Ignaz ( Ignace ) Venetz ( 1788 — 1859 ) was a Swiss engineer , naturalist , and glaciologist ; as one of the first scientists to recognize glaciers as a major force in shaping the earth , he played a leading role in the foundation of glaciology . Venetz was of a family long settled in the Valais , where he worked as cantonal engineer first for Valais and then for Vaud . As cantonal engineer he directed the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to drain the ice-dammed lake that had formed following the volcanic winter of 1816 high in the Val de Bagnes ; the ice dam failed catastrophically on June 16 , 1818 . He worked primarily in the Valais canton area of the western Alps . In 1821 he completed the first draft of his work " Mémoire sur les Variations de la température dans les Alpes de la Suisse " , suggesting that much of Europe had at one point in the past been covered by glaciers . The book was published in 1833 after additional research in the Swiss Alps , seven years before Louis Agassiz published his famous work '' Étude sur les glaciers '' ( Study on Glaciers )
volcanic winter of 1816
Year Without a Summer
Ignaz Venetz