Törnebohm, Alfred Elis

Alfred Elis Törnebohm, (born Oct. 16, 1838, Stockholm, Swed.—died April 21, 1911, Strängnäs), Swedish geologist and pioneer in the study and analysis of mountain structure. In 1888 he presented the first outlines of his theory of the overthrust of the Caledonian Range (the mountainous region in northwestern Europe extending from the British Isles to western Scandinavia) onto a foreland to the southeast and demonstrated (1896) that the overthrusting applied to the entire mountain range and exceeded 80 miles (130 km). He illustrated his completed description with a map of a 36,000-square-mile (93,000-square-kilometre) area.

Törnebohm was a member of the Geological Survey of Sweden from 1859 to 1873. After travel in central Europe, he returned (1878) to Stockholm as professor of mineralogy and geology at the Royal Institute of Technology. He then became director of the Geological Survey from 1897 to 1906.

An accomplished mineralogist and petrographer, Törnebohm gave special attention to the iron ores of Sweden and early presented an exhaustive account of the crystalline phases of portland cement (1897).