Gutenberg, Beno

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Biographies and Energy people
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Lawrence (other articles)
Last Updated: December 9, 2009

Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960), an American geophysicist, is noted for his analyses of earthquake waves and the information they provide about the physical properties of the structure of the solid Earth. With his colleague Charles Richter, Gutenberg published a series of papers in the 1930s on seismic waves that greatly influenced others' subsequent work. Gutenberg and Richter published Seismicity of the Earth in 1941, providing some of the basic information used by later earth scientists in developing the theory of plate tectonics. Gutenberg and Richter also collaborated on the development of various magnitude scales using seismic waves of different types so that observers could assign magnitudes to earthquakes with both shallow and deep foci and occurring at various epicentral distances.

Further Reading
Biographical Memoirs: Beno Gutenberg (National Academies of Sciences)
Men & Women of Seismology: Beno Gutenberg (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program)

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor). 2009. "Gutenberg, Beno." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 9, 2006; Last revised December 9, 2009; Retrieved March 21, 2010]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Gutenberg,_Beno>
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