Bernard Brunhes

Director of the Puy de Dôme Geophysical Observatory from 1900 to 1910, Brunhes used physical measurements of rock magnetism to investigate conditions in Earth’s past.

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Basaltic lava and underlying baked clay in France’s Cantal region carried magnetisation nearly opposite to the present field. In work published in 1905–1906, he interpreted this as evidence for a different geomagnetic direction when the rocks formed.

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Later studies reinforced field reversals and helped establish a polarity timescale. In 1963 researchers named the most recent normal-polarity interval the Brunhes epoch in recognition of his contribution.

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