Filming seismograms and related materials at the California Institute of Technology

Abstract

As part of a world-wide effort to create an international earthquake data bank, Caltech's seismology archive has been organized, labeled, described, and microfilmed. It includes a wide variety of original records, documents, and printed materials relating to local and distant earthquakes. At present, we are filming significant seismograms prior to 1963; more than 50,000 records written between 1924 and 1935 have been filmed to date. Seismograms are the principal source of information about earthquakes and the earth's interior. These records, housed at Kresge Laboratory, the headquarters for Caltech's seismological network of stations, are important because they span so much of the period for which instrumental data exists. The early history of the Laboratory points up the role technology has played in the advancement of the science.