26 Facts About Philippe Thomas

Philippe Thomas was a French veterinarian and amateur geologist who discovered large deposits of phosphates in Tunisia.

Philippe Thomas was born in Duerne, Rhone on 4 May 1843.

Philippe Thomas attended the Ecole nationale veterinaire d'Alfort, where he was a brilliant student, and the Saumur Cavalry School.

Philippe Thomas was assigned to Algeria but returned to France at the start of the Franco-Prussian War and fought in various engagements.

Philippe Thomas returned to Algeria after the war and took part in suppression of the revolt in the Kabylie in 1871.

Philippe Thomas classified the succession of Eocene rocks in Algeria from the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara, a succession that he would again find in southern Tunisia.

In 1873, in the M'Fatah massif of Algeria Philippe Thomas was the first to discover the existence of phosphated nodules from the lower Eocene.

Between 1880 and 1884, Philippe Thomas published several papers on his Algerian research, and with the mining engineer Jules Tissot investigated the Eocene formations in the Constantine region, where Tissot suspected the presence of calcium pyrophosphate.

Philippe Thomas was the first to discover phosphates in the province of Ras El Aioun, Algeria.

Philippe Thomas was 42 when he started his exploration of Tunisia.

Philippe Thomas was assigned to the expedition at the recommendation of the paleontologist Jean Albert Gaudry, and because Jules Ferry knew his ability and perfect knowledge of the Arabic language.

Rolland covered the centre of the country, while Philippe Thomas worked further south and Le Mesle worked mainly in the north, apart from an expedition to the extreme south.

Philippe Thomas explored the western area, which his colleagues had neglected, particularly the Chaine du Thaljah or Chaine du Tseldja mountains that stretch westward from Gafsa into Algeria.

Philippe Thomas identified the geology of the Gafsa chain with that of the M'fatah massif in Algeria and on 18 April 1885 found phosphates at Jebel Tselja.

Philippe Thomas crossed the Chaine du Tseldja through the dramatic gorges of the Oued and found identical phosphate deposits on the southern slope of the range extending for at least 80 kilometres.

Philippe Thomas sent rock samples to the Ecole des Mines de Paris for analysis, and on receiving the results on 18 October 1885, informed Dr Cosson, head of the mission.

Philippe Thomas completed his observations in the 1886 exploration campaign in southern and central Tunisia up to Kalaat es Senam.

Philippe Thomas sent a second note to the Academy of Sciences in 1887 and a third in 1888, in which he described his 1878 observations and the Algerian deposits.

Philippe Thomas did not have the time or resources to travel the Dyr of Tebessa to confirm the presence of the phosphates that he expected to be found there, but the deposit was found as predicted and was the first to be exploited.

Philippe Thomas continued to send regular notes on his findings until 1909.

The task was given to Philippe Thomas, who was now in retirement.

Philippe Thomas wrote the Essai d'une description geologique de la Tunisie with the support of Jean Albert Gaudry, Alphonse Peron, and Paul Bursaux, technical director of the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa.

Philippe Thomas described the great density of marine fauna at the dawn of the Tertiary that had created the layers of phosphates and the coastal fauna of the later Eocene layers characterized by the great vertebrates, particularly Sauria and giant turtles, and very numerous Plagiostoma bivalves.

Philippe Thomas died before completing the third part of the Essai.

Philippe Thomas died on 12 February 1910 in Moulins, Allier, France at the age of 66.

Philippe Thomas called the attention of the industrial world to its soil.