Desmarest, Nicholas

Born Sept. 16, 1725, in Soulaines-Dhuys, Champagne; died Sept. 28, 1815, in Sèvres. French geologist. Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1771).

Desmarest was a graduate of the Oratorian College in Troyes. He was one of the first to establish the volcanic origin of basalt. He studied the erosional action of flowing water and concluded that the formation of a relief under its influence was a prolonged process. Desmarest compiled the first geologic map of the region of ancient volcanoes in central France (Auvergne).