Victor Goldschmidt

Victor Goldschmidt ForMemRS
Young Victor Goldschmidt
Born	Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (1888-01-27)27 January 1888 Zürich, Switzerland
Died	20 March 1947(1947-03-20) (aged 59) Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Alma mater	University of Oslo
Known for	Geochemistry Goldschmidt tolerance factor Lanthanide contraction
Parent	Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt (father)
Awards	Foreign Member of the Royal Society Elliott Cresson Medal (1903) Wollaston Medal (1944)
Scientific career
Fields	Geochemistry
Institutions	University of Oslo University of Göttingen Macaulay Institute for Soil Research Rothamsted Research
Thesis	Die Kontaktmetamorphose im Kristianiagebiet and Geologisch-petrographische Studien im Hochgebirge des südlichen Norwegens  (1911)
Doctoral advisor	Waldemar C. Brøgger
Doctoral students	Brian Harold Mason Katharina Boll-Dornberger William Houlder Zachariasen

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt

Early life and education

Goldschmidt was born in

Goldschmidt entered the University of Kristiana (later the University of Oslo) in 1906 and studied inorganic and physical chemistry, geology, mineralogy, physics, mathematics, zoology and botany.^[3] He secured a fellowship for his doctoral studies from the university at the age of 21 (1909). He worked on his thesis with the noted geologist Waldemar Christofer Brøgger and obtained his Norwegian doctor’s degree when he was 23 years old (1911). For his dissertation titled Die Kontaktmetamorphose im Kristianiagebiet ("The Contact Metamorphism in the Kristiania Region"), the Norwegian Academy of Sciences awarded him the Fridtjof Nansen award in 1912. The same year he was made Docent (Associate Professor) of Mineralogy and Petrography at the university.^[3]

Career

In 1914 Goldschmidt applied for a professorship in Stockholm and was offered the position. To entice him to stay, the University of Kristiania persuaded the government to establish a mineralogical institute with a professorship for him.^[2]: 19 In 1929 Goldschmidt was appointed the chair of mineralogy in Göttingen, and he hired Reinhold Mannkopff and Fritz Laves as his assistants.^{[2]: 54, 58} However, after the rise of the Nazis to power, he became unhappy with the treatment of non-Aryans like himself (although the university treated him well) and he resigned in 1935 and returned to Oslo.^[4]: 21 In 1937, he was invited by the Royal Society of Chemistry to give the Hugo Müller lecture.^[5]

On 9 April 1940 the Germans invaded Norway. On 26 October 1942 Goldschmidt was arrested at the orders of the

For his thesis, Goldschmidt studied the

From his data on the hornfels, Goldschmidt deduced a mineralogical phase rule. It is a special case of the Gibbs' phase rule for phases in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other, which states that

${\displaystyle C-P=F-2,}$

where C is the minimum number of chemical components, P is the number of phases, and F is the number of degrees of freedom (e.g., temperature and pressure) that can vary without changing C or P. As an example, the chemical compound Al₂SiO₅ can occur naturally as three different minerals: andalusite, kyanite and sillimanite. There is a single component (C = 1), so if all three minerals coexist (P = 3), then F = 0. That is, there are no degrees of freedom, so there is only one possible combination of pressure and temperature. This corresponds to the triple point in the phase diagram.^{[2]: 15–16}

If the same mineral association is found in several rocks over some region, it must have crystallized at a range of temperatures and pressures. In that case, F must have been at least 2, so

${\displaystyle C\geq P.}$

This expresses Goldschmidt's mineralogical phase rule: the number of phases is no greater than the number of components.^[8][9]

In the early 20th century,

The majority of Goldschmidt's publications are in German or Norwegian. His English textbook, Geochemistry, was edited and published posthumously in 1954.^[4]: 30 A complete list of his bibliography is compiled elsewhere.^[12]

