‘No Impact’: René Gallant (1906-1985) and His Book of 1964 Bombarded Earth (An Essay on the Geological and Biological Effects of Huge Meteorite Impacts)

Torrens, Hugh S.

doi:10.17704/eshi.17.2.jk371381461014t6

Cited by 4 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…He gave a humble account in a talk to the Torquay Natural History Society (Gallant 1983). Gallant was eight years old when Germany invaded and occupied Belgium in World War 1 (Torrens 1998). His father was killed in action a week before the armistice (Greenslade 1986a;Torrens 1998).…”

Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gallant was eight years old when Germany invaded and occupied Belgium in World War 1 (Torrens 1998). His father was killed in action a week before the armistice (Greenslade 1986a;Torrens 1998). After WW1, Gallant joined the Belgium Armed Forces becoming a sergeant at nineteen years old, and several years later joined the Belgium Air Force (Torrens 1998).…”

Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Astonishingly, Gallant was captured three times during WW2. He was first captured after his plane was shot down, and was taken to a German hospital in Brussels (Torrens 1998), where he managed to escape by changing his clothes in the toilets and walking out of the hospital (Gallant 1983). Some months later he was arrested by the Gestapo while having a drink in a café, and sent to Dachau concentration camp, near Munich (Torrens 1998).…”

Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hidden Gems: Using Collections in Museums to Discover the Motivations of Collectors

Freedman

2021

Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

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Motivations and drives for collecting have varied through time. From amassing as many examples of different species or artefacts in the sixteenth century to highlighting the importance and strength of the British Empire in the eighteenth century. General trends are seen across historic collections in museums. In an attempt to understand the motivations behind individual collectors, this paper reviews the lives of four mineral collectors from the collections in The Box, Plymouth: Sir John St. Aubyn (175801839), Colonel Sir William Serjeant (1857–1930), René Gallant (1906–1985), and Richard Barstow (1947–1986). Combined they acquired over 4,000 minerals, mostly from the South West of the British Isles. Through examining their lives and collections we may gain insight into their motivations, presenting an opportunity to exhibit new narrative and story-telling alongside the specimens, and in doing so, enriching the visitor experience.

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Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: René Gallant: Minerals and Meteoritesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hidden Gems: Using Collections in Museums to Discover the Motivations of Collectors

Freedman

2021

Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

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“…10 herein; see also e. g., "impact geology" of Kelly, 1985). So far-reaching hypotheses in "impactology" have been generated outside professional scientific centers, where the mainstream Lyellian paradigm was an obvious limitation for any speculative scenarios (see Torrens, 1998).…”

Section: Response To the Kaljuvee 1933 Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…René L.C. Gallant (1906Gallant ( -1985, Belgian colonel, mathematician-engineer and amateur geologist (A), author of the truly neocatastrophic interdisciplinary essay Bombarded Earth (1964; title page, B), presenting an independent hypothesis of cosmic catastrophism, but in fact very similar to the 1933 concept of Kaljuvee (i.e., giant meteorite impacts as the cause of shifts of the Earth axis, resulting in orbital changes, the slip of crust and continent drift, mountain-building, volcanism, and climate change; see Torrens, 1998). Gallant supposed occurrence of many huge "cosmic scars", exemplified herein by the Caribbean region (indicated by circles; C), as well as location of the real Chicxulub crater (grey circle) for comparison.…”

Section: Summary and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century

Racki

Viik

Puura

2018

BSGF - Earth Sci. Bull.

