Henno Martin

Henno Martin (15 March 1910 – 7 January 1998) was a German professor of geology who, along with Hermann Korn, lived for two and a half years in the Namib Desert to avoid internment during the Second World War.

Personal life

Martin was born in Freiburg, Germany on 15 March 1910. They returned to Windhoek in 1942 after Korn developed beri-beri. the Namibian remainder of a gigantic volcanic eruption that happened before Africa and South America broke apart. This eruption is thought to have been the single largest explosive volcanic eruption in the history of the Earth.

After the war he worked as a consulting geologist, specialising in exploration for underground water resources. He selected the locations of boreholes throughout South-West Africa and particularly in the capital Windhoek, where he "provided the city with its first large-scale, reliable source of water". Martin worked for 20 years as Director of the Geological Survey of Namibia. In 1963 he joined the University of Cape Town as director of the Precambrian Research Unit, and in 1964 he became Head of Geology at University of Göttingen.

The Geological Society of Namibia, whose honorary patron Martin was, awards the Henno Martin Medal annually for the best scientific publication by a geologist living in Namibia.

Selected bibliography

Martin, Henno (1957). The Sheltering Desert. Martin, Henno (1961). The Hypothesis of Continental Drift in the Light of Recent Advances of Geological Knowledge in Brazil and in South West Africa. Geological Society of South Africa Martin, Henno (1965). The Precambrian Geology of South West Africa and Namaqualand. Cape Town: Precambrian Research Unit, University of Cape Town