Alexander Du Toit is known as “the world’s
greatest field geologist.” He was born near Cape Town and
went to school at a local diocesan college. He graduated from
South Africa College and then spent two years studying mining
engineering at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow,
and geology at the Royal College of Science in London. In
1901 he was a lecturer at the Royal Technical College and at
the University of Glasgow. He returned to South Africa in
1903, joining the Geological Commission of the Cape of
Good Hope, and spent the next several years constantly in the
field doing geological mapping. This time in his life was the
foundation for his extensive understanding and unrivaled
knowledge of South African geology. During his first season
he worked with Arthur W. Rogers in the western Karoo where
they established the stratigraphy of the Lower and Middle
Karoo System. They also recorded the systematic phase
changes in the Karoo and Cape Systems. Along with these
studies they mapped the dolerite intrusives, their acid phases,
and their metamorphic aureoles. Throughout the years, Du
Toit worked in many locations, including the Stormberg area,
and the Karoo coal deposits near the Indian Ocean. He was
very interested in geomorphology and hydrogeology. The
most significant factor to his work was the theory of continental
drift. He was the first to realize that the southern continents
had once formed the supercontinent of Gondwana that
was distinctly different from the northern supercontinent
Laurasia. Du Toit received many honors and awards. He was
the president of the Geological Society of South Africa, a corresponding
member of the Geological Society of America, and
a member of the Royal Society of London.
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