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Victor Oppenheim
Victor Oppenheim
1906-2005
Biography
Born in 1906 in Latvia, Victor Oppenheim spent much of his early life in China and other parts of East Asia with his mother and father, a civil and mining engineer. After his father's untimely death, Victor and his mother returned to Latvia, until he left for college. He was educated in France at the University of Caen, graduating in 1927. After a period of mandatory military service in Latvia, Oppenheim was employed in 1929 by Ludovick Barreau, an engineering and mining consultant firm in Paris. That year the company sent Oppenheim to South America.
During the next twenty years, Oppenheim explored and made geological maps of the continent, usually as a consulting geologist for the countries he was exploring and mapping. His extensive travels through southern Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and eastern Peru resulted in the first geological maps for each of those countries. In 1944 Oppenheim completed the first generalized geological map of the entire continent, which was published by the Pan American Institute of Mining, Engineering, and Geology in 1945. Among his other many achievements in South America were the early published scientific evaluations of one of the largest know bituminous coal reserves in the world at El Cerrejon and a large petroleum deposit at Cusiana, both in Colombia; the naming of a mountain range in eastern Ecuador, the Sierra de Cutucu; and the discovery of a hitherto unknown culture in Guarijua, Colombia.
Argentina
Victor Oppenheim's expeditions in the early 1930s in Argentina included the exploration of the Cordillera del Condor and the Upper Rio Bermejo, and a search for oil deposits in the Salta Province. These explorations took place in northern Argentina.
Victor Oppenheim and his guide, Galleguillo, prepare their riding and pack mules for their first objective during a 1930 geological expedition, the Cordillera del Condor.
In the early months of 1932, Victor Oppenheim worked with the Argentine Government Petroleum Company (YPF) in the Salta Province fields.
Brazil
Fifteen expeditions in Brazil were led by Victor Oppenheim from 1932 to 1937. Among the highlights of these explorations were the geological study of the Mato Grosso, an examination of the Rio Abaete and the Parana Basin for minerals, an extensive journey into the upper Amazon region of both Brazil and Peru, and the creation of the first geological map of Southern Brazil and the Gondwana formations in 1934.
In 1933 Victor Oppenheim surveyed and geologically examined the region of the Rio Abaete in the state on Minas Gerais, Brazil. In this photograph, Oppenheim and his assistants search the gravel beds of the Abaete for diamonds.
At the request of the president of the National Petroleum Company, Victor Oppenheim examined the possibility of developing a commercially successful oil well at Riacho Doce in 1933. After several months of study and drilling, he determined that the site would not produce enough oil for a commercial venture.
In 1933 Victor Oppenheim visited the Falls of Paulo Alfonso, on the Rio Sao Francisco on the border between that states of Alagoas and Sergipe, Brazil. Four wild cascades dropped some 270 feet into a narrow, deep gorge, creating a scene of breathtaking beauty.
The geology of the Devonian area of the Parana Basin in Brazil was the object of an expedition by Victor Oppenheim in late 1934. Pictured here is a view of the Devonian area near Tibagy, Parana.
Victor Oppenheim's exploration of the chapada of the Mato Grosso of western Brazil in 1932 was a dangerous, but productive activity. At the end of the expedition, Oppenheim had a clearer picture of the geological structure of Brazil and of a region heretofore geologically unmapped.
Scene from Victor Oppenheim's expedition to the Upper Amazon of Brazil and Peru from August 1935 to February 1936. During this prolonged expedition he explored the Upper Rio Azul in Brazil; discovered the Serra do Sunga; examined the Upper Rio Monaig, the Upper Prana dos Mouras, the Rio Moa, and the Serra do Moa; and met the Nucuini Indians. In Peru he continued his geological study of the Andean fold by traveling down the Rio Tapiche and Rio Ucayali and met the Capanaua and Chamas Indians. Oppenheim was the first scientist to geologically reconnoiter this region and the first to correlate the geology of the region on both sides of the border, between Brazil and Peru.
This riverboat was used by Victor Oppenheim at Cruzeiro do Sul in Acre, Brazil in 1935.
River scene during Oppenheim's Brazil-Peru expedition in 1935 and 1936.
Ecuador
During his nine expeditions into Ecuador between 1937 and 1939, Victor Oppenheim explored the Rio Napo and Rio Coca Valleys, and examined the Pastaza, Bobonaza, and Morona river valleys. Oppenheim named a range of mountains, the Cutucu, in eastern Ecuador. He also had a number of encounters with the Jivors, a head hunting tribe in eastern Ecuador.
Victor Oppenheim and his crew prepare a raft to travel on the Rio Morona in the Oriente of Ecuador in 1938.
Victor Oppenheim's expedition descends into the Rio Napo valley of eastern Ecuador. In 1938 Oppenheim studied and mapped the geology of the Ecuadorian Oriente, and described the Napo limestone formation as a possible source rock of the Oriente oil production.
The cordillera de Cutucu, located in the Oriente of eastern Ecuador, was explored by Victor Oppenheim in 1938. The Cordillera de Cutucu is a continuation of the Cordillera del Condor and the Cordillera Oriental of Peru. It also lies in the center of Jivaro settlements.
The Jivaro country of eastern Ecuador was the site of several expeditions by Victor Oppenheim in 1938 and 1939. The Jivaros were headhunters, but were friendly to the Oppenheim expedition. In one community, Oppenheim was invited to sleep in the log house of one of the leaders.
