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'Alexander Logie du Toit' (14 March 1878 – 25 February 1948) was a geologist from South Africa, and an early supporter of Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift^[1].
Born in Newlands in 1878, du Toit was educated at the Diocesan College in Rondebosch and the University of the Cape of Good Hope before qualifying in mining engineering at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow. After a short period studying geology at the Royal College of Science in London, he returned to Glasgow to teach at the University of Glasgow. In 1903, du Toit was appointed as a geologist within the Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope, and began to develop an extensive knowledge of the geology of southern Africa.
In 1923, he received a grant from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and used this to travel to eastern South America to study the geology of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Struck by the similarities to South Africa, du Toit published a review of the stratigraphic and radioisotope evidence from these regions that supported Alfred Wegener's ideas, ''A Geological Comparison of South America with South Africa'' (1927). A later book, ''Our Wandering Continents'' (1937), expanded and improved this work, and, departing somewhat from Wegener, proposed two original supercontinents separated by the Tethys Ocean, a northern/equatorial Laurasia and a southern/polar Gondwanaland.
In 1933, du Toit was awarded the Murchison Medal by the Geological Society of London, and in 1943 became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1949, the year after du Toit's death, the Geological Society of South Africa inaugurated a biennial lecture series in his honour that continues to the present day^[2]. In 1973, a 75 km crater on Mars (71.8°S, 49.7°W) was named "Du Toit" in recognition of his work^[3][4].

Contents

Significant publications

References

External links

Significant publications

★ du Toit, A.L. (1926) ''The Geology of South Africa'', Oliver & Boyd, London, UK

★ du Toit, A.L. and Reed, F.R.C. (1927) ''A Geological Comparison of South America with South Africa'', Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, USA

★ du Toit, A.L. (1937) ''Our Wandering Continents; An Hypothesis of Continental Drifting'', Oliver & Boyd, London, UK

References

1.
2. The De Beers Alex du Toit Memorial Lecture 2006, Geological Society of South Africa, retrieved 9 July 2007
3. Du Toit crater, Atlas of Mars, NASA, retrieved 9 July 2007
4. Du Toit crater, Google Mars, retrieved 10 July 2007

External links

★ Biography (Charles H. Smith, Western Kentucky University)

★ Obituary notice (''Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society'' '6', 385-395, Nov. 1949)

★ Review of biography of du Toit (''Geographical Review'' '41', 513-514)

★ Alexander du Toit's map of two ancient supercontinents (more details here; Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory)

★ Alexander du Toit papers and letters archive (University of Cape Town)