Antevs, Ernst (1888–1974)

Ernst Antevs was a Swedish American geologist who specialized in glacial geology and did pioneering work in geomorphology.

Antevs was born Ernst Valdemar Eriksson in Vartofta-Åsaka, Southern Sweden, and adopted the name Antevs after finishing school in 1909. In 1917, he received his PhD at Stockholm University with a thesis on shell banks in southwestern Sweden. As a paleobotanist, Antevs joined expeditions within Scandinavia as well as to Bjørnøya in 1916 and Spitsbergen in 1918. In 1920, he came to North America on an expedition with his professor, Gerard De Geer, inventor of the clay-varve dating method. He returned to America and obtained U.S. citizenship in 1939. Supported by Swedish and American foundations and societies, he worked at the University of Arizona, where he was appointed ...