provide coordinates of the Pink, Black and White Terraces.[3][4][5][6] On his return he was appointed in 1860 professor ofmineralogy and geology at theImperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute inVienna; from 1874 to 1875, he was the rector there.[7]
His analysis[8] of the tsunami generated by the1868 Arica (Peru) earthquake is well known for its contribution to understanding of tsunami propagation.[9] The resulting tsunami caused damaging surges in a number of regions in the Pacific region, including fatalities on theChatham Islands. Von Hochstetter, charted the trajectory of the event throughout the Pacific. This also enabled an estimate of the depth of the Pacific Ocean to be calculated.
In 1872, he became thenatural history tutor ofRudolf, Crown Prince of Austria.[10] In 1876, he was made superintendent of theImperial Natural History Museum. In these later years he explored portions ofTurkey and easternRussia, and he published papers on a variety of geological,palaeontological and mineralogical subjects.[1]
In 1869, he was elected as a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society[11] and in 1884, was granted a hereditary knighthood by the Emperor of Austria.[12]
Detailed descriptions in his diaries were helpful in 2011, when researchers managed to locate thesilica terraces onLake Rotomahana, which was buried in the1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.[13]
He was born atEsslingen,Württemberg, the son ofChristian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (1787–1860) and his second wife, Sophie Orth. Christian Ferdinand was a clergyman and Professor at Bonn, who was also abotanist andmineralogist. In 1861 von Hochstetter married Georgiana Bengough, daughter of John Egbert Bengough, an Englishman who was director of the Vienna city gasworks. They went on to have eight children. A good deal is known of his personal life through his documented correspondence with friend and colleagueJulius von Haast[14] He died inOberdöbling near Vienna, at age 55 from complications of diabetes.[15]
TheGeoscience Society of New Zealand holds an annual lecture named in von Hochstetter's honour.[16]
New Zealand's endemicHochstetter's frog,Leiopelma hochstetteri, is named after Ferdinand. Several other species bear his name in theirscientific names, including theTakahē,Porphyrio hochstetteri, andPowelliphanta hochstetteri, a species (with five subspecies) of New Zealand's giant carnivorous land snails.
Hochstetter Peak onTrinity Peninsula inAntarctica is named after Hochstetter,[17] as are New Zealand'sMount Hochstetter (West Coast Region), Lake Hochstetter and theHochstetter Dome andHochstetter Icefall close to theTasman Glacier.[18]
The rock typedunite was named by Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1859, afterDun Mountain nearNelson,New Zealand.[19]
Regarding personal names:Ritter is a title, translated approximately as 'Sir' (denoting aknight), not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hochstetter, Ferdinand Christian von".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 554.
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