Franz Kossmat

Franz Kossmat ( 22 August 1871 in Vienna – 1 December 1938 in Leipzig) was an Austrian-German geologist, for twenty years the director of the Geological Survey of Saxony under both the kingdom and the subsequent German Republic.

Kossmat was professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the Graz University of Technology.

In 1920 he presented the first gravity measures for middle Europe.

In his life he published over twenty books himself, and collaborated on numerous others.

He is most known for his work on isostasy, his opposition to Wegener's theories of continental drift, and for establishing a division of the European Variscides into several tectonic zones.