Eduard Suess. Portrait of Eduard Suess (1831- 1914), Austrian geologist whose theories about the changing face of the Earth foreshadowed the development of plate tectonics. Suess rose to prominence as the professor of geology at Vienna University. He mainly studied mountains, volcanic islands and deep-sea trenches. He proposed that there had once been a single supercontinent that had split up to form the present continents. He named this supercontinent Gondwanaland after the Gonds, the supposed human inhabitants. His most important book was Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of the Earth) published during 1885-1909.