Alfred Rittmann

Alfred Rittmann (23 March 1893 – 19 September 1980) was a leading volcanologist. He was elected President of the International Association of Volcanology for three terms (1954–1963).

Life

Rittmann was the son of a dentist in Basel, Switzerland. He studied music and natural science at the University of Basel and later he changed to the University of Geneva. He received his PhD there (1922) for work on ultramafic rocks of the Ural Mountains.

Rittmann left Geneva to study with Alfred Lacroix in Paris, Friedrich Johann Karl Becke in Vienna, Ernst Anton Wülfing and Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt in Heidelberg. In 1926, the rich banker Immanuel Friedländer founded the Institute for Volcanology in Naples and Rittmann became leading scientist of the institute. His work focused on the Mount Vesuvius and on the island of Ischia. This resulted in his first great work: "Evolution und Differentiation des Somma-Vesuvmagmas" (Rittmann, 1933).

He drew the right conclusion that

...Mainly for morphological reasons, the view was expressed that the

calc-alkali series ('Pacific igneous rocks') occur. In the Azores and the islands, of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, however, come to light typical lavas of sodic-alkali series ('Atlantic igneous rocks' sic!), which speaks for a more cratonic character of that crusts. It would be highly unlikely that just an invisible piece of folded mountains is an exception, as all the mountain heights, with volcanoes, and especially the submarine mountains (Kuril Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Aleutian Islands, the Antilles, etc.) have normally magmas of very pronounced 'Pacific' character. Consideration of such petrological and magmalogical knowledge is a necessity. The same applies to the established findings of Geophysics and especially of the seismic, which are often neglected also...

— Alfred Rittmann^[1]

• Rittmann, Alfred; Rittmann, Loredana (November 1982). Vulkane in Farbe. Suedwest Verlag. p. 128.
  ISBN 978-3517006246
  . Note: posthumous.
• Rittmann, Alfred; Gottini, V. (1981). "L'isola d'Ischia - Geologia". Bollettino del Servizio Geologico d'Italia. 101: 131–274. Note: posthumous.
• Rittmann, Alfred (1981). Vulkane und ihre Tätigkeit (3 ed.). Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke Verlag. Note: posthumous.
• Rittmann, Alfred (1962). Volcanoes and their Activity. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 305, translated by EA Vincent from the 1960, 2 ed.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Rittmann, Alfred (1958). "Zur Herkunft der Magmen". Geologische Rundschau. 48 (1): 1–10.
  doi:10.1007/BF01801804
  .
• Rittmann, Alfred (December 1953). "Magmatic character and tectonic position of the Indonesia Volcanoes". Bulletin of Volcanology. 14 (1): 45–58.
  doi:10.1007/BF02596004
  .
• Rittmann, Alfred (December 1952). "Nomenclature of volcanic rocks". Bulletin of Volcanology. 12 (1): 75–102.
  doi:10.1007/BF02596015
  .