Munthe became a student in 1882 and in 1892 a doctor of philosophy and associate professor of geology at
Uppsala University, where he was acting professor of mineralogy and geology in 1894–96. In 1898 he was appointed and in 1899 regular geologist at the
Swedish Geological Survey (SGU). In the years 1904-13 he was secretary of the Geological Society in Stockholm. Munthe received the title of professor in 1917. He was elected to the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1928. Having begun his career using bicycles to survey the terrain Munthe continued to advocate using bicycle well after survey by car had become commonplace. A
Gotlänning ("Gotlander") by birth Munthe's
dialect is reported to have been Gotländska and he was particularly fond of working with issues
regarding the island. He was the editor of SGU's Gotland maps and lectured about its Quaternary geology at the
Visby local history society in 1911. Munthe was an active member of
Geologiska föreningen i Stockholm being a longtime editor of its scientific journal
Geologiska föreningens förhandlingar (now
GFF). He was also a member of the
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and
Svenska Turistföreningen. ==Scientific career==