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Timeline - Earthquakes
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Slide the time bar to see key dates relating to early discoveries about earthquakes. Pause the mouse pointer over any of the boxes to see additional information about each event. Find out more about these unpredictable forces by browsing or searching the hub.
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1705:
A discovery by Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke realised that earthquakes are connected to land movements.
1755:
Modern studies begin
A huge earthquake and tsunami in Portugal killed over 70,000 people. This marked the start of modern earthquake studies, as people began to collect data to help understand the events.
1840:
Electromagnetic seismograph invented
Luigi Palmieri invented the first accurate electromagnetic seismograph, which could detect earthquakes not felt by humans.
1850:
Seismic waves discovered
Robert Mallet realised that most earthquake damage is due to moving waves caused by a sudden land movement, named seismic waves.
1855:
Layer of rocks discovery
John Pratt and George Airy suggested that surface rocks float on a layer of denser rock.
1872:
Fault lines proposition
Grove Gilbert figured out that earthquakes are centred around fault lines.
1889:
Seismometer detection
For the first time, a seismometer (in Germany) detected an earthquake on the other side of the Earth (in Japan).
1897:
P-waves and S-waves
Richard Oldham realised that there were at least two types of seismic waves that travelled at different speeds. We know these now as P-waves and S-waves.
1904:
Atomic reactions
Ernest Rutherford claimed that the Earth is heated by atomic reactions.
1906:
New thinking about fault lines
After the most destructive earthquake in American history at San Francisco, Harry Reid suggested that earthquakes are the result of stresses built up along faults.