UNIT

6The Earth’s structure

Natural Science 2. Secondary Education

DISCOVERERS OF DISCONTINUITIES

UNIT

6Discoverers of discontinuities

• Newton was born in 1642. He was an English physicist, theologian, inventor and alchemist.

• He was one of the first scientists to theorise that the composition of the inside of the Earth was different from that of the surface.

• While developing his famous theory of gravity, Newton deduced that the density of the interior of the Earth was approximately twice that of the rocks found on the surface.

Isaac Newton

Isaac NewtonNatural Science 2. Secondary Education

• Mohorovicic was born in Croatia in 1857. He was a meteorologist and seismologist.

• He carried out important studies on climate, but he is best known for his discovery of the discontinuity that separates the Earth’s crust from its mantle. He was the first scientist to discover a discontinuity between the layers of the Earth’s interior.

• It was not until many years after Mohorovicic’s discovery that his ideas were understood and accepted.

Andrija Mohorovicic

Andrija Mohorovicic

UNIT

6Discoverers of discontinuities

Natural Science 2. Secondary Education

• Gutenberg was a German seismologist, who was born in 1889.

• He obtained his doctorate when he was only 22. He was 25 when he made his historic discovery of the discontinuity between the Earth’s mantle and its core.

• He is also known for developing the famous Richter scale, which measures the intensity of earthquakes, in partnership with Charles Richter.

Beno Gutenberg

Beno Gutenberg

UNIT

6Discoverers of discontinuities

Natural Science 2. Secondary Education

• Lehmann was born in Denmark in 1888. She was a seismologist and mathematician.

• In 1928, she was appointed head of the department of seismology at the Royal Geodetic Institute of Denmark, where she worked for 25 years.

• Lehmann published her discovery of the discontinuity between the Earth’s molten outer core and solid inner core.

• She died at the age of 104 in 1993. Her contributions to geology were so great that the Inge Lehmann Medal was created in 1995 to recognise contributions to our understanding of the Earth’s structure.

Inge Lehmann

Inge Lehmann

UNIT

6Discoverers of discontinuities

Natural Science 2. Secondary Education