Lindgren, Waldemar

Lindgren, Waldemar (1860–1939) Swedish-born, educated in both his native country and at the Royal Mining Academy of Freiburg, Saxony, Waldemar Lindgren gained fame for his scientific studies in the United States of America. His years in Freiburg were times of intense debate concerning the genesis of mineral deposits. Opinions divided over the origins of the waters that deposited veins of ore minerals; one group favoured a meteoric origin, the other a magmatic origin. Lindgren listened to the debate and sought to resolve it when he came to the United States in 1883.

Lindgren's early years in the United States were in the employ of the US Geological Survey, in which position he had the opportunity to travel widely and examine many of the mineral deposits newly discovered in the American West. He realized from what he saw that the evidence favoured a magmatic involvement in the genesis of most deposits. While not the originator of the theory of magmatic hydrothermal origin for ore deposits, Lindgren became its most thoughtful supporter. He developed a depth–temperature classification for mineral deposits based on the geothermometry of mineral assemblages and on mineral textures; in a modified form, his classification continues to be used today. Lindgren was also the first to articulate the concept of metallogenic provinces, a hypothesis that has gained much support from the theory of plate tectonics.

In 1912 Lindgren resigned from the US Geological Survey and joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he continued teaching until 1933, at the age of 73. During his teaching years Lindgren wrote a highly influential text on the genesis of mineral deposits. Through four editions, the last in 1933, Lindgren's Mineral deposits was the standard reference and teaching text for several generations of economic geologists.

Brian J. Skinner