Geochemistry, the chemical study of rocks arose in the late 19^th to early 20^th century. A major impact on the discipline had Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, also known as the father of geochemistry. Nowadays, every year in July geochemists around the world meet at Goldschmidt Conference. But who was Goldschmidt?

V.M. Goldschmidt was born in Zürich in Switzerland in January 1888. He was named after the chemist and colleague of his father Victor Meyer and his grandfather Moritz Koehne. All of his family, which can be traced back to the year 1600, were highly educated. His father, whose purpose in life was chemistry, probably had a huge influence on the life of Victor Moritz. This influence later led him to incorporate chemistry in geology.

Goldschmidt’s interest in geology and mineralogy was already awakened during his final years at school. In summer of 1904, he hiked through the Norwegian mountains and collected some strange quartz crystals – compared to those found elsewhere. These fine quartz crystals have a strong pyroluminescence, which means that heated crystals begin to emit light. As a first-year student, he discussed his observations with Professor Brøgger, who became his mentor. Thanks to his collaboration with Professor Brøgger, Victor Moritz was able to conduct experiments and discover that radiation from radioactive elements induce pyroluminescence.

After leaving school in 1905, he had no other opportunity to pursue his interests in the study of geology. Nevertheless, due to his early exposure to sciences in general, he also attended lectures in physics, chemistry and biology at the University of Kristiana (now the University of Oslo). This great interest in science and the connections between the individual disciplines was to influence his entire life and play an important role throughout his career. Already during his studies, he travelled across Europe to expand his expertise: He observed the eruption of Vesuvius in spring 1906 and studied radioactivity in Freiburg, optical microscopy in Vienna or X-ray diffraction in Munich.

His first major research began in 1907 and culminated in his doctoral thesis at the University of Oslo in 1911. He studied the intrusion of Permian syenites, which transformed the surrounding rock into hornfels due to the rise in temperature. This process is now known as contact metamorphism. He began teaching mineralogy and petrology at the University of Oslo during his doctorate and continued teaching as an assistant professor in 1912. At the age of 26, he was offered a professorship in Stockholm. However, due to the influence of his mentor and the desire not to lose him, the University of Oslo persuaded the government to establish a mineralogical institute and offer him a personal professorship. Victor Moritz began his lecture “On the problems of Mineralogy”. This was accompanied by the publication of several papers on the topic.

In the following years new interests and questions rise in the mind of Goldschmidt: Which elements incorporate in which minerals? How do elements distribute between minerals and how do they “behave”?

The ban on imports from Norway during the First World War had a major influence on the way Goldschmidt approached these questions. He began his interest in elemental analysis by researching how to utilize earth materials for industry, initiating what was to become his most important field of research. He founded the “State Raw Materials Laboratory” to find local resources that could replace imported materials such as Al, Ti (ilmenite) or phosphates. The latter are important fertilizers. Later, this research helped him to save his life.  As it was necessary to develop and improve new analytical techniques (e.g. powder diffraction), he recruited a group of young scientists to set up the new laboratory.

In the 1920s, Goldschmidt focused increasingly on the research on elements, culminating in the development of the Goldschmidt classification. This classification groups elements into siderophile (“iron-loving”), lithophile (“rock/silicate-loving”), chalcophile (“ore/sulfide-loving”) and atmophile (“gas-loving”). In its early history, Earth differentiated into core, mantle and (later) crust. During the differentiation, siderophile elements “went” into the core, while lithophile elements were bound in silicate minerals in the mantle and later crust. Chalcophile elements were bound with sulphur. His work led to him being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929.

In 1924, one of his friends, Paul von Groth, from whom he had learned X-ray diffraction, retired in Munich. In his opinion, Goldschmidt was the only person who could succeed him in his position. However, Goldschmidt’s Jewish heritage and the increasing anti-Semitism in the 1920s, particularly in Munich, where the NSDAP (Nazi party) was founded, prevented Goldschmidt from getting the job.

A few years later, he received an offer from the University of Göttingen in Germany. The university wanted him to set up a new large mineralogical institute according to his ideas. He was able to recruit the desired staff for research and technical assistants. As a reward, students from all over the world came to Göttingen to learn from Goldschmidt. During his time in Göttingen, Goldschmidt and his group improved analytical techniques and methods to detect even trace elements. This made it possible to analyse the abundances and distributions of different elements from a variety of different environments on Earth. Looking ahead to the present day, he already recognized the importance of carbon dioxide. In 1936 he said:

‘The carbon cycle is of especial interest because it demonstrates the great significance that the industrial combustion of coal and other fuels has already had on the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere by the combustion of fuels is two hundred times greater than that contributed by the world’s volcanoes. This demonstrates that human activity in our time is a highly important geochemical factor.’

What would Goldschmidt say about the human-made climate crisis today?

Goldschmidts live began to change when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. While the majority of the university, especially his staff and the university management, had no problems with this, some members boycotted his lectures simply because he was Jewish. During this time, he was also no longer allowed to give lectures in other countries. Nevertheless, he tried to stay in Germany as long as possible (while trying to maintain a dark sense of humour). But due to anti-Semitic laws, the situation became unbearable in 1935. He left Germany and went back to Norway.

In Oslo Goldschmidt was reinstated as Director of the Raw Materials Laboratory and obtained funds to rehabilitate the museum and the laboratories after years of economic depression. During these difficult times he continued his elemental research on the distribution of elements. In 1938, he published his results from Göttingen of not only the abundance of chemical elements in igneous rocks, but also in meteorites and the atmosphere of the Sun, which he combined to the cosmic abundances of elements. He showed that only a few elements have remarkable contents and connected this to their nuclear structure. This was the basis for later research in physics of atomic structure and the origin of elements. This later research led to two Nobel Prizes in physics years after Goldschmidt’s death, which shows that Goldschmidt’s research was not only important for geology or geochemistry, but for science in general.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s times got worse in Germany and Europe – especially for Jewish people. In April 1940, the Nazis invaded Norway. The restrictions he had already experienced in Göttingen were tightened and became even worse. In 1942, the Nazis began registering all Jews in the areas they controlled for their insane plan of genocide. After that, Goldschmidt was arrested several times and sent to prison and a concentration camp near Oslo. He was already in line for deportation by ship to Auschwitz when he was allowed to go home. Goldschmidt was released because a technician with personal connections to the police explained the importance of Goldschmidt’s research in the Raw Material Laboratory for Norwegian agriculture. As we know today, it is very likely that everyone Goldschmidt met in prison and in the concentration camp in Oslo were murdered in Auschwitz.

Nevertheless, Goldschmidt did not want to give up his position as a professor and scientist and tried to continue his work. But in December 1942, it wasn’t possible to stay any longer again.  He fled with the help of the Norwegian Resistance to Sweden and later in 1943 to the United Kingdom. In his short time in Sweden Goldschmidt gave lectures to students at the University of Stockholm and later did the same in UK, where he also was honoured by the Geological Society of London and elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society. After World War II he returned to Norway and died shortly after the War in 1947.  

Goldschmidt’s great influence on the geosciences and geochemistry in particular is omnipresent. Today he is highly honoured by the scientific community and several prizes are named after him: the V.M. Goldschmidt Prize of the Geochemical Society or the Victor Moritz Goldschmidt Prize for young scientists of the German Mineralogical Society. And every year scientists from all over the world meet at the Goldschmidt Conference – the most important meeting for geochemists.

References:
Brian Mason (1992). Victor Moritz Goldschmidt: Father of Modern Geochemistry. –
https://www.geochemsoc.org/publications/sps/v4vmgoldschmidt