First field seismological survey: the Basilicata earthquake (Mallet)
Primera encuesta sismológica de campo y epicentro: terremoto de Basilicata (Mallet)
- Date
- 1857-1862 · confidence high
- Place
- Vallo di Diano, Campania, Italy
- Credited to
- Robert Mallet
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Irish engineer Robert Mallet travelled to southern Italy after the December 1857 earthquake, measured fissures and damaged buildings, deduced the shaking directions to place the focus and drew curves of equal damage. He coined terms such as 'seismology' and 'isoseismal' and compiled the first world catalogue of earthquakes.
The report was published in 1862 (The Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857). His method of inferring shaking direction from cracks proved unreliable, but the field approach endured.
What it led to
- the field method of macroseismic seismology
- isoseismal maps and intensity scales such as Mercalli's
- modern seismicity catalogues