Colombia
Over a ten-year period, from 1939 to 1949, Victor Oppenheim led twenty-three scientific expeditions in Colombia. Among his important accomplishments during this time were the evaluation of an extremely large coal deposit at Cerrejon (now mined by Exxon); the evaluation of numerous oil seeps in the Llanos Basin which were developed later as the Cusiana Oil Field by Triton Energy and other companies; glaciation studies of the Nevados Cocuy, Ruis, and Santa Marta; and scientific discoveries in the valleys of the Rios Rancheria, Atrato, Naya, and Magdalena.
Swift currents and dangerous rocks were a problem for those traveling the rivers of the Choco region of Colombia. In 1944 Victor Oppenheim and Jose de Rescasens published an article, "Analisis Tipologico De Matriales Ceramicos y Liticos, Procedentes del Choco," concerning their artifact discoveries in the area.
This photograph of the cerro of "El Nevado" in Sumapaz was taken by Victor Oppenheim in 1940 during a study of glaciations in Colombia.
Victor Oppenheim surveys and measures an exposure of a tertiary coal seam at El Cerrejon in the state of Magdalena, Colombia in the early 1940s. This area would later prove, long after Oppenheim's published findings, to be one of the largest known bituminous coal deposits in the world, with estimates ranging up to forty billion metric tons.
Preparing a canoe for a trip on the Rio Naya on the Pacific Coast of Colombia in 1945. In 1949 Victor Oppenheim's article "Geologia de la Costa sur del Pacifico de Colombia" was published by the Instituto Geofisico de los Andes Colombianos in Bogota.
Transcript of audio excerpt in which Victor Oppenheim discusses the Nevado del Ruiz incident:
"Ray H. Crist, a professor at the University of Chico [accompanied Oppenheim]. I planned to climb the volcano, Mount Ruiz. I was working on the glaciation. Dr. Crist wanted to come along. He was a professor of geography or geology, natural sciences. He was a tall, heavy-set fellow. I said, 'Come along.' We got mules. We drove up as far as we could. There were mules and attendants, about two or three natives, waiting for us. We climbed.
As I was climbing --we were tied up [together] by one rope at a point approximately 17,000 feet up--I sensed that something was wrong. I shouted, 'Lay down flat!' I shouted to him, 'Lie down!' I don't know if he didn't hear me or what, but he stood up instead. When he stood, he went down into the crevasse [through the ice]. I felt a terrific jolt. I don't know if I had untied the rope, but I hung on.
Fortunately, there was a little platform about ten or fifteen feet below the crevasse opening.
So the pulling stopped. Then I crawled up to the edge. I tried to pull him. As I was pulling, I would raise him a little. The rope would freeze into the edge of the ice. The pressure produced heat, and the heat melted the ice. As soon as the pressure stopped, it was frozen again. So several times I would pull, and he would fall back.
I realized I couldn't do it because he was twice as heavy as I. I shouted to him in the crevasse, 'Wait! I'll come back.' I climbed down the mountain, all the way down, and reached my men. I told them, 'A man is in the crevasse.' They said, 'You lost a man. Don't ask us. You've got to do it!' I said, 'Well, you'd better!' That's why I always had a gun. That was respected. Then they said, "Si, senor.' I said, 'Okay, let's go!'
We untied some ropes from the mules to make the rope longer. We tied that rope together, and then we pulled him up."
-Mr. Oppenheim was interviewed in Dallas, Texas, in 1995 by John Daniels, Ben Levin, and Melinda Levin.
Peru
Victor Oppenheim's ten Peruvian expeditions included the exploration of the Upper Rio Madre de Dios, investigating the Rio Ucayali headwaters, examining the Pleistocene glaciations in the Andes, and studying the ruptured dams in Andean lakes.
Photograph of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, taken by Victor Oppenheim in the mid-1940s.
The Rio Madre de Dios rises from southeast Peru and flows into the Rio Beni in Bolivia.
In 1944 Victor Oppenheim explored geologically the territory between Pueto Maldonado on the Rio Madre de Dios and Pucalpa on the Rio Ucayali in Peru.
Glacier Anticona, Peru, photographed by Victor Oppenheim in October 1944.
Victor Oppenheim published a series of articles in 1945 and 1946 based on his expeditions and study of glaciation in Peru.
Bolivia
Victor Oppenheim's eight expeditions in Bolivia included an examination of the fossiliferous Tarija Basin in the south and the exploration of the Rio Beni and Rio Tuichi Valleys in the northwest.
During his 1943 expedition up the Rio Beni in northwestern Bolivia, Victor Oppenheim and a guide came upon a puma and his prey. The hunter became the hunted as Victor shot the puma. Most of his expeditions in South America required a significant amount of "living off the land." The Rio Beni was a rich source of fish, including the deadly piranha.
At the end of his 1943 expedition in northwestern Bolivia, Victor Oppenheim camped for a number of days on the bank of the Rio Tuichi. During this time he explored the Tuichi Valley, and later found diamonds upriver, from granite containing alluvial gravels.
In November 1942, at the urging of Professor Paul Rivet, former director of the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, Victor Oppenheim undertook a geological and stratigraphical study of the fossiliferous Tarija Basin in southern Bolivia. As a result of this expedition, Oppenheim established that the human skulls found there "should be attributed to the late pre-Columbian or even more recent inhabitants of the region," and had no relation to te Pleistocene mammal fauna found nearby.
Establishing His Own Company in Dallas, Texas
Oppenheim continued his explorations and geological work after he left South America, establishing a consulting company in Dallas, Texas. He completed extensive field work in Latin America and West Africa, as well as in the United States in Arkansas, Alaska, New Mexico, and Texas.
The author of over 120 scientific papers, Victor Oppenheim has been honored by the Explorers Club, the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Pertroleum Engineers, and the Dallas Geological Society. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from La Universidad Central del Ecuador and has been called the "Father of Colombian Geology."
