Robert Mallet, pioneer of modern seismology
The RDS has set up a steering committee to plan events to help celebrate the bicentenary next year of the birth of Robert Mallet, considered internationally as the father of controlled source seismology.
Mallet was an early pioneer of seismology, which studies the power and energy unleashed by earthquakes, and coined the terms “seismology” and “epicentre”.
In October 1849 he began a series of experiments on how sound or energy moves through sand and rock. Together with his son John, a geology student at TCD, he carried out a now legendary experiment on Killiney Beach.
They were trying to prove that energy moves through sand and rock in waves that can be measured. So they designed a “controlled” experiment to prove this.
They buried a keg of gunpowder in the ground, and detonated it. Using a seismoscope, they measured the energy wave that travelled through the sand from half a mile away. A seismic reading was generated, clearly showing that the energy had moved through the sand in waves.
The report on his experiment became the foundation of modern seismology.
Earthquake in Italy
In 1857 there was a terrible earthquake in southern Italy. Some 20,000 people died in the disaster, and Mallet wanted to go to the earthquake zone to record the devastation.
He proposed using the new technology of photography, and two powerful friends – leading English geologist Charles Lyle and Charles Darwin – helped him to get a grant from the Royal Society to travel to Italy and carry out this work.
He generated special maps of the scene, showing the contours of damage intensity. Mallet’s report remains a milestone in seismic research today, and in the same year he and his son created a seismographic map of the world.
Mallet also studied the science behind volcanoes. One of his most important papers showed how volcanic heat is caused by disturbances in the crust of the earth.
These disturbances lead to the formation of lines of fracture, sometimes causing volcanic eruptions of steam or lava.
Engineering
Besides being a pioneering seismologist, Mallet was also an eminent engineer. His family owned a successful iron foundry business, which he built into one of the most important engineering works in Ireland. Mallet supplied ironwork for the new railway companies, Fastnet Rock lighthouse, and a swing bridge over the River Shannon at Athlone.
He also manufactured the distinctive iron railings that surround Trinity College and which bear his family name (R&J Mallet) at the base.
Learn more
Read Robert Mallet’s book online, “Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857″ (also available in its full version as a PDF)
Learn more about Mallet on the Dublin Institute of Advanced Physics website, and how his Killiney Beach experiments were reproduced for the BBC’s “Coast” television series
Find out about the Seismology in Schools pilot project
