Werner, Abraham Gottlob

(born Sept. 25, 1750, Wehrau, Saxony—died June 30, 1817, Freiberg) German geologist.

In opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin, he founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed that all rocks resulted from precipitation from oceans that had, he theorized, once completely covered the Earth. He rejected uniformitarianism. His brilliant lecturing and personal charm won him many students, who, though many eventually discarded his theories, would not renounce them while Werner lived.