When was seismology discovered

Japanese Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee established. Sumatra earthquake on May 17, strike-slip shown by triangulation survey. Seismograph developed by Omori at Tokyo. Knott's equations for reflection and refraction coefficients of elastic waves.

Great Alaskan earthquakes occur on September 3 and 10 with uplifts reaching 47 feet. A global network of 40 seismic stations is operational, sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science and equipped with instruments designed by mining engineer John Milne. Inverted pendulum seismograph is developed by Wiechert. Geophysical Institute founded at Gottingen. Anderson develops a theory that relates the direction of stress in the crust to three basic fault types — normal, strike-slip, and reverse faults.

Galitzin electromagnetic seismograph developed in Russia. Vertical-component seismograph set up by Straubel and Eppenstein at Jena, Germany. Oldham identifies three basic types of seismic waves: P waves, S waves, and L waves.

A major deep-focus earthquake occurs under Japan on January A Great earthquake occurs in Columbia and Ecuador on January The Great San Francisco earthquake occurs on April 18, with a great extent of strike-slip faulting.

A re-triangulation survey leads to elastic-rebound theory of earthquakes see It is called the " Moho ". A seismological station is established at Riverview near Sydney, Australia. Henry Fielding Reid proposes the elastic rebound hypothesis to explain how earthquakes release accumulated energy when the fault slips, driven by plate tectonics. New instruments are installed at Berkeley. Seismological Society of America is founded, and it begins publishing the Bulletin.

New instruments are installed at Lick Observatory Station. The Galitzin vertical-component seismograph is developed in Russia. Theory of Love waves is introduced. The radius of the core is determined by Gutenberg at Gottingen.

Station established at La Paz, Bolivia. Zoeppritz equations for coefficients of reflection and refraction of elastic waves is published posthumously.

Explosion at Oppau, Germany on September The first global earthquake bulletins are made from internationally-shared seismic data. Wood-Anderson torsion seismometers began regular recording in Pasadena, California. In response to the M7. Nikiforov torsion seismographs in the service in the USSR. Jesuit Seismological Association is organized with headquarters at St.

Seismological work transferred from U. Weather Bureau to Coast and Geodetic Survey. Geophysical Magazine Tokyo begins publication. Earthquake department of Pacific Board of Fire Underwriters established. Seismological Laboratory at Pasadena occupied. The Tango earthquake in Japan occurs on March 7, is thoroughly investigated and found to have two fault traces. New electromagnetic seismograph developed by Wenner. Variable-reluctance seismometer developed by Benioff in Pasadena, California.

Following an earthquake in Chile in , the author Maria Graham reported systematic changes in the elevation of the Chilean coastline. Observations of coastline changes were confirmed following the Chilean earthquake by Robert FitzRoy, captain of the H. Beagle , while Charles Darwin was onshore examining the geology of the Andes.

In the s, 60s, and 70s, three European contemporaries made cornerstone efforts in seismology. Robert Mallet, an engineer born in Dublin who designed many of London's bridges, measured the velocity of seismic waves in the earth using explosions of gunpowder. His idea was to look for variations in seismic velocity that would indicate variations in the properties of the earth.

This same method is still used today, for example in oil field exploration. Robert Mallet was also one of the first to estimate the depth of an earthquake underground. At the same time as Mallet was setting off explosions of gunpowder in England, Alexis Perrey, in France, was making quantitative analyses of catalogs of earthquakes.

He was looking for periodic variations of earthquakes with the seasons and with lunar phases. And in Italy, Luigi Palmieri invented an electromagnetic seismograph, one of which was installed near Mount Vesuvius and another at the University of Naples. These seismographs were the first seismic instruments capable of routinely detecting earthquakes imperceptible to human beings. The foregoing work set the stage for the late s and early s, when many fundamental advances in seismology would be made.

How to cite. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Adams, F. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. Google Scholar. Ambrayses, N. Melville, , A History of Persian Earthquakes.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bates, C. Gaskell, and R. Rice, , Geophysics in the Affairs of Man. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Bolt, B. San Francisco: W. Brush, S. Physics 48, — Bullen, K. New York: Wiley.