Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary at Maulbronn, Ferdinand proceeded to the University of Tübingen and the Tübinger Stift; there, under Friedrich August von Quenstedt, the interest he already felt in geology became permanently fixed, and he obtained his doctor's degree and a travelling scholarship.[1]

In 1852 he joined the staff of the Imperial Geological Survey of Austria and was engaged until 1856 in parts of Bohemia, especially in the Bohemian Forest, and in the Fichtel Hills and Karlsbad mountains. His excellent reports established his reputation. Thus he came to be chosen as geologist to the Novara expedition (1857–59), and made numerous valuable observations in the voyage round the world.[1]

The Novara arrived in New Zealand on 22 December 1858. Almost immediately he met the German scientist Julius von Haast who had also recently arrived in New Zealand, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Polymath Arthur Purchas convinced von Hochstetter to stay in New Zealand, where he spent the next nine months of his life.[2] In 1859, Ferdinand was employed by the government of New Zealand to make a first geological survey of the islands.[1] His survey of old Lake Rotomahana and the Pink and White Terraces provides the only primary evidence of the Terrace locations today. Between 2016 and 2020, his survey diary was reverse engineered to provide the coordinates of the Pink, Black and White Terraces.[3][4][5][6] On his return he was appointed in 1860 professor of mineralogy and geology at the Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute in Vienna; from 1874 to 1875 he was the rector there.[7]

His analysis[8] of the tsunami generated by the 1868 Arica (Peru) earthquake is well known for its contribution to understanding of tsunami propagation.[9] The resulting tsunami caused damaging surges in a number of regions in the Pacific region, including fatalities on the Chatham Islands. Von Hochstetter, charted the trajectory of the event throughout the Pacific. This also enabled an estimate of the depth of the Pacific Ocean to be calculated.

In 1872 he became the natural history tutor of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria.[10] In 1876 he was made superintendent of the Imperial Natural History Museum. In these later years he explored portions of Turkey and eastern Russia, and he published papers on a variety of geological, palaeontological and mineralogical subjects.[1]

In 1869, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society[11] and in 1884 was granted a hereditary knighthood by the Emperor of Austria.[12]

Detailed descriptions in his diaries were helpful in 2011, when researchers managed to locate the silica terraces on Lake Rotomahana, which was buried in the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.[13]

Von Hochstetter's representation of a tsunami propagation after the 1868 Arica earthquake.

He was born at Esslingen, Württemberg, the son of Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (1787–1860) and his second wife, Sophie Orth. Christian Ferdinand was a clergyman and Professor at Bonn, who was also a botanist and mineralogist. In 1861 von Hochstetter married Georgiana Bengough, daughter of John Egbert Bengough, an Englishman who was director of the Vienna city gasworks. They went on to have eight children. A good deal is known of his personal life through his documented correspondence with friend and colleague Julius von Haast[14] He died in Oberdöbling near Vienna, at age 55 from complications of diabetes.

The Geoscience Society of New Zealand hold an annual lecture named in von Hochstetter's honour.[15]

• Karlsbad, seine geognostischen Verhältnisse und seine Quellen (1858)
• Neu-Seeland (1863); published in English as New Zealand: its physical geography, geology, and natural history: with special reference to the results of government expeditions in the provinces of Auckland and Nelson by Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter; Translated from the German Original published in 1863 by Edward Sauter... with additions up to 1866 by the author etc. Stuttgart: J.G. Gotta. 1867. Retrieved 20 May 2018 – via Internet Archive.
• Geological and Topographical Atlas of New Zealand (1864)
• The geology of New Zealand: in explanation of the geographical and topographical atlas of New Zealand (1864)
• Über das Erdbeben in Peru am 13. August 1868 und die dadurch veranlassten Fluthwellen im Pacifischen Ocean, namentlich an den Küsten von Chili und von Neu-Seeland (1868).
• Leitfaden der Mineralogie and Geologie (with A Bisching) (1876, ed. 8, 1890).

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

Regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Sir (denoting a Knight), not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hochstetter, Ferdinand Christian von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 554.

• Works by or about Ferdinand von Hochstetter at Wikisource
• Works by or about Ferdinand von Hochstetter at Internet Archive
• Fleming, C. A. "Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand von Hochstetter". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
• Teara.govt.nz: Te Ara biography of Ferdinand von Hochstetter
• Teara.govt.nz: Te Ara article "Ferdinand von Hochstetter" (1966)
• Michaelorgan.org.au: Ferdinand von Hochstetter and the Austrian Novara Scientific Expedition 1858-9