The Caltech Seismological Laboratory is an arm of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences of the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. Known as "the Seismo Lab", it has been a world center for seismology research since the 1920s, and was for many decades a go-to source for rapid (and quotable) commentary to the press on large earthquakes. The Seismo Lab was established under the auspices of the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

in 1921 under leadership of Harry O. Wood. By 1926 it had become a cooperative venture between Carnegie and Caltech. In 1937 it was formally transferred in full to Caltech. Requiring accessible bedrock on which to place seismometers, the Seismo Lab could not originally be located on the Caltech campus, which is on alluvium. Instead, its first two homes were in Pasadena's Linda Vista neighborhood, a granitic outcropping. Its first home, at 220 N. San Rafael Avenue, was a modest two-story laboratory building (later known as "Charles Richter Laboratory"). By 1958 it had outgrown the site and expanded to an adjacent property at 295 N. San Rafael, into what had been an 11000 sq ft (1020 sq m) mansion, complete with marble staircases, 9 bedrooms with connecting baths, and gardens. (This property was later seen in the film

The Italian Job ''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, r ...

, as character Ed Norton's home.The Movieland Directory
Retrieved July 2011 ) The horizontal tunnel in which seismometers were installed was a former passageway (with private elevator) between the mansion and the lower tennis courts. By 1974 it had become possible to transmit seismic signals electronically from remote seismometers, and the Seismo Lab was then relocated to the Caltech campus, becoming over time more integrated into, and less distinct from, the Caltech Division in which it is administratively situated.

Directors of the Seismological Laboratory

* Harry O. Wood (1921–1946) * Beno Gutenberg (1946–1957) *

Frank Press Frank Press (December 4, 1924 – January 29, 2020) was an American geophysicist. He was an advisor to four U.S. presidents, and later served two consecutive terms as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1981–1993). He was the au ...

(1957–1965) * Don L. Anderson (1967–1989) *

Hiroo Kanamori is a Japanese seismologist who has made fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of earthquakes and the tectonic processes that cause them. Career Kanamori and American seismologist Thomas C. Hanks developed the moment magnitud ...

(1990–1998) * Don Helmberger (1998–2003) * Jeroen Tromp (2003–2008) * Michael Gurnis (2009– )

Notable Faculty of the Seismological Laboratory

* John P. Buwalda *

Hugo Benioff Victor Hugo Benioff (September 14, 1899 – February 29, 1968) was an American seismologist and a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He is best remembered for his work in charting the location of deep earthquakes in the Pacific ...

Charles Francis Richter Charles Francis Richter (; April 26, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an American seismologist and physicist. Richter is most famous as the creator of the Richter magnitude scale, which, until the development of the moment magnitude scale in 19 ...

Notes

{{reflist Earthquake engineering Seismological observatories, organisations and projects California Institute of Technology