Richard Beck was a German geologist who published many geological papers and explanations of geological maps during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, most of them dealing with the geology of Saxony, Germany. Initially he studied botany in Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1879 continued his studies in Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in 1883. He was then employed at the Sächsischen Geologischen Landesanstalt (State Geological Institute of Saxony) where he was mainly concerned with geological mapping of the region. In 1895 he was appointed Professor of Geology at the Bergakademie Freiberg (Freiberg Mining Academy).

Ten of Beck's papers related to the geology of southern Africa. The first two of these and a later one dealt with the diamond deposits of Griqualand West and appeared in the Zeitschrift fuer Praktische Geologie in 1898, 1899 and 1907. In 1905 he visited southern Africa and attended the joint meetings of the British and South African Associations for the Advancement of Science as one of a number of non-British scientists. On 29 August 1905, at the meeting of the two associations in Johannesburg, he delivered a paper titled "On the relation between ore veins and pegmatites" in which he explained pegmatites as products of crystallization from superheated water which remains after the consolidation of a plutonic magma. The paper was published in the Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa (Vol. 8, p. 147) the same year.

Beck's visit to southern Africa provided material for several additional publications. In one of these, Ueber eine Fahrt durch Suedafrika (Essen, 1905, 70p), he dealt with his travels and some geological observations. In another he described a mastodon tooth recovered from the Vaal River gravels (Geological Magazine, 1906, pp. 49-50), which probably stimulated interest in the archaeology of the gravels. Some of his other papers were published in the Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa. One of these dealt with a kyanite-bearing rock from the Roberts Victor diamond mine (1906, Vol. 9, p. 48), another with the cobalt lodes of the Transvaal (1907, Vol. 10, p. 10), and yet another with the gold-bearing rock of the Ayrshire Mine in Zimbabwe (1907, Vol. 10, p. 13). In recognition of his contributions to South African geology he was elected an honorary member of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1909.

Beck's major interest was in ore deposits. He wrote an extensive treatise on the subject titled Lehre von den Erzlagerstaetten (Berlin, 1901, 724p; 3rd ed. 1909), which was translated into English in 1905 as The nature of ore deposits.

List of sources:
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Report of the seventy-fifth meeting... South Africa, 1905.

Goodwin, A.J.H. A commentary upon South African prehistory up to the introduction of the new terminology. Bantu Studies, 1935, Vol. 9, pp. 291-333; bibliography pp. 387-413.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology to the end of 1920. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 18, 1922.

Harger, H.S. Historical notes on the Geological Society of South Africa. Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa, 1939, Vol. 42, pp. lxvii-lxxiv.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa, 1915, Vol. 18, p. xiii-xix and 1920, Vol. 23, p. xii-xvi: Lists of members.

Richard Beck (Geologe). Wikipedia. Retrieved on 31 May 2023 from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Beck_(Geologe)

Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific papers [1800-1900]. London: Royal Society, 1867-1925.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-05-31 09:37:21