Earthquake Monitoring
Monitoring History Timeline
373 B.C. Earthquake of Helice, Greece
132 A.D. Chang Heng, seismoscope
1556 Chinese earthquake; 830,000 deaths reported
1707 October 28. Great Japanese Earthquake
1755 November 1. Lisbon Earthquake
1783. February 5. and following. Earthquakes of Calabria, Italy, scientific field investigation
1819 June 16. Earthquake of Cutch, India; observed faulting (Allah Bund).
1830. Lyell, Principles of Geology, first edition.
1846. Robert Mallet; his first general paper on earthquakes.
1855. Kreil, early seismograph.
January 24 - New Zealand earthquake; observed faulting
1857. January 9. California (Fort Tejon) earthquake; observed strike-slip.
December 16. Earthquake in Italy (Kingdom of Naples); Mallet, field investigation.
1865. Seismological observations begun at Manila (with seismoscopes; seismographs installed 1881-1889).
1872. March 26. Earthquake in Owens Valley, California; observed scarps a nd strike-slip.
1879. Seismographs developed in Japan by the British group.
1880. Seismological Society of Japan organized.
1883. August 27. Explosion of Krakatoa.
1884. Rossi-Forel intensity scale set up. Seismological service established at manila.
1885. Lord Rayleigh, paper on theory of "Rayleigh waves."
1887. Voigt, investigation of elasticity of crystals; definition and naming of tensors. Rudolph, first paper on seaquakes. Seismological stations established in California at Berkeley and Lick Observatory.
1888. September 1. Amuri earthquake, New Zealand; strike-slip offsetting fences.
1889. April 18. First seismogram of a teleseim identified.
1891. October 28. Mino-Owari earthquake, Japan; large strike-slip and dip slip.
1892. Japanese Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee established.
May 17. Sumatra Earthquake; strike-slip shown by triangulation survey.
1894. New seismographs developed by Vincentini (Padua, Italy) and by Milne in England.
1896. Seismology Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science organization.
1897. June 12. Great earthquake of Assam, India ; investigation by Oldham.
1898. Seismograph developed by Omori at Tokyo. Stations with milne instruments initiated at Wellington (New Zealand) and Batavia (Java).
1899. Knott's equations for reflection and refraction coefficients of elastic waves.
September 3 and 10. Great Alaskan earthquakes, uplifts reaching 47 feet.
1901. Inverted pendulum seismograph developed by Wiechert. Geophysical Institute founded at Gottingen.
1903. International Seismological Association organized.
1904. Seismological station initiated at Uppsala (Sweden).
1906. Galitzin electromagnetic seismograph developed (Russia). Vertical-component seismograph set up by Straubel and Eppenstein at Jena (Germany).
January 21. Major deep-focus earthquake under Japan.
January 31. Great earthquake, COlumbia and Ecuador.
April 18. California earthquake; great extent of strike-slip faulting; survey re-triangulation leading to elastic-rebound theory of earthquakes
1907. Seismograph developed by Mainka at Strassburg.
1908. June 30. Great Siberian meteorite fall.
1909. Seismological station established at Riverview near Sydney, Australia.
October 8. Earthquake near Zagreb, Croatia; discovery of the subcrustal discontinuity by A. Mohorovicic.
1910. New instruments at Berkeley.
1911. Seismological Society of America founded; it's Bulletin began publication. New instruments at Lick OBservatory Station. Galitzin vertical-component seismograph developed (Russia). Theory of Love waves.
1913. Station established at La Paz, Bolivia. radius of the core determined by Gutenberg at Gottingen.
1915. Milne-Shaw seismograph developed by J.J. Shaw (England).
1918. First year covered by International Seismological Summary.
1919. Zoeppritz equations for coefficients of reflection and refraction of elastic waves published (posthumously).
1921. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Advisory Committee in Seismology appointed.
September 21. Explosion at Oppau, Germany.
1922. Changes in the variation of latitude and in other geophysical elements.
1923. Wood-Anderson torsion seismometers began regular recording (Pasadena).
1924. Nikiforov torsion seismographs in the service (USSR).
1925. Jesuit Seismological Association organized; headquarters at St. Louis. Seismological work transferred from U.S. Weather Bureau to Coast and Geodetic Survey.
June 29. Santa Barbara earthquake.
1926. Geophysical Magazine (Tokyo) began publication. Earthquake department of Pacific Board of Fire Underwriters established.
1927. Seismological Laboratory at Pasadena occupied.
March 7. Tango earthquake (Japan); thoroughly investigated; two fault traces.
1928. K. Wadati, paper on shallow and deep earthquakes.
1929. New electromagnetic seismograph developed by Wenner.
June 17. New Zealand Earthquake; expansion of new Zealand seismology followed.
1931. Variable-reluctance seismometer developed by Benioff (Pasadena).
1932. Benioff strain seismometer developed. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey initiated a program of strong-motion recording in California.
1933. March 3 (Japanese date). Great Sanriku earthquake and tsunami.
1934. P'P' and relate waves discovered at Pasadena.
1935. Magnitude scale published.
1936. Existence of the inner core suggested by Miss Lehmann in Copenhagen.
1937. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica established; headquarters at Rome.
1939. December 27. Destructive earthquake in Turkey, first of a series extended and connected faulting.
1940. T wave described and named by Linehan in Weston, Massachusetts.
1944. Annals de Geophysics began publication.
1946. April 1. Aleutian tsunami, destructive on Hawaii; seismic sea warning service organized in consequence.
July 24. Atomic bomb test at Bikini; P waves recorded at distant stations.
1947. April 18. Hegelian demolition.
1948. C. A. Whitten (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey), paper on continuing horizontal displacements in California.
1949. Annali di Geofisicia began publication.
August 6. Large quarry blast at Corona, California.
1950. August 15. Great earthquake, Tibet and Assam.
1951. Strain-release curves developed by Benioff in Pasadena.
1952. Lg waves discovered by Ewig and Press in at Columbia University, New York.
1953. Pa and Sa waves discovered by Caloi at Rome and independently by Ewig and Press.
1954. March 29. Earthquake 640 kilometers deep under Spain.
December 16. Major earthquake in Nevada; large and extensive faulting.
1957. July 1- 1958. December 31. International Geophysical Year.
All information adapted from Elementary Seismology, written by Charles F. Richter, published by W. H Freeman & Company, Inc, 1958.
