Peter Alfred Ziegler (Winterthur, November 2, 1928 - Binningen, July 19, 2013) was a Swiss exploration geologist who worked important in mapping the subsurface of Northern Europe and North America and was involved in the discovery and exploration of various oil and gas fields in these areas.

Ziegler graduated in 1955 at the ETHZ in Zurich. He then conducted geological research in, among others, Israel, Madagascar and Algeria. In 1958 Ziegler worked with Shell, who sent him to Canada. In Canada, Ziegler was involved in the discovery and exploration of various gas fields. The enormous geological database of Shell, which Ziegler worked with, was almost secretly kept at that time in order to remain competitive oil companies. In 1970 he worked for Shell in The Hague, where he was headed for activities in the North Sea. He overlooked, among other things, the exploration of the huge Troll gas field off the coast of southern Norway.

Ziegler saw the mutual benefit of sharing information with geological researchers at universities. By combining the information of the oil industry and the university research, Ziegler was able to map the sedimentological and tectonic history of Northern Europe with much greater accuracy than previously done. He introduced more accurate models of tectonic movements in the middle of tectonic plates (instead of at the edges) affecting the sedimentation rate. Many new tectonic models have emerged that have permanently changed the insight into the substrate. Ziegler published his paleogeographical reconstructions in a geological atlas. He continued to retire at Shell in 1988, and is (emiritus) extraordinary professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Universität Basel and the Moscow State University.

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