Biographical Memoirs Volume 76 (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Beno Gutenberg
Beno Gutenberg
Pages 114-147
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From page 115... ...
Other major contributions inclucle the travel-time curves, the discovery of very long-perioc! seismic waves with large amplitucles that circle the Earth, the identification of differences in crustal structure between continents en c!
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From page 116... ...
from his measurement of e/m for cathode rays, he was the first to announce that cathode rays (electrons) are particles of subatomic mass from 2,000 to 4,000 times less massive than the hydrogen atom shortly before J
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From page 117... ...
So the time was ripe in the first decade of the twentieth century for a bright young investigator to attack the problems of the seismic wave veTocity in the Earth's interior through the application of reacIings of high quality instrumental ciata. Like many of the prominent seismologists of the first half of the twentieth century, Gutenberg took up the subject without previous
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From page 118... ...
the floor to a series of studies of the use of amplitucles of seismic waves to cletermine the structure of the Earth, Gutenberg's interest in amplitucles laster! throughout his career.
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From page 119... ...
The increases in amplitudes at 20, called the 20 discontinuity, are today identified with two steps in the properties of the mantle at depths around 410 km and 670 km. The decrease in velocity gradient at about 1200 km and the absence of a sharp increase in velocity at shallower depths persisted in Gutenberg's models to the end of his career (1958)
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From page 120... ...
At that time he began his famous work of the systematic stucly of seismic waves through the interior of the Earth. From Gottingen recordings, he observer!
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From page 121... ...
After the monumental discovery of the core, two major seismological plums of creep-earth structure remainec! to be cliscoverecI, namely Lehman's discovery of the inner core en c!
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on March 3l, 1916, en c! Gutenberg became scientific assistant for the Meteorological Service at the German Imperial Station for Earthquake Research at the University of Strassburg.
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Gutenberg constructed! accurate traveltime curves for seismic waves in which all the important seismic phases were shown to IS0°, inclucling some phases triply reflected!
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Because of his observation of differences between continental en c! oceanic upper mantle structure, Gutenberg was convincec!
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From page 125... ...
for personal necessities. His financial situation clic!
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From page 126... ...
The Lehrbuch der Geophysik (1929)
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From page 127... ...
geophysics. Of special note in the Lehrbuch are remarks that appear on the conclucling pages, in which he speculates about the possibility of earthquake precliction en c!
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From page 128... ...
on unclerstancling California earthquakes. Woocl's scientific interests were mainly in instrumentation user!
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be applier! to the more basic problems of seismic wave propagation en c!
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Wood remarked in 1938 that the true cost of his illness could be measured by the relentless effort of the Seismological Laboratory on distant earthquakes.
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from aseismic Hessen to the active seismic environment of southern California. Having spent his life to that time studying seismic wave propagation from distant earthquakes, his new career allowed!
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From page 132... ...
A bible for the observationalist, the papers represent the foundations of moclern observational seismology. Although the titles reflect those in the earlier series of the Gottingen school, they are in no sense a revisiting of the oIcler, rather, they are a magnificent original contribution containing all that was known about observations of the propagation of seismic waves through the Earth.
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From page 133... ...
The observation that surface waves can undergo many circuits of the Earth is an important preliminary to the stucly of the free oscillations of the Earth that began in the 1960s. In his work on the core, Gutenberg hac!
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there was no way to identify absolutely the absence of S-wave propagation through the core. The absence of observable S-wave propagation in the core conic!
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Ewing in 1956 en c! by later authors of dispersion of surface waves by the mantle channel.
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In making the extension, Gutenberg relief! on estimates of the melting temperature of iron at core and inner core pressures that were consiclerably lower than present-clay estimates, and thus derived rather lower temperatures than present-day estimates.
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From page 137... ...
The magnitude scale for local earthquakes was mainly clue to Richter, the magnitucte scale for distant earthquakes, with application to the largest earthquakes, was clue to both men, with Gutenberg as the prime mover. Some people have expresser!
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the earthquake process.
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Remarkable in his swan song is his prescient identification of topics that shortly wouIc! elicit much interest.
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earthquakes, struction of the continental geometry into an almost single mass in Cretaceous times, that climates on the Tong-time scale will clepenc! on unclerstancling continental cirift.
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From page 141... ...
the Gottingen Institute of Geophysics. The text on the bookplate repeats the motto of the Lehrbuch: Viele Zeichen gibt uns clie Natur, Leitet uns auf cler Erkenntnis Spur, Weist uns ihre wunclerbaren Bahnen, Lasst clie Seele uns cles WeTtalis ahnen!
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From page 142... ...
insight of the arrival times en c! other properties of seismic waves on the seismic records.
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From page 143... ...
HONORS 1945 Member, National Academy of Sciences Honorary member, Royal Society of New Zealand 1945-47 President, Seismological Society of America 1947 Foreign member, Academia dei Lincei Honorary member, Finnish Geographical Society 1948 Foreign member, Finnish Academy of Letters and Sciences 1949 Foreign member, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Member, Washington Academy of Sciences 1950 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1951-54 President, International Association of Seismology and the Physics of the Earth's Interior 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 Prix Lagrange, Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences Bowie Medal, American Geophysical Union Foreign Member, Geological Society (London) Honorary doctorate, University of Uppsala Emil-Wiechert Medal, German Geophysical Society
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From page 144... ...
Uber Erdbobenwellen VI. Konstitution des Erdinnern, erschlossen aus der Intensitat longitudinaler und transversaler Erdbenwellen, und einige Beobachtungen an den Vorlaufern.
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From page 145... ...
On seismic waves.
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From page 146... ...
On seismic waves.
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From page 147... ...
112:1 -14. 1958 Velocity of seismic waves in the Earth's mantle.
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