Books

• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1906). Die Pyrolumineszenz des Quarzes (in German). Kristiania: Dybwad.
  OCLC 257009954
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M (1911). Die Kontaktmetamorphose im Kristianiagebiet (in German). Kristiania: In kommission bei J. Dybwad.
  OCLC 3566635
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1916). Geologisch-petrographische Studien im Hochgebirge des südlichen Norwegens 4. 4 (in German).
  OCLC 883996045
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1922). Der Stoffwechsel der Erde: (mit 2 Textfig.) (in German). Kristiania: Dybwad in Komm.
  OCLC 633929580
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M; Johnson, Erling (1922). Glimmermineralernes betydning som kalikilde for planterne (in Norwegian). Kristiania: I kommission hos H. Aschehoug & Co.
  OCLC 712388880
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1923). Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente (in German). Kristiania, Oslo.
  OCLC 316398946.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1926). Die Gesetze der Krystallochemie (in German).
  OCLC 174577644
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1926). Ueber die Kristallstrukturen vom Rutiltypus, mit Bemerkungen zur Geochemie zweiwertiger und vierwertiger Elemente (in German). Oslo: I komm. Dybwad.
  OCLC 603709988
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M (1927). Untersuchungen über Bau und Eigenschaften von Krystallen (in German). Oslo: I kommisjon hos J. Dybwad.
  OCLC 83967999
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1931). Elemente und Minerale pegmatitischer Gesteine (in German).
  OCLC 73005331
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz, Peters, Cl (1931). Zur Geochemie des Galliums (in German).
  OCLC 73005336.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz, Peters, Cl (1931). Zur Geochemie des Scandiums (in German).
  OCLC 73005338.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1931). Zur Kristallchemie des Germaniums (in German).
  OCLC 73005344
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1932). Kristallographie und Stereochemie anorganischer Verbindungen (in German). Berlin: Springer.
  OCLC 833775446
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz, Peters, Cl (1932). Zur Geochemie des Berylliums (in German).
  OCLC 73005333.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz, Peters, Cl (1932). Zur Geochemie der Edelmetalle (in German).
  OCLC 73005334.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1933). Zur Geochemie des Selens. [1] [1 (in German). Berlin: Weidmann.
  OCLC 907739289
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1933). Zur Geochemie der Alkalimetalle. 1 (in German). Berlin: Weidmann.
  OCLC 916560558
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1934). Zur Geochemie der Alkalimetalle. 2 (in German). Berlin: Weidmann.
  OCLC 916560558
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz; Peters, Cl (1934). Zur Geochemie des Arsens, von V.M. Goldschmidt und Cl. Peters (in German). Berlin.
  OCLC 459427960.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz, Strock, Lester William (1935). Zur Geochemie des Selens. 2 2 (in German).
  OCLC 174470162.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1938). Die Mengenverhältnisse der Elemente und der Atom-Arten (in German). Oslo: I Kommisjon hos Jacob Dybwad.
  OCLC 637097688
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M.; Muir, Alex (1954). Geochemistry. London: Oxford University Press.
  OCLC 1055939315
  .

• Goldschmidt, V. Moritz (1 December 1908). "XXVIII. Radioactivität als Hilfsmittel bei mineralogischen Untersuchungen. II". Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials (in German). 45 (1–6): 490–494.
  S2CID 202508683
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (26 May 1911). "Die Gesetze der Mineralassoziation vom Standpunkt der Phasenregel". Zeitschrift für anorganische Chemie (in German). 71 (1): 313–322.
  ISSN 0863-1778
  .
• Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz (1 March 1922). "On the metasomatic processes in silicate rocks". Economic Geology. 17 (2): 105–123.
  ISSN 1554-0774
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1926). "Die Gesetze der Krystallochemie". Die Naturwissenschaften (in German). 14 (21): 477–485.
  S2CID 33792511
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1 March 1928). "Über Atomabstände in Metallen". Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie (in German). 133U (1): 397–419.
  S2CID 100443999
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1929). "Crystal structure and chemical constitution". Transactions of the Faraday Society. 25: 253.
  ISSN 0014-7672
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1 November 1930). "Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze und kosmische Häufigkeit der Elemente". Naturwissenschaften (in German). 18 (47): 999–1013.
  S2CID 44868380
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1937). "The principles of distribution of chemical elements in minerals and rocks. The seventh Hugo Müller Lecture, delivered before the Chemical Society on March 17th, 1937". J. Chem. Soc.: 655–673.
  ISSN 0368-1769
  .
• Goldschmidt, V. M. (1945). "The geochemical background of minor-element distribution". Soil Science. 60 (1): 1–8.
  S2CID 95247254
  .

• Goldschmidt was created a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1929.^[3]
• While at the
  Foreign Member of the Royal Society,^[1] given an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Aberdeen and awarded the Wollaston Medal, the highest honor of the Geological Society of London.^[4]
• The mountain ridge Goldschmidtfjella in Oscar II Land at Spitsbergen is named after him.^[13]
• The mineral goldschmidtite (KNbO₃) was named in his honour (IMA2018-034).
• The
  The Geochemical Society^[14]

• Goldschmidt classification
• Goldschmidt Tolerance Factor
• Lanthanide contraction

References