Jules Marcou

Jules Marcou (April 20, 1824 – April 17, 1898) was a French-Swiss-American After completing his studies, he made several trips through Switzerland to recover his health. These travels led him to devote himself to natural science. During these travels, he met Jules Thurmann (1804–1855), who introduced him to Louis Agassiz.

During 1845, he worked with Thurmann on a geological survey of the Jura mountains. He was appointed assistant of the mineralogical department of the Sorbonne in 1846, and also classified its collection of fossils. In 1847 he went to North America as traveling geologist for the Jardin des Plantes, charged with studying the United States and the English possessions in North America. The next year, he joined Agassiz in Boston and accompanied him to the Lake Superior region, visiting the copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Huron, and Niagara. After six months, he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and sent minerals he had collected to Paris.

Personal life and death Jules Marcou married Jane Belknap of Boston in 1850. They had two children. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1898 and was interred there in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Publications Life, letters, and works of Louis Agassiz (1895) Cretaceous formations of the Jura Dyas (Permian) of Nebraska Taconic rocks of Vermont and Canada American Geological Classification and Nomenclature (1888) Geological Map of the World (1861, 2nd edition 1875) A Little More Light on the United States Geological Survey (1892) Lettres sur les roches du Jura et leur distribution géographique dans les deux hémisphères (1857–1860) Geology of North America (1858) New research on the origin of the name América