100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SEISMOLOGICAL CONFERENCE

Abstract

On April 11-13 we commemorate the 100 anniversary of the First International Seismological Conference held in Strasbourg (that time German Strassburg) in 1901. Thirty-one of the participants of this memorable meeting are portrayed in the photograph reproduced in Fig. 1. The first stimulus to organize seismological research on a global scale came from the German seismologist and experienced designer of undamped horizontal pendulum seismographs, E. von Rebeur-Paschwitz (1861 -1895) who, as one of the first geophysicists, fully appreciated the importance of international collaboration in the field of observational seismology. He formulated his suggestion in his Proposals of the establishment of an international network of seismological observations (RebeurPaschwitz, 1895); his premature death, however, prevented him from realising his ideas. After Rebeur-Paschwitz's death in 1895, his ideas were adopted and modified by Prof. Georg Garland, an active member of the Permanent Seismological Commission at the International Geographical Congress (hereafter only 'Permanent commission'), and later director of the Imperial Main Station for Earthquake Research in Strassburg. According to G. Gerland's activities, a principal project on international cooperation in the field of seismology was formulated during the session of the International Congress of Geographers in London in 1895, with the aim to establish the International Seismological Society in 1899 and to hold the First International Seismological Conference in Strassburg in 1901. For details, see Gerland, 7899; Rudolph, 1902; Sieberg, 1923 and Proceedings, 1981.