Édouard-Alfred Martel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Édouard-Alfred Martel
Born	(1859-07-01)1 July 1859 Pontoise
Died	3 June 1938(1938-06-03) (aged 78) Montbrison
Known for	Father of modern speleology
Awards	Legion of Honour

Édouard-Alfred Martel (born July 1, 1859, died June 3, 1938) was a famous French explorer. He is often called the 'father of modern speleology'. Speleology is the scientific study of caves. Martel was one of the first people to explore, study, and write about caves around the world.

He explored thousands of caves in his home country of France and many other places. He made cave exploration popular and helped make speleology a real science. Martel also kept many records of his discoveries. In 1895, he started the Société de Spéléologie. This was the very first group in the world dedicated to studying caves.

Life and Amazing Discoveries

No man has gone before us in these depths, no one knows where we go nor what we see, nothing so strangely beautiful was ever presented to us, and spontaneously we ask each other the same question: are we not dreaming?

—É.-A. Martel, "Les causses du Languedoc", Conférences de l'exposition universelle internationale de 1889

Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, France, on July 1, 1859. His family were all lawyers. He studied in Paris and loved geography and science from a young age. In 1877, he even won a top prize in a geography competition. He also enjoyed reading the adventure books of Jules Verne.

When he was seven, in 1866, he visited the Caves of Gargas in the Pyrenees mountains with his parents. Later, he traveled to Germany, Austria, and Italy. In 1879, he saw the huge Postojna Cave system in Slovenia.

Birthplace of Édouard-Alfred Martel in Pontoise.

In 1886, Martel finished his military service and became a lawyer. But he spent all his free time traveling around France. From 1883, he started exploring the Causses region. This area has special rocky landscapes called karstic plateaus. These are shaped by rivers like the Tarn and Jonte.

First Cave Adventures

Martel began his serious caving in June 1888. He and his friends went into a cave in the Bramabiau gorge. A stream called Bonheur disappeared into this cave and came out further along the gorge. In the same month, they explored the Dargilan Cave, which was over a mile long.

In 1889, he visited Padirac Cave. He climbed down a huge hole 100 meters deep to reach an underground river. Martel and his cousin Gaupillat explored two kilometers of new passages in a canoe. Martel later bought the Padirac Cave and turned it into a show cave for visitors.

In July 1890, he married Aline de Launay. Her brother, Louis de Launay, was a geology professor. They worked together, which helped Martel add more science to his writings. In 1894, Martel published a book called The Abyss. It described the amazing underground places he had found between 1888 and 1893. During this time, he explored over 230 caves!

Exploring Beyond France

In 1895, Martel traveled to Ireland and England. In Northern Ireland, he found the underground lake at Marble Arch Caves. In Yorkshire, England, he was the first to fully go down into the deep hole called Gaping Gill. He reached the main chamber, much deeper than anyone before him.

Drawing by Martel, showing the first exploration of Marble Arch Caves in Ireland in 1895.

That same year, he started the Speleological Society and a newsletter called Spelunca.

In 1896, a royal family member from Austria invited him to visit their country. Martel explored several caves on the island of Mallorca. In the Cave of Drach, he found the largest underground lake known at that time.

Martel explored even more caves after this. He focused on the caves in the Causses region of France. He also explored caves in other parts of France, like Savoie and the Pyrenees. He traveled all over Europe, including Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. There, he studied the Trebišnjica river, which is one of the longest underground rivers in the world.

In 1899, he stopped working as a lawyer to focus only on his scientific research. He wrote for the magazine La Nature and became president of the Société de géographie. In 1912, he spent three days exploring Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, USA. He measured the heights of different parts of the cave. Martel explored caves actively from 1888 to 1914, recording about 1,500 caves!

Édouard-Alfred Martel passed away on June 3, 1938, near Montbrison, France.

What is Speleology?

Throughout his life, Martel worked hard to make speleology a recognized science. He wrote about 20 books and 780 articles during his career. Many of his articles were published outside France and translated into other languages. He also gave many talks about caves in different countries.

The Société de Spéléologie

In 1895, Martel founded the Société de Spéléologie in Paris. This was a scientific group that published articles about speleology in its newsletter, Spelunca. By creating this society, he helped make speleology known around the world. Many foreign scientists wrote articles for the society, and by 1909, a third of its members were from other countries.

See also

In Spanish: Édouard-Alfred Martel para niños