A plate from the atlas of Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos, illustrating the composition of the Earth's crust via color-coding. Between 1799 and 1804, Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time in a manner generally considered to be a modern scientific point of view. His quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.

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Composition of the Earth's Crust, Humboldt, 1845

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Size: 5260px × 4077px
Location:
Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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