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-The article comprehensively presents little known Estonian contribution to the recognition of first meteorite impact structures in Europe, related to works of Julius Kaljuvee (Kalkun; 1869 and Ivan Reinwald (Reinwaldt; 1878-1941. As an active educator specialized in geoscience, Kaljuvee was the first to hypothesize in 1922 that Kaali lake cirque in Saaremaa Island, Estonia, was created by meteorite impact. Thanks to mining engineer Reinwald, this assumption was accepted since 1928 due to the exhaustive field and borehole works of the latter (also as a result of exploration by several German scholars, including renowned Alfred Wegener). The impact origin of Kaali structure was proved finally in 1937 by finding of meteoritic iron splinters (as the first European site). Reinwald was not only outstanding investigator of meteorite cratering process, but also successful propagator of the Estonian discoveries in Anglophone mainstream science in 1930s. In addition, in his 1933 book, Kaljuvee first highlighted an impact explanation of enigmatic Ries structure in Bavaria, as well as probable magmatic activation in distant regions due to "the impulse of a giant meteorite". He also outlined ideas of the inevitable periodic cosmic collisions in geological past ("rare event" theory nowadays), and resulting biotic crises. In a general conceptual context, the ideas of Kaljuvee were in noteworthy direct or indirect link with concepts of the great French naturalists -Laplace, Cuvier and Élie de Beaumont. However, some other Kaljuvee's notions, albeit recurrent also later in geoscientific literature, are queer at the present time (e.g., the large-body impact as a driving force of continental drift and change the Earth axis, resulting in the Pleistocene glaciation). Thus, the Kaljuvee thought-provocative but premature dissertation is rather a record of distinguishing erudite activity, but not a real neocatastrophic landmark in geosciences history. Nevertheless, several concepts of Kaljuvee were revived as the key elements in the current geological paradigm. Reinwaldt; 1878-1941. En tant qu'éducateur actif spécialisé en géosciences, Kaljuvee a été le premier à émettre l'hypothèse qu'en 1922, le cirque du lac Kaali, sur l'île de Saaremaa, en Estonie, a été créé par l'impact d'une météorite. Grâce à l'ingénieur minier Reinwald, cette hypothèse a été acceptée depuis 1928 en raison des travaux de terrain et de forage exhaustifs de cette dernière (également à la suite de l'exploration de plusieurs chercheurs allemands, dont le célèbre Alfred Wegener). L'origine d'impact de la structure de Kaali a été prouvée finalement en 1937 par la découverte d'éclats de fer météoritiques (en tant que premier site européen). Reinwald était non seulement un chercheur exceptionnel du processus de cratérisation des météorites, mais aussi un propagateur couronné de succès des découvertes estoniennes dans la science anglophone dominante des années 1930. En outre, dans son livre de 1933, Kaljuvee a *Corresponding author: racki@us.edu.pl †Deceased ...

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The ‘forbidden theory of mountain uplift’ of Charles Taylor Trechmann (1884–1964): a tectonic theory of the 1950s in context

Donovan

2008

Geological Journal

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C.A. Matley (1866–1947) recognised a Precambrian or Palaeozoic Basal Complex under Jamaica and the Caribbean, analogous to the Mona Complex he had mapped in northwest Wales. However, the existence of a Basal Complex in Jamaica remains unproven and unlikely. The principal opponent to the Basal Complex hypothesis was the only other major expert on the geology of Jamaica at this time, the independently wealthy amateur C.T. Trechmann (1884–1964). Subsequent to his debate with Matley, Trechmann changed the subject of his Caribbean research from stratigraphy and mollusc systematics to tectonics, and the formulation of his Theory of Mountain Uplift in competition with Matley's Basal Complex. Trechmann's theory suggested that uplift of mountains was the product of lunar attraction, reinforced by pressure produced by deep columns of ocean water which also induced metamorphic changes at relatively shallow crustal depths. Unfortunately, Matley died after the appearance of the first of four privately published monographs on mountain uplift, depriving Trechmann of the target audience for his theory. The Theory of Mountain Uplift was widely ignored at a time when the status of the amateur in geology was waning and Trechmann lacked disciples to spread his ideas. His was the last parochial theory of Antillean tectonics and is remembered for its errors, as seen from a present where plate tectonics provide the framework for all geology, rather than its adherence to the fixist research programmes of the first half of the 20th Century. Trechmann's theory was not just wrong, but it was wrong at the wrong time. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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‘No Impact’: René Gallant (1906-1985) and His Book of 1964 Bombarded Earth (An Essay on the Geological and Biological Effects of Huge Meteorite Impacts)

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Hidden Gems: Using Collections in Museums to Discover the Motivations of Collectors

Hidden Gems: Using Collections in Museums to Discover the Motivations of Collectors

Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century

The ‘forbidden theory of mountain uplift’ of Charles Taylor Trechmann (1884–1964): a tectonic theory of the 1950s in context

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