Sveinn Pálsson
Sveinn Pálsson (25 April 1762 – 24 April 1840) was an Icelandic physician and a naturalist who carried out systematic observations of Icelandic glaciers in the 1790s. He also observed volcanoes and wildlife throughout his homeland. He studied medicine and natural science in Copenhagen (1787–1791) before spending four years travelling around Iceland studying nature. He described his research in ('Travel Journal') and in addition wrote ('Glacier Treatise') and ('Volcano Treatise'). Sveinn also wrote extensively about medicine. Biography Sveinn was the first person to propose the theory that glaciers move under their own weight, like viscous material. He focused on glacial sediments, melt-water rivers and floods, and the effects of subglacial volcanos. His conclusions made significant findings in regards to the formation and dynamics of glaciers. His treatise Draft of a Physical, Geographical, and Historical Description of Icelandic Ice Mountains on the Basis of a Journey to the Most Prominent of Them in 1792–1794 was submitted to the Naturhistorieselskabet in Denmark in 1795, where it languished for almost a century. Not until the 1880s was the Danish manuscript published in part in Oslo, Norway; in 1945 it was published in its entirety in Icelandic by glaciologist Jón Eyþórsson. Due to its