Description
The papers include personal, Caltech related, and professional correspondence; government and technical files, data pads and
notebooks, reprints, and biographical and personal material.
Background
Beno Gutenberg was born in 1889 in Darmstadt, Germany. He obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Göttingen.
He came to the California Institute of Technology in 1930 as Professor of Geophysics. Gutenberg, together with Charles Richter,
played a pivotal role in developing seismology into an international science of earthquake study and detection.
From 1946 to 1957, Gutenberg was the Director of the Seismology Laboratory. He made the first exact determination of the radius
of earth's core; he was the authority on earthquakes and the propagation of sound in the atmosphere. He became the technical
advisor to US Navy on use of microseisms to locate hurricanes and typhoons. Gutenberg died in 1960 in Pasadena, California.
Availability
The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.